Sweet BITS Of Information! Part 1 of 5

[Rita~]

You`ll find 5 parts Sweet BITS Of Information.
First- This one on types of cookies.
Second- About Ingredients & Preparing for Baking
Third- Storing cookies at room Temperature
Fourth- Freezing Cookies
Fifth- Packing cookies for shipping

Recipezaar wishes ALL a Very
EVERY - ONE!

Sweet BITS Of Information!
Part 1
Types of cookies
There are seven different types of cookies.
Classified by the way the dough is handled. These types are: drop, bar, rolled, refrigerator, pressed, molded and no bake.
Drop cookies
The easiest individual cookies to make. Balls of dough are dropped from a spoon by pushing it from the teaspoon with a scraper, or another teaspoon onto a cookie sheet. Shiny aluminum pans will brown evenly and lightly. Dark sheets tend to absorb the heat and will over brown the bottoms of your cookies. If you use an insulated baking sheet, remember since the bottom does not brown as fast, you may have a longer baking time.

Bar Cookies

Are prepared by putting the dough in a rectangular or square pan with sides the recipe calls for. Too big can cause dry bars and too small can cause under baked bars.They are baked and then cut into squares.
Most drop cookie recipes can be converted to this type of cookie. These are easy cookies to make, because several batches are baked at once. Bar cookies may be stored, tightly covered, in baking pan. Some may require refrigeration because of ingredients in them.

Rolled/ Cut Out Cookies
Take a little more preparation. On a floured cutting board roll out with rolling pin dusted with flour to keep from sticking, the chilled dough. The dough is cut into shapes by using a knife, pastry wheel or cookie cutter. Roll out only one portion of the dough at a time to prevent dough from drying out.
Rolling the dough evenly and to the correct thickness. Uniform thickness will insure even baking and thinner cookies will be crisper and thicker cookies will be softer and chewier.
Refrigerator or Ice Box Cookies
Prepared by shaping the dough into long rolls wrapping well with plastic wrap and then refrigerating them till well chilled. Once cold, the dough can be sliced making sure to use a thin, sharp knife when slicing the cookie dough and baked. This is a great prepare-ahead-of-time dough because it can also be frozen.
Pressed Cookies
Made by pressing the dough through a cookie press or pastry tube to form different shapes. Make sure the press rests on the cookie sheet . Then force the dough into a COOL, ungreased cookie sheet until the dough appears at the edge of the mold. Then lift the press.
If the dough is too soft when using a cookie press, refrigerate the dough or add a small amount (1 to 2 tablespoons) of flour. If it is too stiff, add 1 egg yolk
Molded Cookies
Dough is formed with your hands lightly dusted with flour to keep the dough from sticking to your fingers and palms into shapes such as: wreaths, crescents, canes, or balls. Balls are sometimes flattened with the bottom of a glass, fork, mold, or with the thumb.
No-bake Cookies

Does not need to go in the oven. Most of them require that you melt certain ingredients over the stove or in the microwave. Then dry ingredients are stirred in and the cookie is shaped and allowed to cool.
Lets see what cookies you have to offer?
Click here to Go on to Part 2 of 5

[justcallmetoni]

Here ya go:

This is the highlight of the season in our family and a tradition that now spans 4 generations. (See my AM page for last year's bounty.)

My now almost grown nephews started baking at four. Their jobs were to be pan boys (carrying cool pans of dough to Nana so she could put them in the oven) and decorators (adding sprinkles or nuts to dough or dipped cookies). They became accomplished bakers before the age of 10.

We have a sequence going that begins on Black Friday.

The first 2 weekends go to making our dry-crispy cookies, as they don't suffer the least from storage. Lot's of biscotti. We use the Seal a Meals to store. The air tight vacuum pack keeps them fresh and limits breakage (snug from the seal).

Weeks 2 and 3 are spent making and freezing doughs. A handy tip for slice and bake cookies. We make ours a little small in order to fit a greater variety in the tins. Logs are about 1 to 1 1/4 inch round and get wrapped in a double layer of wax paper and fitted inside empty tubes from paper towels. The tubes keep the cookie logs safe and round while frozen and help keep that shape while defrosting. Spritz cookies get started in the middle of week 2.

Weeks 3 and 4 are baking and decorating time. The softest cookies are baked last. We don't do bars or very moist drop cookies as we've not had great experience with mixing soft versus dry cookies. We hand dip about 600-700 cookies so that takes five of us almost a full day.

Week 4 is also packing and shipping.

The day after Christmas go buy tins, bags and decorations at half price for next year.

Hope this helps!

[Rita~]

Beautiful! Love your organization!
Thanks Great tips for all!