Image from WikipediaI hear this question all the time from friends who have trouble with a variety of recipes. The key is your oven. Even if you’re not starting a cookie business from home, and just love baking, cookies that just don’t turn out right is so frustrating and costly. Here is some simple advice:
you need to calibrate your oven to see if the temperature is off. For example, when you set it to 350 is the oven heating to 360 or 370? If the oven is reading too high,
your cookies will brown too quickly Also,if you use dark-colored baking sheets, consider switching to aluminum pans or sheets. If you choose to stick with dark colored sheets, reduce your oven temperature by 25 degrees F (15 degrees C). If cookies brown too quickly on bottoms your oven rack may be too low or the cookie recipe you’re using may have too much sugar. Likewise, If cookies brown too quickly on top the oven rack may be too high.
While every oven is unique, you should periodically check how the oven is heating up and calibrate accordingly. This may be as simple as adjusting the temperature manually (i.e. setting the temperature 10 degrees higher or lower, or adjusting the hardware on your oven as seen in this video:HGTV
For a detailed understanding of your oven’s temperature as well as a review of oven thermometers, check out this article at Cook’s Illustrated
Conversations with David Anderson, senior product manager at Whirlpool, revealed that the average oven designed for home use does not simply heat up to the temperature set on the dial and then stay there. Anderson noted that an oven’s heating elements are either on at full power or off-with no middle ground. To maintain the desired temperature, the heating elements cycle within a manufacturer-determined tolerance, heating up and cooling down to temperatures just above and below the desired temperature.
Tags: ovens, cookie tips
