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Bread Quick Bread How Do You Know Quick Breads Are Done? Breads should be golden in color, slightly darker around the edges. A large crack running down the center of the bread is normal. The inside of the crack should not look wet. The edges will begin to pull away from the sides of the pan. You can use the toothpick test for quick bread doneness. Quick breads differ from traditional bread recipes in that they do not require yeast. They are, by definition, chemically leavened breads. Generally, the chemical leaveners used in quick breads are baking powder or baking soda. Quick breads are generally higher in fat and liquid content. Although they are called breads, quick breads are not truly breads — they are more similar to cakes and muffins and, in contrast to traditional breads, are always baked in a mold or pan. For evenly rounded tops on nut breads and muffins, grease baking pans or muffin cups on the bottom and only 1/2 inch up the sides. Do this and your batter will cling to the sides of the pan instead of sliding back down. If your biscuits are dry, it could be from too much handling, or the oven temperature may not have been hot enough. Resist the urge to overmix biscuit dough. Too much stirring causes biscuits to become heavy and tough. Use a shiny baking sheet vs. a dull or dark one. Lighter sheets ensure that biscuits bake evenly. Lightly grease the cutter when making rolled, cutout biscuits. Then, dip it in a small amount of flour before each cut. Keep a small bowl of flour at arm's reach when rolling out biscuit dough to keep it from sticking. Nut breads are better if stored 24 hr. before serving. Quick breads usually taste and slice better the day after baking. Cool; then wrap and store in a cool place. Both muffins and loaves can be double-wrapped and frozen up to two months. If your zucchini bread sinks in the middle, it's usually because there is too much liquid in proportion to the dry ingredients. Try squeezing excess liquid from the zucchini between several changes of paper towels. For the same reason, be sure to measure mashed bananas for bread carefully. (If your banana bread is too delicate in flavor, try buying the most overripe bananas you can find. They will have more flavor.) Sinkage can be a problem of too little leavening, or leavening that is too old. First check the date on the package and discard any product that has gone past that date. Then make sure the leavening is still active by combining 1 tsp. baking powder with 1/3 cup hot (not boiling) water. If it bubbles immediately, it can be counted on to rise during baking. If a batter or dough using baking soda and/or powder is left too long on the kitchen counter before baking, the leavening will be activated. As soon as the batter is mixed, put it into the preheated oven to get the initial leavening boost from heat. Overhandling the batter will produce a tough texture. Try mixing quick batters by hand instead of machine. If a machine is used, mix on the lowest setting just until the dry ingredients are incorporated. Then stir in ingredients such as nuts, coconut and dried fruits by hand. Place sweet loaves in a preheated 350-degree oven and set the timer for 50 minutes. Test by inserting a long skewer into the center, which should come out clean. If it doesn't, or if you see a bit of wet dough at the top, continue baking 5 to 10 minutes longer. The finished bread should have a domed top with a fraction of shrinkage from the sides of the pan. Don't be alarmed by a crack down the center. It's characteristic of a good loaf, created by steam escaping through a thinner crust and just the right amount of expansion during baking. Let the loaves cool in the pans 10 to 15 minutes before removing. Biscuits Unlike yeast doughs, in which kneading can be an endurance test, these doughs should be kneaded lightly, using a gentle touch, for less than a minute. (Drop biscuits have a coarser texture and are not kneaded at all.) A biscuit should rise to twice its original height, and the crust should be evenly browned. For crustier biscuits, place them at least one inch apart on an ungreased or parchment-lined baking sheet. For softer biscuits, place them in an ungreased cake pan so they touch. Bake in a preheated 425-degree oven for about 15 minutes. Serve them hot, straight from the oven. No time to roll and cut biscuits? Just drop the dough from a tablespoon onto lightly greased baking sheets. Muffins Muffin batters are easily made. To mix, add in a few swift strokes the beaten liquid ingredients to the combined dry ones. The mixing is held to an absulte minimum, which will leave some lumps. If you have muffins with a coarse texture, this is caused from insufficient stirring and cooking at too low a temperature. If you have tunnels in your muffins, peaks in the center and/or a soggy texture, this is caused by overmixing. Mix the muffin batter well but light and bake at the correct temperature. The secret to perfect, tender muffins is in the lumps. Muffin batter should be gently stirred just until all the dry ingredients are moistened, resulting in a lumpy batter. Resist the temptation to vigorously stir muffin batter until it is smooth. The lumps will disappear during baking. Overstirring creates tough muffins with pointed tops. For a crunchy, sugary crust on muffins, sprinkle white or brown sugar over the batter in the muffin pan before baking. If your muffins have a coarse, crumbly texture, there may be too much fat in proportion to other ingredients in the recipe. Try cutting it back by a tablespoon or two. How To Make Perfect Muffins:    Begin by preheating the oven to the recommended temperature.    Next, prepare the muffin pan. Standard-size muffin pan cups vary in size from manufacturer to manufacturer, but are generally 2 1/2 to 2 3/4" in diameter. Giant muffin pan cups are about 4" in diameter. Cups should be well greased or paper-lined. If you make the giant ones, make sure you grease the top of the pan so the batter won't stick.    If you are making stirred muffins (as opposed to creamed ones), mix the dry ingredients in the bowl first. This helps to get the baking powder and or baking soda distributed through the flour. If the powder and or soda is unevenly distributed, the muffins may end up with a bitter taste. Mix the wet ingredients together; pour them into the dry ones. Stir just until the ingredients are moistened. The batter should be lumpy. Over-stirring causes the baked muffins to be tough and have tunnels.    Creamed muffins have a cake-like texture. You cream the shortening and sugar first before adding the rest of the ingredients -- these are usually a sweeter muffin.    You should fill the muffin cups 2/3 to 3/4 full, unless directions tell you otherwise. Any cups not filled with batter should be halfway filled with water, which allows for even baking.    Test for doneness in the time-honored way: stick a toothpick or cake tester in the center, and it should come out clean. Immediately remove muffins from the pan and cool slightly on a wire rack. If the muffins stick to the pan, don't panic. Let them set a few minutes. The steam from the pan should loosen them. If they are still stubborn, loosen the muffins by running a knife around the edge of the cup.    Most muffins are best when served warm. Baked muffins may be cooled and frozen. Place in freezer bags that reseal, or in foil. For best flavor, use within a month. To reheat, wrap muffins in foil. Warm in a preheated 350°F. oven for about 20 minutes. Forget the microwave unless you are a wiz...you can overheat them and the texture changes. Scones Like a good pie crust, the fat used in scones should be chilled and cut into the dry ingredients. Overhandling is the biggest problem, so once the dough is mixed, scoop it onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently no more than five times to pull it together. Then, shape by patting the dough into a rough circle and cutting into wedges, or simply drop onto an ungreased baking sheet or parchment-paper-lined sheet. Bake in a preheated 400-degree oven for about 12 minutes. Scones should be tender with a lightly browned top. Yeast Bread How Do You Know When Yeast Breads Are Done? Use an instant read thermometer and be absolutely sure when your bread is done. The internal temperature of a loaf of yeast bread when it is cooked to perfection is 210 degrees Fahrenheit. The crust should be an even golden color. The bread will pull away from the sides of the pan. The bread will sound hollow when you tap it lightly. All milk used in bread recipes should be scalded and then cooled to lukewarm before using. For many bread and roll recipes, the steps may be simplified if all the liquid, sugar, salt and even the shortening is put into a bowl and the yeast sprinkled or crumbled in to dissolve it. When the yeast is dissolved or becomes bubbly, add the rest of the ingredients that the various recipes call for. When making bread or rolls, always have the flour at room temperature before mixing. This will help keep the dough at a warm temperature and encourage it to rise. If your bread loaves get flat instead of nice and round, try making a stiffer dough. Using milk instead of another liquid usually gives a softer crust which becomes a richer brown when baked. Hot water kills yeast. One way to tell the correct temperature is to pour the water over your forearm. If you cannot feel either hot or cold, the temperature is just right. For soft, shiny