Top 10 cookie baking tips

1. Use top-quality ingredients: good chocolate, real extracts, cane sugar.
2. Be careful when melting chocolate; it scorches easily.
3. If the recipe calls for nuts, toast them first to enhance their flavor.
4. Have ingredients at cool room temperature. Butter that’s too warm will make the cookies flat and greasy.
5. Thoroughly cream (beat) the butter or other fat with the sugar.
6. Don’t overbeat the dough once the eggs and/or dry ingredients are added.
7. If the dough is too sticky, refrigerate it for 15 to 30 minutes before using. Don’t add more flour unless absolutely necessary.
8. When rolling out cookie dough, use firm, even strokes. Don’t smash the dough.
9. Use heavy-duty cookie sheets, and make sure they’re completely cool when you put the dough on them.
10. Let cookies (other than bar cookies) stand on the cookie sheet for a couple of minutes to firm up, then carefully remove to wire racks to finish cooling.