Tip Friday Cooling Cookies
Recipes often call for cooling cookies on a rack. This is because when cookies are left to cool on the baking sheet, they continue to bake and may become overdone.
A rack allows air to circulate under the cookies, cooling them quickly. If you do not have a cooling rack, you may remove cookies from the baking sheet and allow them to cool on paper towels on the countertop.
When using this method, you may notice that the paper towels absorb excess fat from the cookies, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing! Also they cool slower than cookies on a rack.
The cookie recipe will indicate whether cookies should be removed immediately from cookie sheet to cooling rack with a metal spatula, or whether the cookies should remain on cookie sheet for a minute or two to firm up so they can be removed more easily.
Bar cookies should cool in their baking pans on a rack. Don’t cut them while they’re warm; you’ll make bars with very ragged edges, and they’re much more likely to fall apart when you’re taking them out of the pan.
When baking drop cookies, especially if you like chewy ones, leave the cookies on the baking sheet for 5 minutes after you take the pan out of the oven. This gives the cookies a chance to firm up a bit before you slide a spatula underneath them.
After 5 minutes, transfer the cookies to a cooling rack to finish cooling. We prefer a cooling rack that has a grid pattern with half-inch holes, to give fragile cookies better support while they’re cooling.
Batter cookies that need to be shaped after baking should be transferred while still warm to whatever shaping device you’re using: a dowel, custard cup, cone, etc. Some cookies may be shaped while warm by simply rolling them into a tube shape around the handle of a wooden spoon.
Whatever type of cookies you’re making, be sure they’re entirely cool before you wrap them up to store. Wrapping a still-warm cookie will cause it to steam inside its container, which could yield soggy, stuck-together results.
Learn these tips for better dough. They are part of my Tip Friday Series. See Rolling Out Your Dough or Chilling Cookie Dough.
Thank you so much for sharing your post with us at the #AnythingGoes Link Party! I’m so glad that we can work together on the link parties.
Me too Sandy! Thanks.
Great tips! It would be such a shame to spoil them at that point after you’ve gone to all the effort of making them 🙂
Thanks for linking up to #AnythingGoes
Debbie
Debbie, I know. But I am guilty of bypassing these tips when I am in a hurry. I can’t tell you how many chocolate chip cookies turned into dough balls and I had to eat them! ????
Thank you for sharing at the Thursday Favorite Things blog hop
You are welcome Betty! I am always happy to jon.
I so needed this post Marilyn! I never know how to cool my cookies! And, especially how to cool them if you want chewy cookies (my favorite). Thank you! Super helpful!
I am so glad Gigi you let me know! I look forward to Tip Friday as it reminds me why I do these things.
Thank you for sharing with us at #JoyHopeLive!
You are welcome Mary and thanks for sharing!
That’s a nice one to know, Marilyn.
I don’t think I have ever baked cookies. I’ll think of it when I do.
Perfect tip for #tiptuesday.
Thanks a lot for sharing it.
Never….baked…..cookies??? Debbie! You are a healthy eater. There are some great healthy recipes for cookies. I need to make the change in my diet. Cookies and ice cream ate going to be hard.
I can almost taste the cookies that you are trying to cool! Thanks for sharing this tip with us at #WednesdaysWisdom, Marilyn always look forward to your tips!
Thank you Sue.
Great idea! 🙂
Thanks for joining Cooking and Crafting with J & J!
Thanks Jess. The big cookie season is upon us.
Hi Marilyn I didn’t realise there were different cooling methods depending on the cookie. Thanks for sharing another great tip at #AnythingGoes.
Thanks Sue. Baking is one of those things where if tou throw together the right ingredients tou can get it to taste good, lokk good, and smell good. From there we can improve! I found this one interesting also!