crust on bread, brush loaves with margarine or butter before baking. For glossy, crispy crust, brush before baking with milk, water, or beaten egg. To make homemade bread have a shiny crust, brush the top with white vinegar a few minutes before removing the bread from the oven. For Consistent Crust: Always allow sufficient time for the dough to rise, but do not let it over rise. Carefully measure your ingredients. Too much flour, or too little sugar or fat, can toughen your crust. Doughs made with water generally yield a crispier crust than those made with milk. To soften a crust, brush crust with melted butter as soon as it comes out of the oven. Cool bread completely, and then place in a plastic bag. To Influence Crust Color Aluminum pans reflect rather than transmit heat and can result in a more pale loaf. Try using a baking pan made from something other than aluminum. For a darker, richer color, brush finished loaves lightly with butter or margarine and return to the oven for 5 to 10 minutes. Position pans in the oven so that they are evenly exposed to the oven temperature, allowing air to circulate between the loaves. Bake on a lower oven rack, unless otherwise directed. If crust is becoming too brown, cover loosely with aluminum foil during the last 10 minutes. The most convenient place for yeast bread to rise is the inside of a switched-off oven with the light on. Test loaves of bread by tapping the top of them with your finger. A hollow sound means the loaf is perfectly baked. Yeast bread dough rises more rapidly at higher altitudes and can overrise easily. Allow dough to rise for a shorter time. For a soft crust on freshly baked white or whole-wheat bread, brush the warm crust with softened butter. When a yeast dough has been kneaded to develop elasticity, it will fight the rolling pin when you want to roll it out. Allow it to relax for 10 to 15 minutes and it will be stretchy again. If your bread has a strong yeasty aroma you may have added too much yeast to the recipe. If your bread is undercooked you may have used too much liquid in the recipe. If your bread is too heavy you may have added too much flour or not enough liquid. If your bread is too brown you may have added too much sugar. If your bread didn't rise you may have added too much sugar or fat to the recipe. Use the water you have boiled potatoes in to make a moister, more flavorful bread dough. What does the oil in a bread recipe do? Oil in the recipe makes sure your bread will come out of the baking pan easily - machine or oven baked. When you eliminate the oil from your bread, other things can happen besides the bread sticking to the machine pan or bread pan. First, the bread will seem to have a little stale texture, coarse-like. Also the crust may not brown as well. If not using oil or butter be sure to spray or brush your pan well with oil or PAM before putting in the other ingredients. How to get a fast rise: Bring a large pot of water to boil. Turn off heat and lay a cookie sheet on top of the open pot. Cover the cookie sheet with a single layer of terry cloth towel. In the meantime, put your dough in a bowl large enough to accommodate it when it has doubled in size, then cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Place this on the cloth lined cookie sheet.... Another way to get a good rise: Boil 1 cup of water in a microwave. Turn off microwave and place bread dough in a bowl, cover with a cloth and place in the microwave and shut. VERY IMPORTANT! DON'T TURN THE MICROWAVE BACK ON!!! When baking bread, a small dish of water in the oven will help keep the crust from getting too hard or brown. When baking bread, you get a finer texture if you use milk. Water makes a coarser bread. For one cup of liquid use approximately three cups of flour. A good bread flour will take up more liquid than poor flour. Good bread flour rubbed between the fingers has a granular feeling. It will not hold its shape when pressed in the hand. The handling of the dough, not the proportions of ingredients, is the secret. Temperatures most satisfactory for bread to rise is between 75' and 95'F. For a soft crust, rather than crisp, butter the top and sides of the loaf after removing from oven. To test for doneness, a hollow sound when tapped, or loaf shrinks away from sides of the pan. Sugar hastens activity of yeast. Scalding the liquid kills all organisms that spoil the dough. Problems With Yeast Breads: Problem: Dough is not rising Reasons: Yeast is old; yeast was dissolved in too-hot or too-cold water; dough was kneaded too stiff--gluten was overdeveloped; rising location was too cold. Solutions: Try proofing new yeast and kneading it into the dough; additional flour might be necessary. Problem: Dough is bloated and blistering Reasons: Dough has over-risen; rising place is too warm. Solutions: Punch down, reshape, and let rise again. Problem: Bread rises and bakes unevenly. Reasons: Dough was shaped unevenly; dough was not scored or scored unevenly; oven heats unevenly. Solutions: Try rotating the loaf; there is little more you can do at this point. Problem: Bread browns unevenly on top Reasons: Loaf is or was too close to the oven top; oven heats unevenly. Solutions: Rotate loaf if browning unevenly; lower the rack on which the bread sits if browning too quickly. Problem: Bread is too brown on bottom Reasons: Baking stone or oven is too hot. Solutions: Place a rack or wire cake stand between loaf and stone; check that oven is calibrated correctly. Problem: Bread is too brown all over Reasons: Oven is too hot. Solutions: Lower the heat; check that oven is calibrated correctly. Problem: Bread interior has gaping holes Reasons: Too much yeast was used in dough; too little flour was used; too little kneading; dough over-rose; oven was too cool. Solutions: Use the bread for toast; the uneven texture is desirable in certain breads such as sourdough and French bread. Problem: Bread didn't rise high enough Reasons: Water was too hot for yeast; too little flour was used; too little kneading; dough was under-risen; pan was too large. Solutions: Slice thin and serve small pieces. Problem: Bread is heavy and dense Reasons: Too much flour was used; too little kneading; dough was under-risen. Solutions: Slice thin and serve small pieces. Problem: Bread has a yeasty taste Reasons: Dough over-rose; temperature was too high during rise. Solutions: Let the bread dry 1 day and use to make bread crumbs. Miscellaneous: To thaw frozen bread loaves, place in a clean brown paper bag and put in a 325F degrees oven for 5-6 minutes to thaw completely. Use shortening, not margarine or oil, to grease pans, as margarine and oil absorb more readily into the dough or batter (especially with bread).    Cakes How Do You Know When A Cake Is Done? A toothpick inserted in the center of the cake will come out either clean or with only a few crumbs clinging to it. If there is uncooked batter or many damp crumbs on the toothpick, return the cake to the oven and continue baking. Remember to set the timer again! I usually check after 3-4 minutes if the cake isn't quite done when I first test it. When a cake is done, the edges will begin to pull away from the sides of the pan. This is an indication that the internal cake structure is firm and will hold after the cake is removed from the oven. Usually cakes are baked until they are an even golden brown color over the entire surface. The edges can be slightly darker. Using your index finger, touch the cake lightly in the center. If the cake feels springy and the indentation fills up when you remove your finger, the cake is done. When making ginger bread, substitute coffee for water. It will improve the taste and the color. When making a cake always add 2 Tbsp boiling water to the butter and sugar mixture. This makes a fine textured cake. For cakes leavened by air, such as angel food cakes, beat the egg whites only to soft peaks, otherwise the cake may expand too much. Two tablespoons of vegetable oil added to a cake mix will make it moist and less crumbly. If powdered sugar is sprinkled on top of each layer before filling or frosting this will keep the filling from soaking through the cake. To avoid the white film left by flour sticking to the sides and bottom of chocolate layer cakes, grease the pan as usual and sprinkle with cocoa instead of flour. To prevent the top of a cake layer from sticking to the rack when you dump the cake out of the pan to cool, spray the rack with nonstick vegetable spray before you use it. When you remove a cake from the oven, place it on a wet towel. This allows it to steam away from the sides and bottom of the pan and it will come out easily in one piece. If the frosting sticks to the knife when cutting a cake, dip the knife into hot water, and wipe with a damp towel after cutting each slice. To cut a fresh cake, use a wet knife. When using a cake mix, try dusting the pans with a little of it instead of flour to eliminate the white layer on the outside of the cake when baked. Cut angel, chiffon, or sponge cakes with a long serrated knife, using a gentle sawing motion. Rescue an overbaked cake by drizzling with a simple sugar syrup spiked with a little Grand Marnier, Kahlua, Tia Maria or brandy. Make a better chocolate cake by adding a teaspoon of vinegar to your cake mix. To moisten a cake that is slightly dry, pierce it all over and slowly pour fruit juice or brandy into it. Shiny metal pans are preferred for baking cakes. They reflect heat away from the cake and produce