This is the best time of the year. It gives cookie lovers an opportunity to show off their talent. As for me, decorating and baking homemade cookies make this holiday my favorite. Therefore, in this issue of Smart Cookies, you will find:

1. Cookie Decorating Tips
2. Recipe Comparison – Chewy and Crisp Molasses Cookies
3. Cookie Trivia

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Cookie Decorating Tips

• To avoid moving and distorting soft cut-out cookies, roll dough on the back of a baking sheet. Then cut out cookies and just carefully remove the scraps.
• Making holes in cut out cookie dough with the end of a straw. For smaller features like eyes, use cocktail sticks.
• Decorating cookies with edible paint made of egg yolks, or icing, colorful sugar sprinkles, chopped nuts, raisins, coconut flakes, etc.

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Recipe Comparison

This segment is to give you a general idea of possible taste and texture cookies might have before you actually bake them. It is not to determine that one recipe is better or worse than the other.

In this issue, we will compare some ingredients used in making molasses cookies. Like gingerbread cookies, molasses cookies get their flavor from molasses.

One recipe is for a chewy texture and the other yields crisp. You can find both recipes, R1 and R2, in The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion: The Essential Cookie Cookbook by King Arthur Flour, published by Countryman Press, 2004.

1 cup = 8oz = 16 Tbsp = 48 tsp
1 whole egg is approximately 2 oz., yolk is about 0.5 oz. and the white 1.5 oz.

	Amount		Baker’s %
	R 1	R 2	R 1	R 2
All purpose flour	3½ c.	2 c.	100%	100%
Sugar	1 cup	1 cup	28%	50%
Unsalted butter	1 cup	3/4 c.	28%	37.5%
Eggs	4 oz	2 oz	14%	12.5%

From the above simple analysis, you can certainly pick out which recipe yields which texture. To confirm your selection, please visit molasses cookies.

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Cookie Trivia

1. How to prevent molasses from sticking to a measuring cup? Answer

2. If crisp molasses cookies become soggy, what can you do to restore their crispness? Solution

Have a Safe and Joyous Holiday Season.

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Published date: December 6, 2006

Copyright 2006 by Trinh Lieu. All right reserved.