The Secret to Baking the Perfect Cookies

Posted by Alex in Food & Drinks on December 21, 2008 at 1:20 pm


Leave it to science to reveal all of life’s greatest mysteries. Here’s the secret to baking the perfect cookie, by food scientist Shirley Corriher: it’s all about the gluten!

Among the cookie problems bakers face is that the cookies can emerge from the oven soft and intact, but when the cookies travel, they may turn into a box of crumbs.

To beat this problem, Corriher suggests adding a tablespoon of water to a cup of flour that’s going to be used in the cookies. The two proteins in flour — glutenin and gliadin — grip water, Corriher tells NPR’s Melissa Block, and make "springy stretchy, strong elastic sheets of gluten." The gluten will hold the cookies together, she says.

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10 comments to "The Secret to Baking the Perfect Cookies"

  1. eni
    December 21st, 2008 at 1:41 pm

    Uh, sucks for people who can't eat gluten.

  2. crumbs (a baker)
    December 21st, 2008 at 4:28 pm

    OR just melt the butter because butter has water in it....same result.

  3. MightyCow
    December 21st, 2008 at 7:19 pm

    Just what I want, cookies with the consistency of bread crust.

  4. Oliver
    December 21st, 2008 at 7:44 pm

    eni,

    yes we should avoid posting any recipes online evar, because someone might through choice or health reasons avoid one of the ingredients...

  5. Gauldar
    December 21st, 2008 at 7:55 pm

    This recipe has been brought to you by the Wheat Farmers of America.

  6. eni
    December 21st, 2008 at 8:55 pm

    @ Oliver: What? Did I say that? I think not. o_O

  7. ted
    December 21st, 2008 at 10:04 pm

    You implied it, eni.

  8. Janet
    December 22nd, 2008 at 11:39 am

    I add a splash or so of milk to my choc. chip cookies - even though the recipe doesn't call for it. It makes them stay a little softer and stay held together.
    Except for the ones I make for my husband who likes them flat and rock hard by melting the butter, so he can hold them in a cup of milk and make them soggy.

  9. liphttam1
    December 22nd, 2008 at 7:41 pm

    I add love to my cookies. Thats why they taste like crap. I hate cookies. I can only give them no love.

  10. ted
    December 23rd, 2008 at 7:22 am

    It's easier to give love to a bagel, liphttam1.


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