a tender, light brown crust. Any cake will be greatly improved if a tsp of lemon juice is added to the butter and sugar. This makes the cake very light and shorter. Fresh milk makes cakes close grained and more solid. For best results use correct size pan. The time and oven temperature should be adjusted to the type of pan being used. For shortening type cakes, bake cup cakes at 375 degrees for 18-20 minutes; layer cakes at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes, and loaf cakes at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes. A cake is done when it shrinks from sides of the pan; it springs back when pressed lightly with finger; a cake tester or toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Always test your cake for doneness. Warm cake is fragile, so let it stand in pan 5 minutes before removing it. Loosen the edge with knife and turn cake out on wire rack. Fill cake pans about 2/3 full and spread batter well into corners and to the sides, leaving a slight hollow in the center. Cakes should not be frosted until thoroughly cool. Use dental floss to cut cake easily. Hold it tight and move slowly. Use lifesavers candy to hold candles in place on your next birthday cake! Kids love 'em! Need to make a heart shaped cake? No problem. Bake one round layer and one square layer of the same size. Place the square layer with the corners pointing up, down, right and left. Slice the round layer into two equal halves. Place a half on two adjacent sides of the square layer. Frost and decorate. Angel Food Cake Tips:    Do not grease the pan. The batter needs to cling to the sides while it rises. As soon as you put the batter in the pan, move it to the heated oven so that air cells will not begin to deflate.    Bake the cake at the correct heat (usually 325 F.) so that the egg whites don't toughen or shrink.    When the cake has finished baking, turn the pan upside down and stant it on its feet or upside down over the neck of a bottle or a tall funnerl until it is completely cold.    Use a serrated knife with a sawing motion or a pronged angel-food cake cutter to cut the cake. A regular knife will flatten it. Cake Problems and How to Correct Them: Cake did not rise Too much water and/or oil Pans too large Oven temperature too low Overbeating or underbeating Batter sat too long before baking Cake too small or shrunken Too much water and/or oil Oven temperature is too high Overbeating Cake Wet/Moist/Weeps When Stored Underbaking Not completely cooled before frosted or stored Frosting a frozen cake Freezing a frosted cake Stored in too warm/humid area Sheet Cakes Split/Cracked Not enough batter in pan (use about ¾” to 1” of batter per pan) Stored at too warm a temperature, store at 40 degrees F in warm, humid months Cake fell or dipped, was soggy, compact or heavy Oven running too cool Cake removed from oven before it is completely baked Oven door opened before minimum baking time Too much water and/or oil Extra ingredients added to the batter Overbeating or underbeating Too much batter, or pans too small Didn’t use cool water/cold eggs Cake split, humped, shrank, had holes and/or tunnels, was dry, coarse, crumble or burned All of these problems may be caused by overbaking. This can result from baking for too long or baking in too hot an oven. Splits or humped cakes can be caused by overbeating. Too little water and/or oil or omitting an egg can cause dryness and crumbliness. Holes and tunnels can also be caused by: Failure to scrape bottom/sides of bowl when mixing batter Excessively lumpy mix (blend dry mix at low speed to break up lumps before adding liquids) Custard-like streak Streak across bottom of cake indicates too much water Streak under top crust of cake indicates underbaking Extra ingredients added to the batter Excessive over-beating Failure to scrape or improperly scraping bottom/sides of the bowl Too much batter in the pan. Pans should be filled 1/2 to 2/3 full. 3" pans should only be filled 1/2 full Layers Uneven Oven racks not level Pans not centered in oven Too much liquid Under-mixing Oven temperature too high Cake runs over pan Oven temperature too low Too much batter in the pan. Pans should be filled 1/2 to 2/3 full. 3" pans should only be filled 1/2 full Too much water in the batter Oven racks not level Pans not placed in center of the oven Uneven Browning Oven not preheated Used dark, dented or warped pans Oven racks not level Cake sticks to pan and is difficult to remove Pans not greased enough Cooled improperly. Let cakes cool at least 10 minutes and not more than 20. Before 10 minutes the cake is still tender and breaks easily. After 20 minutes the grease begins to harden and can glue the cake to the pan. If sides are not greased you need to use a knife or spatula before removal Cake difficult to frost Cake not removed from pan properly Cake cooled in improper position. A cake should be cooled right side up on a cooling rack Cake not completely cool before trying to frost it Excess crumbs not brushed away Frosting not proper consistency Try using a crumb coat before frosting Cake Broke/Crumbled When Assembling Cake stored in too warm/humid area Cake not supported with rack when depanning or turning over Cake not stacked with adequate supports    Cheesecake To preserve the creamy texture of a frozen cheesecake, thaw it in the refrigerator for 12 hours before serving. When cutting creamy-textured bars, such as cheesecake bars, carefully wipe off the knife blade between cuts with a clean, damp towel. This prevents the creamy filling from building up on the blade, ensuring nice clean cuts that leave the filling intact. If your cheesecake cracks: Use a food processor instead of an electric mixer. The mixture is blended better without beating in as much air. If your cheesecake cracks: Allow the cake to cool--in the oven, in the pan on the counter, etc--for as long as the recipe specifies. Ongoing support of the sides of the cake is key. If your cheesecake cracks: Be careful when substituting ingredients. Ricotta is not interchangeable with cream cheese. Cottage, farmer and other curd cheeses might work but drain them very well. Too wet a cake will fall apart. If your cheesecake cracks: When all else fails, tie the cake together with string and refrigerate. Leave it in the refrigerator until the absolute last minute, so it will hold together. And put some fruit on the top, to cover incipient cracks and/or to have your guests focus on the topping, not the cake! For a nice thick cheesecake, use 4 packages of cream cheese (8 oz each) and either 5 or 6 large eggs. If your eggs are very watery (lots of runny whites) you might want to search out a better source for them. Beat the cream cheese and sugar for as long as you want, but don't overbeat once you've added the eggs.....what happens is you get a souffle effect where the eggs get a lot of air beat into them and the cake puffs up real nice and pretty and then collapses into a mini version of the Grand Canyon. Always try to have the dairy stuff at room temperature...if you forget, just fill a bowl with warm water and plop in the eggs and the still-wrapped cream cheese. Only use the real stuff, none of the lite or non-fat cream cheeses. Bake at 350°F until the top has slightly browned and the center part (about 2" diameter) is still shiny -- this results in a cake that is still moist, but it is a little difficult to cut cleanly. If you leave them in the oven for longer periods -- or just shut off the oven and crack the door, the cake dries out a little more and it is easier to cut clean pieces. One recommendation is to bake the cake in a PREHEATED 500 degree oven for 5 minutes ONLY and then open the door and lower it to 300 degrees. Continue baking for about an hour until the top has lost its shine. This idea is working along a chemical reaction process dealing with the protein in the eggs and cheese and is too convoluted for me, but it works! If you make pumpkin cheesecakes, and they tend to be a little wetter than usual, try cutting down on whatever liquid is in the recipe. Or just remove one of the egg whites. If you make a cheesecake that uses a liquor, it should bake without cracks and cut very clean. Cracks are just an inevitable part of baking cheesecakes. That is why you should ALWAYS keep a can of cherry pie filling around to cover up those cracks!    You followed directions. You open the oven to check on your cheesecake and once again -- there's a crack in the top. OK...simple. Let it cool thoroughly, place it in the refrigerator to ripen overnight, and cover it with a can of pie filling. Or let your family have it, run to the store and get more supplies and try again. But what happened? And more importantly, WHY?    Well, many people think they can answer that. But the truth is, there are many reasons why this could have happened. First of all, the temperature of the oven, baking time, and even moisture in the oven can all affect the cheesecake. Some folks feel over beating does it. Others believe that placing your spring form pan in a water bath solves the problem.    Check your oven temperature. Do you have a good thermometer? And, more importantly, do you use it? Ovens can vary 25 degrees or more. Adjust your oven if needed, or have a professional do it for you. Location, location, location -- an old joke punch line, but absolutely true. Make sure you have the oven rack in the center of the oven (unless you are told otherwise by the recipe directions). If you place it too high or low, you will have problems.    