Learn how to bake brilliant biscuits
Whether you prefer them thin, chewy, cakey, doughy, thick or crispy, chocolate chip cookies are a universal favourite. This week we’ve put together some tips and tricks for making your biscuits the best you’ll ever eat.
Ten tips for the perfect chocolate-chip biscuit
1. Keep your dough chilled – although it is tempting to want to get your biscuits in the oven as quickly as possible, it is really important to keep the dough chilled otherwise it will start to melt before it cooks and your biscuits will spread out all over the oven tray. If you want to speed things up pop the dough in the freezer until it is chilled.
2. Creaming the butter and sugar – make sure you cream the butter and sugar really well so that the sugar is completely dissolved and the mixture is really light and fluffy. Also ensure that eggs are well mixed into the butter and sugar mixture.
3. Shaping and baking – to get the best results use cold or frozen dough (see point 1 above) and for even, well-shaped cookies roll the dough into a log shape, chill, then cut 2cm thick pieces from the log and cook on a baking tray. Biscuits made from frozen dough will give you a better shape.
4. Sprinkle cookies with a small pinch of sea salt just before you put them in the oven. The salt brings out the flavour of the chocolate and enhances your ability to taste the sweetness.
5. If you like thin and chewy biscuits use melted butter in your recipe as it loosens the dough to give a chewy consistency.
6. Prefer thick and doughy biscuits? Then you should use cold butter as it will make them spread less and turn out just how you like them.
7. For a crispy outside and soft centre, mix baking powder and bicarbonate of soda together. This combination helps the biscuits to spread and puff.
8. If soft and chewy is the way you like your biscuits then frozen dough is the way to go. The biscuits will spread less while they are baking, making them deliciously soft.
9. Do you prefer a more cakey biscuit? Use extra flour to create a crumbly cake-like texture.
10. Add brown sugar if you like moist and chewy cookies.
