30 Aug Making Cookie Dough is as Easy as 1-2-3

The key to baking is ratios; if you know the ratio behind a type of recipe, say for cake or cookies, it is very easy to make variations on that recipe, or even create your own.

In baking, ratios refer most typically to the weights of ingredients.

For example, saying that dark chocolate ganache has 1:1 part ratio of cream to chocolate means that ganache is made from equal parts (by weight) of cream and dark chocolate. White chocolate ganache on the other hand has a 1:2 part ratio meaning that you would need double the weight of white chocolate to cream.

When it comes to cookies, one ratio to remember is 1-2-3: one part sugar, two parts butter, and 3 parts flour.

Here are the weighed ingredients. Photo by Jennifer Maliniak

If you were to start with 1 cup of sugar which weighs approximately 225 grams, you would then need 450 grams of flour, and 675 grams of flour.

Eggs are another ingredient often found in cookie recipes. For type of dough, you need 4 ounces of eggs per 3lbs, or 2 eggs.

Professional bakers are familiar with ratios and aren’t afraid to use scales instead of measuring cups. But home bakers relate more to the standard forms of measurement meaning cups.

Here is how a more standard version of this recipe would read using cup measures.

1-2-3 Cookie Dough:

• 1 cup  sugar
• 2 cups  butter, or 1 lb.
• 4- 4 1/4 cups flour, approximately.
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract.

Creamed butter and sugar. Photo by Jennifer Maliniak

1. Cream together the butter and the sugar until very fluffy, starting on low speed and increasing to medium speed. This can take 3-5 minutes. The mixture will be very light in color.
2. Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl between additions. Beat until fluffy.
3. Add the flour all at once, and mix in on low speed, just until combined.
4. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate until firm. If you plan on making sliced cookies, divide the dough in two, and roll each half into logs on a lightly floured board then wrap in plastic.

Caption: sliced cookies ready for baking. Photo by Jennifer Maliniak.

With this amount of butter, this mega-rich dough may work best as a base for other desserts likes rustic style pies, or cookie bars a.k.a squares both of which are very trendy in the dessert world right now.

If you want to eat your cookies as is, bake at 375 degrees for 8-9 minutes until the edges get golden brown.

Be sure to read my next post for great ideas on how to use your cookie dough.

Happy Baking!