When mixing, be gentle. If you beat the mixture on high, you will most likely incorporate air bubbles. And when it says "fold in", meaning flour, cornstarch or sour cream, FOLD it gently. This isn't mashed potatoes!    OK...if you are a water bath believer, you need a baking pan or dish larger than the spring form pan. Place a wire rack in it (the kind you cool cookies etc. on). It's also a good idea to wrap the bottom of the spring form with foil so water doesn't seep into the cake and mess it up. Place the filled spring form pan on the wire rack, place everything in the oven (remember: on the middle shelf...) Pour an inch or so of hot water into the baking dish, and bake. Preheat or not - follow your recipe directions. Personally, I put the cake into a cold oven. But if you are doing the hot water bath, that will defeat the purpose.    After the cake has baked and is still shaky in the center, TURN OFF the oven! Leave the cake in the oven until you can touch it and not get third degree burns. Frankly, I would then take the cake gently out, and replace just the spring form pan in the oven. Allow to totally cool. Do NOT remove the outer ring yet. Place cooled cake, covered well, in the refrigerator overnight to firm up.    Topping it is up to you -- follow your recipe. Some cakes call for a sour cream mixture to be layered on right after baking, then baked a few more minutes. Others call for fresh fruit and melted jelly or jam...or pie filling...or...    Just Enjoy! And if it cracks, think about the steps you took, see what you can change...and try again. Unless you burned it, crack or no, it will still taste great.    Cobblers, Buckles, Grunts, Slumps, Betties, Crisps, etc... Cobbler gets its name from its biscuit topping, which resembles cobblestones. For a traditional cobbler, be sure the fruit filling is very hot when you drop the biscuit dough on it or the bottom of the topping might not cook properly. Fruit betties are topped with soft bread cubes, rather than dry cubes as in a bread pudding. The bread is easier to cut if it's frozen; use a serrated knife and a seeing motion to cut the cubes into 1/2-inch cubes. Fruit crisps are topped with a crunchy oatmeal mixture. The topping stores well, so try mixing a double batch and put the extra batch in a freezer bag; seal, label, and freeze it for up to a month. A pandowdy is a baked fruit dish with a pastry like biscuit topping and is usually served with light cream or a sauce. Traditionally, the topping is broken up with spoon and stirred into the fruit filling before it is served. It's best to place a cookie or baking sheet under the baking pan of a fruit dessert while in the oven. This will catch any spills and make clean up easier.    Cookies How Do You Know When Cookies Are Done? Cookies should be evenly golden in color. Cookies usually cool on a baking sheet for 1-2 minutes before removing. The residual heat from the cookie sheet will continue baking the cookies, so if the cookies don't look quite done in the center, they will finish baking in this short time. When cookies look done, they are done. You can use the fingertip test, but you'll usually be able to tell they are done just by looking at them. Make sure to follow the doneness instructions in the recipe. Brownies, for instance, are usually considered done when you 'observe a dry, shiny crust'. Pre-heat the oven. Don't skip this step because that's what can cause cookies to burn or bake unevenly. Measure every ingredient. There are studies that show that when we guesstimate, we usually use too much of a product and that can ruin the recipe. Don't use light margarine for cookies. Those products contain water and can ruin the recipe. Only use regular margarine or butter. Don't let dough get too soft or your cookies will not hold their shape in the oven. If it gets too soft, chill it in the fridge for a few minutes. Make cookies all the same size so they will take the same time to bake. Otherwise, thinner cookies will burn and the bigger cookies will be underbaked. Watch cookies carefully when baking. Even an extra minute can cause them to burn on the bottom. If they do overbake, you can use a grater to scrape off the burned part. If a cookie sheet is to be greased, do it lightly and to avoid the 'Hard to wash' brown patches, grease only the spots that the cookies are to be dropped or placed. A good way to do that is to use one of the spray oils, one squirt where each cookie will be. To quickly and easily cut rolled, chilled cookie dough use an electric knife. It slices perfect cookies! To keep chocolate chip cookies soft to the last one replace up to half the butter or shortening in the recipe with sour cream. When 'Dropping' cookies, use another 'greased' spoon or small spatula to push the dough off in uniform mounds. Always allow enough space for them to spread while baking. If you don't have a cookie sheet, you can use a pan with sides, just turn it upside-down and use the bottom. When choosing a cookie sheet or pan, remember to pick one that has at least 2 inches of space around the pan for even heat distribution. The best cookie sheets are the ones that are: Non-insulated, shiny aluminum pans (light in color, not dark) without sides, preferably non-stick. These pans bake cookies the best and evenly: the cookies are lightly and evenly browned around the edges with a hint of browning on top and experience less spread and bake the fastest. If you have dark pans, they absorb more heat than shiny, aluminum ones, and can easily cause burned cookie bottoms - you may want to reduce the temperature by 25°F. Use parchment paper to line them or spray pans with vegetable oil spray in stead of greasing your pans. If done with butter, it burns under high heat for a higher chance of the cookie bottoms burning underneath. Baking with one cookie sheet in the center of the middle of the oven shelf at a time is the best. Place the cookie sheet in the middle of the middle rack. If you are baking 2 sheets at a time it's best not to put them on the same shelf, the cookies will bake better on separate shelves instead. Place the oven rack 1/3 of the way from the bottom and the top shelf 1/3 of the way from the top. Leave about an inch or two between the cookie sheets and the sides of the oven to allow for air circulation. Always allow the cookies to cool completely before overlapping or layering to prevent them from sticking together. When baking one sheet of cookies at a time, place them as near to the center as possible. Two at a time, place the racks so that they divide the oven into thirds. With cookies, the oven needs to be heated more thoroughly that with cakes or pies, after the oven reaches the correct temperature, wait 20 minutes before placing the first batch in. This will help them bake more evenly. To keep cookie dough from spreading too much, allow cookie sheets to cool thoroughly between batches. If cookies get too brown on the bottom or even slightly burned, try to gently rub the over-browned layer off with a zester or fine grater. This will not work for the hopelessly burned, but is worth a try for cookies on the cusp. When storing cookies in a decorative jar that is not airtight, line the inside with a large zip-lock bag. Place cookies in the bag and seal. Drop cookies will spread less while baking if the cookie sheet is not too heavily greased. When making sliced cookies, the slices will be more perfect and uniform if you chill the dough in the freezer until firm, but not frozen, before slicing. Store cookies in an airtight box or tin to keep them crisp. Separate layers with sheets of wax paper or aluminum foil. If crisp cookies soften, place in oven at 300 degrees for a few minutes to make them crisp again. Add a T. or so of jam or jelly to cookie dough, it adds flavor and keeps cookies moist longer. Store soft cookies and crisp cookies separately. To keep soft cookies soft, place a slice of apple in the container to prevent them from drying out. For a quick pretty glaze for sugar cookies beat an egg white until just frothy and brush over the unbaked cookies. Sprinkle with sugar and bake. This will give your cookies a shiny sweet crust. When rolling out cookie dough to cut try using a thin dusting of powdered sugar instead of flour on the board. The flour tends to make the dough thicker and heavier while the dusting of sugar will help the cookie to brown evenly. To keep cookie dough from sticking to your cookie cutters first be patient and wait until the dough is chilled before you roll it out. Then dip each cookie cutter in oil before pressing in to the dough and the cookies will cut cleanly. This oil treatment is particularly useful when using cutters with intricate designs or cutters made of plastic. You can also spray the cutter with oil spray. You can keep your slices of refrigerator cookies perfectly round when you cut them if you put the dough in to empty frozen juice cans and chill. When you are ready to bake just cut the bottom off the can and use it as a pusher to move the dough forward as you slice the cookies. To make the best cookies let them cool on a wire rack in a single layer until completely cool, then store in an airtight container. For a thinner, crispier rolled cookie try rolling the dough directly onto a greased and floured cookie sheet. Cut the cookies out then pick up the scrap dough. Instead of cutting out cookies and transferring them to the baking sheet with a spatula, cut the cookies out directly on parchment