– Hey, I'm John Kanell today. Today on Preppy Kitchen.
I'm walking you through the top 10 most common
cookie-baking mistakes that you might be making at home. So let's get started. (upbeat music) Coming in at number 10,
using expired baking soda and baking powder. You might think oh, this
is just like a powder. Like, it's white powder.
It doesn't go bad. You sure check your
milk state to make sure that isn't rancid before you use it in any kind of cookie or cake recipe. But these guys are super-important. This has been hanging out in
my pantry for a little bit. It expires in seven days. Even if you think like
oh, it's not that old, check your dates because it
might've been hanging out. And if it did, your cookies won't rise.
They won't have that
same beautiful texture. And they're gonna be
kinda like flat and sad, which is not what you want. Check those expiration dates. And by the way, if it's
old, don't throw it out. This is great for cleaning things. Coming in at number nine, swapping out or leaving out certain ingredients. Let's say your recipe
calls for peanut butter. You're making amazing
peanut butter cookies and the recipe says no stir
or creamy peanut butter. But you like natural peanut butter, the kind of you have to stir in the oil and make it just right.
This has a little bit of sugar.
It has a little bit of salt. And your recipe was developed
for that much sugar, that much salt, and a creamy peanut butter that holds everything
together almost like an egg. If you're using the natural peanut butter, your cookies could be a little bit oily and they could spread out too much, be like kind of beh or
they could be crumbly and not spread enough,
depending on how well you stirred that peanut butter. Peanut butter's one
example but by the way, the main culprit is flours. Sometimes you might only
have self-rising flour or if you wanna use whole grain flour because it's a little bit healthier, that might make your cookie tough and not like melt-in-your-mouth amazing, so just be careful. Use what your recipe requires. But if you wanna use an ingredient like coconut flour, that's fine. Just find coconut flour
cookies and that recipe will be developed for this ingredient and it'll be delicious and amazing. Coming in at number eight,
uneven baking for your cookies.
Most recipes require that you cook multiple trays of cookies. So many delicious cookies.
Hello, it's a good thing. But there's a sweet spot
in your oven for cookies, and that's in the center rack, for almost every single recipe. When I'm making cookies at home, I just cook one tray of cookies at a time. The other one's hanging out in the fridge. If you're baking two trays
of cookies at the same time, the bottom ones are gonna get burnt.
The top ones will be under-done. So they need to be swapped
out halfway through. Also, don't place 'em all the way forward or all the way back. Really in the center is the
best spot for those cookies. Coming in at number seven,
thinking that your cookies suck because they don't look perfect. We all know that a cookie
that's not as beautiful will still taste just as good. Here's the deal, everyone
has some food-styling secrets and this is mine. Get some round cookie cutters.
The bigger, the better. So you want the cookie cutter
to be bigger than your cookie. Right out of the oven, if it's spread out, if it's misshapen, just corral
it into shape really quick, little circles, and it'll
just nudge the cookie back into a circle. And if they spread out and it's too thin, it'll like re-puff it
up just a little bit. Cookie baking mistake number six, using the wrong butter or salt.
And these two are related. First of all, just on a side note, your butter is usually
gonna be room temperature, not rock hard. Rock-hard butter just won't mix well and things are gonna go awry. But even if your butter
is room temperature, something could be wrong. If you're using salted
butter on your cookie recipe, you need to reduce the amount
of added salt by a third of a teaspoon per stick
or half cup of butter.
Coming in at number five,
skimping on your chill time. Some cookies can go right
from the mixing bowl into the oven. They have ingredients
that are gonna help them stay together. Most cookies need some chill time so those ingredients can
set up, meaning the cookies will maintain their shape
in the oven just long enough so that the flour can then
bake, create a structure, hold it together, and
you have a chewy or cakey or just delicious
melt-in-your-mouth cookie. If you don't do that, what
happens is that they just melt in the oven and you have a big puddle. It's happened to all of us. And don't learn the hard way. Just follow the recipe and use the appropriate amount of chill time. Coming in at number four, not giving your cookies room to grow.
Here's the deal. Your cookies are going
to spread when they bake. You wanna give them room
to expand without touching. But that's not the only reason why. Air is circulating in your
oven between those cookies. And if they're too crowded,
they're gonna under-bake slightly where the air isn't circulating. So give them room to
grow. They'll bake evenly. They'll be uniform,
delicious, and individual, not one giant glom of cookie. Baking mistake number
three, raising cookie dough in a big lump. I love having extra cookie
dough hanging out in my freezer. Yes, come over, you can
bake up some cookies in a flash and it's amazing. But you know what sucks? Having a big lump of this that's frozen. I can't scoop it out. You have to wait a long
time for it to defrost. And then it's still pretty hard so you're gonna sprain a muscle. It just does not cool. Instead, before you freeze your
cookie dough, scoop it out, plop it onto a baking
sheet, and freeze that. Then you pop those frozen
cookie balls into a freezer bag and now they'll keep their shape.
And when you wanna bake some
up, pop as many as you want onto a baking tray and enjoy. Baking mistake number two,
not knowing your oven. Every oven is a little bit
different. Mine's very different. And I just wanna show
you something I bought. This is an oven thermometer. If you're ever curious, like,
is it a little bit colder than it should be? Is it a little bit hot?
Is something off today? This thermometer will let
you know what it's like, if it's really 350, if it's really 375, and it's gonna help you have
reliably amazing cookies.
One more thing, have you
ever had like perfect, perfect, perfect, burnt? That means your oven has hotspots in it where it's not heating evenly. You can find out if
your oven has a hotspot by getting some like cheap
white bread and just placing it on your oven rack, baking
it for a few minutes at 350, and then see oh, is it
all uniformly toasted? It'll let you know what's
going on inside of your oven so you can say like, "Okay,
I'm not gonna place a cookie "right in that center 'cause
I know it's gonna burn." Little things like that can make your cookies so much better. Coming in at number one, the
top cookie-baking mistake. And I've said it before.
I'm saying it again. Mismeasuring your ingredients. This is the prime culprit
in doing something to the T in your mind but the recipe
just doesn't come out right. This guy, which is in every single cookie, is hard to measure in a measuring cup. I use a scale. It's accurate every time. You don't even have to get a fancy one.
Just get like any kitchen
scale and it's gonna do a pretty okay job letting
you get perfect cookies. If you just don't have
one and you wanna make this cookie anyways, here's what you do. Let's say if I just scoop the flour out like oh, I'm scooping
it out, leveling it off. 164 grams. It should be 120 per cup. And this would make bready,
just like nasty cookies. Uh-uh. So what you wanna do is fluff
the flour up. Fluff it up. Get lots of air in between
each piece of flour and use a spoon to sprinkle
that fluffed flour in.
Sprinkle it in. It's 126. That's so much closer. And really it could be a
little bit more, a bit less. Your cookies are gonna be great. It's just when you add
a ton of extra flour, they're not amazing. I hope this video showed
you what not to do to make some amazing, delicious cookies. And if you like this video,
check out my cookie playlist. Bon appetit..
