Baking time tests

I've been making a lot of cookies lately.  Cookies are always fun to make.  They don't really take a lot of time.  The dough can usually be refrigerated and baked later.  Many doughs do well in the freezer for a month.  That means I can bake three cookies for a late-night snack and do that again and again throughout the month.  And, really, who doesn't love cookies?

When I'm testing a new cookie or tweaking a recipe I already use (cookie or any other baked good), I'm very detailed about baking times.  I keep an oven thermometer hanging from the cooking racks in my oven so that I always know that my oven thermostat is working properly.  And this means that temperature is never an issue.  But time can be an issue.

Some cookies when baked just 30 seconds more than usual are dramatically different.  That little bit of extra time can really dry them out, or over-crisp them, or over-brown them, etc.  If the dough has been chilled, then you have to think about how much extra time you need for that cookie to come out just right.  Same thing goes for frozen doughs.

When I am working on a new cookie, I will chill the dough, and then over the course of 3 or 4 days, I will cook a small portion of that dough every day, and I will vary the baking times, baking only couple cookies at time.  In this way, I can see how the aging of the dough affects the cookie, I can test many different baking times, and I can experiment with portion sizes as well.  And I can do this all with one batch of dough.  An extra perk:  I have fresh cookies to sample every day.

Well, since I've been making a lot of cookies lately, my fridge has often had more than one tray of dough sitting wrapped inside it.  And each day I've been pre-heating that oven multiple times as I test out different baking protocols for new cookies.  It takes a lot of time to work through all the possibilities, and for a person like me who is sometimes impatient, that can be a challenge.  But in the end I'm always glad I was detailed in the baking trials.  Once I document the results and decide on cooking times and portions, etc., it means that every time I make that recipe, I know exactly what I can expect to pull out of the oven.

OK, time to make another batch.