paper, pick up the scraps from around the cookies and place the parchment paper on the sheet and bake. No more misshaped cookies. An easy way to form drop cookies is to drop them onto the cookie sheet and then press them with the bottom of a water glass that has been dipped in sugar. If you use 100% corn oil margarine in your cookies, keep in mind that your dough will be softer than doughs made with regular margarine or butter. Keep frozen cookie dough on hand for fresh homemade cookies any time. Double wrap logs of dough for slice-and-bake cookies tightly in plastic wrap and freeze. Just thaw, slice and bake. Roll drop cookie dough into balls, freeze on a baking sheet and store in a plastic freezer bag. Place frozen dough balls on cookie sheets, thaw and bake. To prevent tough cookies, roll out cutout cookie dough scraps only once. Collect all the scraps and chill until firm. Then roll them out together for a final sheet of cookies. When baking bar cookies such as brownies in a glass baking dish instead of a metal pan, always reduce the oven temperature by 25°F. This is necessary because glass conducts and retains heat better than metal. Cookies will stay moist in a cookie jar if a slice of bread is placed in the jar with them. Dipping cookie cutters into slightly warm vegetable oil will give the cookies a much cleaner edge. Empty plastic thread spools with slots on the ends can be pressed into sugar-cookie dough to make interesting designs. If your cookie sheets are thin, consider using two cookie sheets (one on top of the other) for insulation. Sprinkle mini-chocolate chips on brownies before the last 5 minute of baking. Spread topping evenly after removing from oven. Salted butter may be used in place of unsalted butter and vice versa. It is not necessary to add more salt to the recipe when using unsalted butter. Oversoftening the butter can cause cookies to spread. Refrigerate cookie dough one to two hours before baking. If the dough is still too soft, try adding 1 to 2 tablespoons of flour. Always cool cookie sheets between batches. If dough is too dry or crumbly, add 1 to 2 tablespoons of cream to soften it. All cookies on a cookie sheet should be the same size and thickness before baking. If some are small and/or thinner, they will bake faster. Also, rotate the cookie sheet halfway through baking. Use shiny aluminum cookie sheets without sides. Store soft cookies in a container with a tight-fitting lid and crisp cookies in one with a loose-fitting top. To make sure you always get the right number of cookies from a recipe, mold the dough into a flat square or rectangle and use a knife to cut the dough into the right number of pieces. Roll or flatten the pieces into whatever form the recipe calls for. Freezing unbaked cookie dough Most cookie doughs freeze extremely well and can be kept frozen for up to 4 or 6 weeks. The most important thing to keep in mind is that the dough will absorb any odd odors present in your freezer if it's not properly wrapped and sealed. To prevent this sponge effect, as well as freezer burn, wrap the dough securely twice. It's also a very good idea to write the type of cookie dough and the date it was frozen on the outside of the package. When you are ready to bake simply let the dough defrost in the refrigerator. This will take several hours, so plan ahead. The cookie doughs that freeze best are shortbreads, chocolate chip, peanut butter, refrigerator, sugar, and brownies, just to name a few. The types of cookie doughs that do not freeze well are cake-like cookies and cookies that have a very liquidy batter, such as madeleines and tuiles. Freezing already baked cookies Freezing baked cookies is a great way to preserve their freshness. Baked cookies will keep in the freezer for up to 3 or 4 weeks. As with freezing cookie dough, the most important thing to keep in mind is that you don't want your cookies to absorb any odors. Double-wrap the cookies securely and write the date and the type of cookie on the outside of the package. When you are ready to eat your frozen cookies, just let them come to room temperature, or, for you impatient types, pop them in the microwave on high for about 30 seconds. (Times will differ depending on the size of cookie you're defrosting.) We still haven't come across a baked cookie that doesn't freeze well. So feel free to freeze loads of assorted cookies to keep yourself supplied with yummy goodies, any time. A Dozen Common Cookie Mistakes and How to Avoid Them 1. Using the wrong shortening. Fat is the single ingredient that most affects your cookies, especially rolled and sliced cookies. Cookie doughs made with butter, shortening, or regular stick margarine need no special handling. Just follow the recipe directions for handling and chilling. A stick margarine made from 100% corn oil produces a soft cookie dough. For rolled cookies, chill the dough for at least five hours or freeze for two hours. If you're making shaped or sliced cookies, chill the dough in the freezer. Do not use diet, liquid, soft, or whipped margarine or a spread. These products are fine for spreading on bread but are not intended for baking. They do not give satisfactory results in any type of cookie, including bar and drop cookies. 2. Measuring incorrectly. Always use the correct measuring cups. Nested metal or plastic cups are intended to be filled to the top and leveled with the straight edge of a metal spatula; use them for dry ingredients such as flour and sugar. Glass or plastic cups with a spout are meant only for liquids. If you use a liquid measuring cup for flour, you're likely to get an extra tablespoon or more of flour per cup, enough to make cookies dry and hard. When you measure flour, stir it in the canister to lighten it. (Sifting isn't necessary.) Gently spoon flour into a dry measuring cup and level the top with the straight edge of a metal spatula or knife. Don't pack the flour into the cup or tap it with the spatula or on the counter to level. 3. Not chilling dough properly. The chilling time given in a recipe is the optimum time for easy rolling and cutting or slicing, except for cookie doughs made with 100% corn oil margarine. Chill these doughs as directed in #1 above. If you need to speed up the chilling, wrap the dough and place it in the freezer instead of the refrigerator. About 20 minutes of chilling in the freezer is equal to one hour in the refrigerator. Chilling the dough too long, or chilling doughs made with butter in the freezer, makes the dough too firm to work with. Let it stand at room temperature until it softens just enough to be workable. For rolled cookies, work with a portion of the dough at a time, keeping the rest in the refrigerator. Well-chilled dough absorbs less flour during rolling, so it's less likely to become tough. You may want to chill the scraps again before rerolling. If drop cookies spread too much during baking, chilling the dough may help. Always try chilling the dough first before adding extra flour, which is likely to make cookies hard or dry and less flavorful. 4. Using too much flour on the work surface when rolling cookies. It's a fine line: Too little flour on the work surface and the dough sticks; too much and the dough absorbs flour, making cookies hard or tough. Use just enough flour to prevent sticking. You'll need less flour if you use a pastry cloth and slip the rolling pin into a stockinette cover. When you're rolling sugar cookies, one way to prevent tough rerolled cookies is to combine equal amounts of powdered sugar and flour to sprinkle on the pastry cloth. 5. Not letting cookie sheets cool between batches. Putting drop, sliced, or cutout cookie dough on hot cookie sheets may cause the cookies to spread excessively and brown too much around the edges. Just one extra cookie sheet added to the cookie rotation gives a hot cookie sheet time to cool down. 6. Incorrect oven temperature. You'll quickly notice if your oven is running hotter than the temperature you set because the cookies will brown too fast. A temperature that is too low causes less change in the appearance but makes drop and rolled cookies coarse-textured and dry. Use an oven thermometer to check the actual temperature of your oven. You can buy an oven thermometer at a hardware store. Set the oven at 350 degrees F and let it heat for at least 10 minutes. Place the thermometer in the oven. Close the door and let it heat for at least 5 minutes. If the thermometer reads higher than you set the oven, reduce the setting by the number of degrees difference when you bake. If the thermometer reads lower than you set your oven, increase the setting by the number of degrees difference. If your oven is more than 50 degrees off in either direction, have the thermostat adjusted by an appliance service person. 7. Incorrect placement in oven. Location in the oven also affects baking. Bake just one sheet of cookies at a time, placing the cookie sheet so it is centered in the oven from top to bottom and side to side. For even distribution of heat, there should be 1 to 2 inches of space all around the cookie sheet. 8. Overgreasing cookie sheets. Using too much fat on cookie sheets or greasing when the recipe doesn't call for it causes cookies to spread excessively and brown too quickly around the edges. Greasing the cookie sheet makes it easier to remove the cookies and to wash the cookie sheet after baking. A light greasing with shortening or a quick spray with nonstick spray coating is adequate for most recipes. 9. Using the wrong cookie sheets. Use shiny, heavy-gauge cookie sheets with very low sides or no sides at all. Avoid dark cookie sheets, which absorb heat and may cause cookie bottoms to overbrown. Jelly-roll pans (15x10x1-inch baking pans) are not the same as cookie sheets and should be used only for bar cookies. Drop, rolled, or sliced cookies will not bake evenly in a baking pan with an edge. If you must use such a pan, turn it over and bake your cookies on the bottom. 10. Overbeating brownies. Overbeating brownies and similar bar cookies makes them rise too much. As they cool, they fall, making a cracked surface and a ridge around the outside edge. Beat just enough to mix the ingredients well. 11. Using the wrong size pan for bar cookies. If you don't have the size pan called for in the recipe and use a bigger pan, your cookies will take less time to bake. Besides changing the baking time, changing pan sizes may also change the texture of the cookies. If you don't have a 15x10x1-inch pan, use two 9x9x2-inch pans. If you don't have a 13x9-inch pan, substitute two 8x8x2-inch pans. Use the same oven temperature and check for doneness at 5 minutes less than the minimum time given in the recipe. 12. Altering cookie recipes for health. It may sound like a good idea to reduce or make substitutions for the sugar and fat in a recipe to make cookies more healthful, but any change in ingredient proportions also changes the cookies. Besides adding flavor, sugar and fat make cookies crisp and tender. Reducing the sugar and fat makes cookies less crisp and more cake like. Substituting an artificial sweetener or a lower-fat product will not yield an acceptable cookie. Here are things you CAN do to make cookies more healthful: - Substitute rolled oats or whole wheat flour for 1/4 of the all-purpose flour to make cookies higher in fiber. - Or, add fruits or vegetables such as raisins or dried fruit bits, shredded or chopped apple, or shredded carrot to add fiber. - Use refrigerated or frozen egg product instead of a whole egg, or use two egg whites in place of one whole egg. - Reduce the amount of nuts and sprinkle them atop bar cookies where they show rather than stirring them into the batter. - Substitute mini semisweet chocolate pieces for the regular-size pieces and use just half as many. You'll still get chocolate in every bite. Some Reasons for Spreading Cookies: You may have inadvertently used a cheap sugar, i.e., store brand. Stick with Domino sugar of any flavor, if you can find it. If not, you want one that CLEARLY states "cane sugar"...other brands add beet sugar or other stuff we probably don't want to know about... Only pure cane sugar will make the best cookies. Butter - first of all, "softened" or "room temperature". You need to be careful to not let it get TOO soft. Again, some brands are better than others. BTW, taste your butter first - from another stick, of course. If it is very salty, cut any salt in your recipe. You can't go wrong with Land O'Lakes. Most recipes call for unsalted butter. Temperature -- certain cookies will not do well in high humidity, i.e., meringues or others with high sugar content. So if the day is hot and muggy, or your kitchen is (from a lot of baking etc.), you might consider making those cookies another day. If your batter is extremely soft, it would do well to chill it for a short time. Can't really hurt it -- unless it is meringues. Baking sheets - LET THEM COOL BETWEEN BATCHES!!! If you put the dough, whether chilled or not, straight onto a hot baking sheet, it's gonna melt and run... Greased baking sheets -- just use enough to keep the cookies from sticking. You don't want them slip sliding away...or cooking in grease. Try using parchment paper on the baking sheet instead of grease. It will make the cookies spread less. Over mixing/beating the batter - this also will result in breaking down the fat molecules, etc. The only time you're going to need to beat the heck out of a cookie is ---you guessed it, when you are making meringues and need to form stiff peaks. Remember what happens when you overbeat whipping cream? You get butter. You cause a chemical reaction and change. Same thing - you cause reactions and changes when you overbeat the batter. How to control the texture of cookies:    Every year, stores throughout the United States sell $6 billion worth of cookies. Every year, more new types of cookies are introduced to the publicthan ANY other baked good. Clearly, we love cookies. What's more, we love baking cookies. But how can you create your very own special recipe? Well, it wouldn't hurt to know the science involved.    When it comes to customizing cookies, you really need to understand the way the ingredients affect the final product. The type of flour, fat and sugar used in the recipe can greatly change the way the cookie bakes, and therefore the end result. Toss in the affects of liquids and leaveners and you have a pretty complex system going on in that dough.    Let's begin with flour, the major component to any cookie recipe. Generally, you're going to be dealing with cultivated wheat flour created by milling the wheat berry and removing the bran (the hard outer shell) and the germ (the part which would become the new plant, given the chance). You are left with the endosperm, the reserve of starch and protein that the seed would use as food. After it is ground, and sifted to remove unwanted components, the flour is usually aged and then fortified with nutrients lost in the milling process.    Cultivated wheat is categorized as either hard or soft. Hard wheat, grown in the northwestern United States and western Canada, receives less rainfall than wheat grown in other areas. So it is very high in protein. On the other hand, southern states get more rainfall and produce softer wheat with less protein. Why should you care about the protein content of the flour you use? Well, my friend, the protein content affects the gluten content of your baked goods, and gluten dramatically affects the texture of your cookie.    There are as many as 30 types of protein in flour, but only two of those are important for our purposes: gliaden and glutenin. When these two proteins come into contact with water, a little bit of chemical magic takes place. We don't know exactly how it happens, but we know that the end result is gluten, compound with a very complex elastic network. In bread this is great because gluten traps the gas created by yeast, allowing the bread to rise. When it comes to cookies, gluten adds chewiness.    So how can you wield control over the forces of gluten? You must choose your flour wisely. All-purpose flour is a mixture of hard and soft flour, which means you can use it for just about anything, hence the name. Just make sure to pay attention to whether the your all-purpose is bleached or not; bleached versions have slightly lower amounts of protein (though both hover around 10% protein). Cake flour is made with soft wheat, so you get less protein (7.5%) in your flour, less gluten in the mixture, and a very tender, potentially puffy, cookie. With bread flour, made from hard wheat, you have an increase in protein (to 12%), an increase in gluten and, therefore, a chewy cookie.    But that's not all! Your cookie dough is a pretty complex chemical system, especially where the mysterious gluten is concerned. Gluten production is affected by sugar, fat and the type of liquid used… and each of those ingredients independently affects your cookie results as well. For example, sugar affects gluten strength, because it competes for water and inhibits the gliaden-glutenin-water complex.    As for the type of sugar used, there are big differences between granulated table sugar and brown sugar. At their core, both are composed of the disaccharide sucrose, refined from sugar cane or beets. So why do they react differently in the dough?    Well, brown sugar is processed with molasses, which gives it that golden color. The molasses traps water against the sugar crystal, meaning that brown sugar is up to 2.7% moisture. The golden goop also adds minerals and other plant materials to the mix. The end result is that the sugar is hygroscopic and absorbs water. So your dough is going to have added water from the get go, and it's going to pull in moisture along the way. That will cause the cookie to spread, decreasing its puffiness, while the added liquid adds to the chewiness. Upon standing, the brown sugar continues to absorb water from the air, keeping your treats soft and chewy over time.    Of course, if you make your cookies with only white sugar, you'll get a crispier product, since there is less water and the cookies aren't acting as tasty little sponges. Most chocolate chip recipes call for both types of sugar so that you get the best of both worlds and so that your cookies last longer.    Now, some recipes out there call for corn syrup or honey rather than traditional sugar. That's just fine, if you like really soft, sweet cookies. These sweeteners contain the monosaccaride sugars fructose and glucose dissolved in water. Aside from being twice as sweet as sucrose, they are also more polar (like magnets). They have to be, because otherwise they wouldn't be able to dissolve so easily in water (which is also polar). The same chemical structure that gives them that polarity allows them to form hydrogen bonds with water in the air.    So over time your cookies will get very soft, as they pull in more and more water from the atmosphere. If you want a long shelf life for your cookies, try substituting some honey for sugar. (Use 3/4 cup plus one tablespoon of honey for a cup of sugar and reduce the other liquids by 2 tablespoons.) Just beware: Using too much honey in the recipe can cause the cookies to become really brown. Fructose and glucose are "reducing sugars." They have sensitivity to oxidation, i.e. browning (on a good day) and burning (if you aren't careful).    Another key ingredient in cookie chemistry is the fat. Generally, more fat means a flatter, chewier cookies because it allows the dough to spread as it cooks on the hot cookie sheet. But the most dramatic effects depend on the type of fat used. Why? Because the lower the melting point, the sooner the cookie spreads and the flatter and crispier the result. A fat with a higher melting point lets the cookie keep its shape as it bakes, yielding a puffier more cake-like treat. Typically, butter has a lower melting point than something like shortening, so butter cookies spread more, becoming flatter and crispier than cookies made with shortening.    The last aspect of to consider, chemically anyway, is the acidity of the cookie. No, I'm not kidding. Ingredients like brown sugar, cake flour and chocolate are all a little acidic. Depending on the liquid used in the mix they can affect spread and puffiness.    If the only liquid in the mix is the water from the butter (up to 18% of its mass, by the way), it's no big deal, no unexpected surprises. If you add a liquid, like milk or water, your cookie dough is going to be looser and it'll spread, giving you crispy cookies. If you use egg as a liquid, you have a special situation on your hands. The egg itself reacts with the acidic components in the mixture and sets quickly, limiting spread. Then the liquid from the egg forms steam and gets trapped in the cookie, puffing it up. (And keep in mind, health nuts, if you remove the egg yolks to reduce fat, you are removing protein too. The cookies will have tendency to be dry and crumbly.)    Another potential acidic component in your cookie recipe is baking powder. Usually, baking powder and soda are used as leaveners in dough. When it comes to cookies the effect is minimal, because you don't generally let cookies rise and or bake for very long. Baking powder contains baking soda and a dry acid, cream of tartar, so it is acidic. Meanwhile baking soda, an alkali, neutralizes the acidity. Used together these components affect the puffiness to some degree, but they also affect the color of the cookie. Adding extra baking soda will darken the cookie. Most recipes overload on the baking soda a bit to give you familiar brown cookies.    In summary, here are some ways you can experiment with your cookie making: For a flatter cookie, use all-purpose or bread flour, use butter, increase the sugar content slightly, and/or add some additional liquid to the dough. If you want them to be crispy as well, try making cookies without any brown sugar and add a bit of water to spread the dough on the sheet. For chewy cookies, increase the brown sugar or substitute honey for sugar. For puffy, cake-like cookies, use shortening and cake flour. Cutting back on the sugar and using extra baking powder should help as well. DECORATING HOLIDAY COOKIES Decorating cookies can be as simple as using icing dots to make a gingerbread man’s face and buttons, or as challenging as flooding and flocking with bright royal icing and tinted sugar. Follow the techniques below for beautifully iced cookies. EQUIPMENT Pastry bag with coupler    #2 tip for piping    #3 tip for flooding small cookies    #5 tip for flooding large cookies ICING TIPS 1. Royal Icing can be made several days ahead of time and stored in pastry bags—at room temperature if made with meringue powder or in the refrigerator if made with egg whites. 2. The icing can be thickened or thinned by varying the amount of egg whites and sugar. A thinner icing (with more egg whites) is best for flooding, since it spreads more smoothly; a thicker icing (with more sugar) is best for piping. 3. If the colors start to separate, gently massage the bag to remix the icing. 4. To fill a pastry bag: Place the bag tip side down in a glass about 3 inches shorter than it; fold the top of the bag down over the edge of the glass to form a cuff. Using a large rubber spatula, scrape the icing into the bag, filing it to one-half to two-thirds full. Unfold cuff, and close bag with a twist tie. 5. To prevent the tip from clogging, either place a damp paper towel in the bottom of the drinking glass, or insert a toothpick in the tip, and remove it just before piping. FLOODING COOKIES This process coats the entire surface of a cookie with royal icing. 1. Outline half a cookie with piping (thicker) icing, using a #2 tip. Rotate cookie 180 degrees, and outline the other half. Let the icing set, 5 to 10 minutes. 2. With the flooding (thinner) icing, using a #5 tip, draw zigzags over the cookie’s surface. 3. Using a small offset spatula, spread the flooding icing evenly within the piping outline. Let the cookie dry overnight at room temperature. 4. When the flooding is dry, use the #2 tip to pipe your chosen design. FLOCKING COOKIES This process creates an effect like flocked velvet: Sparkly sanding sugar adds color and texture to the cookies. While the icing is still soft, hold the cookie over a baking sheet, and sprinkle it liberally with sanding sugar—a large-grain decorating sugar. Let the cookie sit for 30 minutes before shaking off excess sugar. Allow it to dry for several more hours before gently removing stray crystals with a soft pastry brush. Decorated cookies fit into any occasion, but why wait to have so much fun? Try your hand at a few of these decorating styles and become the most popular person in your neighborhood! One batch of dough can even be decorated three different ways to seem like three completely different cookies. You can impress your friends and be the star of the party with a few of these basic techniques. Frostings The most popular technique for decorating cookies is using frosting. This is a very versatile way for decorating. The simplest types of cookie icing are made using confectioners' sugar, butter or shortening and milk or water, such as Sugar Cookie Icing and Decorator Frosting . These icings have a somewhat softer texture than royal icings, which dry to a very hard crunchy finish. This is great for gluing gingerbread houses, but not very tasty. Coloring and Flavoring Flavored extracts can be added for variety, such as vanilla, lemon, orange or almond. Juice can also be substituted for the liquid in a recipe. It's fun to make a different flavor for each color. The icing can be colored using liquid food coloring. For brighter colors, the paste food coloring works better. When adding color, first mix the color into about 1 tablespoon of icing then blend that into the rest of the icing. Frosting can easily be thinned to the desired consistency by adding liquid such as milk, juice or water. For a smooth glossy finish, warm the icing slightly in a microwave oven, or in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Be sure to stir frequently so that a crust does not form on the top. Application The frosting can be applied using a pastry brush, or by simply dipping the cookies. Set the freshly frosted cookies onto a tray or waxed paper to dry. Once the first coat of frosting is dry, you can pipe another color of frosting over the top to add details such as stripes, spirals, faces or names. A plastic baggie with the corner cut works well, or disposable plastic pastry bags can be purchased at most cake decorating supply or craft stores. For smaller children, you can press pieces of candy into the frosting before it hardens, or sprinkle the cookies with different colors of sugar. Some stores even carry edible glitter. Chocolate There is nothing quite as enticing as a chocolate-dipped cookie. Working with chocolate is fun, creative, and of course, you get to eat chocolate! Several flavors of chocolate are available. Dark, semi sweet, milk chocolate and white chocolate are the most common flavors. The darker chocolates need to be tempered to keep them shiny and firm. The best way to get around this problem is to buy a type of chocolate called 'coating chocolate'. This kind of chocolate is specially designed to hold a good shine without tempering. Most coating chocolates are of a lower grade and may not taste as chocolaty as the regular semi-sweet variety. These usually come in the shape of small discs for more convenient melting. White coating chocolate is also known as "almond bark". If you cannot find this type of chocolate at your local supermarket, it can be found at stores that carry candy making and cake decorating supplies. Decorating with chocolate is easy, but it helps to be organized. First you will want to put your chocolate into a heatproof bowl. Set this on top of a pan of simmering water. Chocolate burns very easily and cannot be melted directly on the stovetop. A microwave oven also works well, just be sure to stir every 15 seconds or so. While the chocolate is melting, arrange your workspace so that the cookies you wish to dip are on one side of you, and a couple of cookie sheets lined with parchment or waxed paper are on the other side. When the chocolate is mostly melted, remove from the heat and stir until smooth. This will melt it the rest of the way, and it will also cool it a bit so that you do not burn your hand. Dip cookies halfway into the chocolate, and scrape the excess off of the bottom using your finger or the side of the bowl. Then give the cookie a gentle shake and once again, scrape the excess chocolate off. This will keep the chocolate from forming a puddle around the cookie while it sets up. Place the cookies onto the waxed paper staring at the farthest end and working inward. This prevents you from dripping onto the finished cookies. Be Creative If you like nuts, dip one end of each cookie into ground up pistachios or peanuts while the chocolate is still wet. When the first coating has set up, another color of chocolate can be applied. Try dipping one half of each cookie in dark chocolate, and the other half in white. You can even color the white coating chocolate a nice pastel color. Striping also lends an elegant touch to the cookies. To avoid getting your hands dirty, you can spoon chocolate into a plastic baggie and cut one corner to the desired size. Twist the top to close, and squeeze the chocolate through the hole. A few cookies that are great dipped in chocolate are: Chocolate Dipped Orange Biscotti, Sugar Cookie Cutouts, and Chocolate Dipped Mocha Rounds. Of course the serious chocolate lover will think any cookie tastes better dipped in chocolate. Decorating Before Baking If you just want great looking cookies but don't want to make an all-day production out of it, there are a few ways to add a special touch before the cookies are even baked. One easy way to spruce up cookies is to roll them in colored sugar, finely chopped nuts, coconut, sesame seeds or sprinkles before baking. This looks wonderful on Sesame Thumbprint Cookies and Sugar Cookies IV . Even a light dusting of confectioners' sugar or cocoa powder, will give any cookies an elegant finish. Dust the cookies again, right before serving, to freshen their appearance. Molds and Presses There are also beautiful ceramic, metal, and even plastic molds and stamps that will emboss each cookie with a beautiful design. Sandbakelser is a traditional Swedish molded cookie. Springerle is a traditional German molded cookie, which uses a hand carved rolling pin or board to print the design onto the cookies. Some cookies are molded into beautiful shapes by hand such as the Greek cookie Koulourakia , which are braided or twisted, and the Italian Bowknot Cookies , which are tied in loose knots. For those Bakers who are skilled with a cookie press or pastry bag, Spritz Cookies can be made into a variety of shapes. Crescents, stars and wreaths are some of the most popular. A few sprinkles or a dot of jam will add a touch of color to any spritz recipe. Novelty shapes For the crafty baker, novelty shapes make fabulous conversation pieces. Some cookies are formed into the shape of fruit, which is great for garden parties. Austrian Peaches and Candy Strawberries are always a tasteful addition to the cookie tray. For a summer picnic, children and adults alike will be amazed when the Watermelon Cookies are served. They look like tiny slices of watermelon. For a dazzling centerpiece, or just eating, Cookie Pops on a Stick can be made and displayed in a vase. Decorating cookies is terrific fun for anyone who enjoys being creative. Mix and match different techniques to fulfill all your cookie cravings. Frosted cookies striped with chocolate. Cookies on a stick dipped in frosting and decorated to look like bees and flowers. Dainty biscotti dipped in two flavors of chocolate. Most decorating techniques require little or no skill, so people of all ages can enjoy decorating together. Shipping Cookies Everyone loves to receive packages in the mail, especially the edible variety. Make sure you get cheers, not jeers, when you mail your elegant eatables. Cookies Not To Mail Certain cookies tend to ship better than others do. We recommend that you do not mail cookies with custard or custard-like fillings or toppings, including Cheesecake Bars or Nanaimo bars. The custard could spoil, making a very unwelcome gift. For that matter, any cookie that requires refrigeration is not a good candidate for the mail. Another type of cookie that doesn't hold up well for mailing is one with a delicate, cake-like texture such as Madeleines. And now, on to the kinds of cookies that loved to be mailed all over the world. Cookies That Can Be Mailed Cookies that have a crunchy or hard texture such as Biscotti, Mexican Wedding Cakes, Crisps, Springerele, and Shortbreads make excellent choices for mail delivery. They tend to be fairly sturdy, so you don't have to worry too much about breakage. And since they already have a fairly dry texture, drying out isn't much of an issue. Cookies that have a slightly chewy texture, like Chocolate Chip, Oatmeal-Raisin, Snickerdoodles, and White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies also ship well. These cookies will tend to dry out if they are in the mail for more than a week, so if their destination is a long way off, you might want to ship them by express to ensure that they arrive just as tasty as when they left. Macaroons and Pignoli mail beautifully. Their chewy, moist textures only seem to improve after they've aged a few days. Who wouldn't want to receive a single, perfect chocolate-dipped coconut macaroon as a special treat? Dense bar cookies such as Fudge Brownies, Blondies, or Peanut Butter Bars are delightful to receive in the mail. Just be sure to individually wrap each one with plastic wrap to keep that moist, gooey, dense texture from drying out. Good things come in secure packages Once you've baked and cooled your cookies, you're ready for the next step: packing them. There are a few guidelines you should follow when it comes to preparing cookies to be mailed. Follow these and your special packages should arrive fresh, in one piece, and great tasting. Don't pack crisp and soft cookies together. The moisture from the soft cookies will seep into the crisp cookies, making them lose their delightful crunch. Don't overstuff your container. Your cookies may be damaged. Likewise, don't under-pack your container. The cookies should fit snugly. If you have too much space, crumple up a bit of tissue paper to fill the holes. Pack cookies in a sturdy tin or airtight container. On the bottom of the container place a piece of bubble wrap, then line the container with parchment paper or cellophane, leaving enough to tuck over the top once the container is fully packed. Place one layer of cookies in the container. Cover with parchment paper. Arrange another layer of cookies, followed with more parchment paper, and continue this layering until the container is full. Tuck the cellophane or parchment paper over the top, then place another piece of bubble wrap on top, and seal your container. You now need to pack your tin or container in a heavy-duty cardboard box that's large enough to allow a two- to three-inch cushion between the tin and the wall of the outside box. Place a layer of shipping peanuts, air-popped popcorn, or crumpled paper on the bottom of your shipping box. Set your cookie tin on this bottom layer. Then fill in the sides and top with more shipping materials. Seal the shipping box with two-inch-wide shipping tape. Place a mailing label on the box, and you're ready to send those treats on their way. Rest assured you won't be seeing any "Return to Sender" messages coming your way!    Cup Cakes If you have only one 12-muffin pan and are making cupcakes, cover and refrigerate the remaining batter while the first cupcakes are baking. Then bake the remaining batter, adding 1 or 2 minutes to baking time. To transport cupcakes easily, split each in half; spread icing on the inside. This way the icing won't stick to the plastic wrap. To sell cupcakes at bake sales, place the decorated cupcake on a small square sheet of aluminum foil (4x4). Place a clear 16 oz. cup over it and scrunch the foil around the lip of the cup. Instant individual packaging that will keep the icing and decorations nice. And to be sure there are no crumbs when the paper liners are removed (from cupcakes or even muffins), spray the liners very lightly with non stick cooking spray. For a quick, low-fat crunchy topping for muffins, sprinkle the tops with Grape-Nuts cereal before baking.    Decorating For a quick cake or dessert decoration, fill a plastic sandwich bag with frosting, whipped topping, or whipped cream; snip off a tiny corner and squeeze out icing in decorative swirls.    Miscellaneous    Check your oven for temperature accuracy. Place an oven thermometer on a pan and set the pan in the middle of the middle shelf. Turn the oven to 350° and wait about 30 minutes. Check the thermometer and see if it reads 350°. Make a note of the thermometer's reading. Set your oven to 400° and follow the same procedure. Check the thermometer and make a note of its reading. Set your oven to 300° and follow the same procedure. Check the thermometer and make a note of its reading.    Adjust your baking times in accordance with the real temperatures shown on your notes. If the thermometer's reading were less than your oven's dial setting...Bake for a longer time. If the thermometer's readings were more than your oven's dial settings...bake for a shorter time. You can also change the outside settings to be a little higher or a little lower instead of changing the baking times. Do whatever works best for you. "Make notes of your settings".    Sometime your oven's temperature setting device will match its real inside temperature on some setting and not on others. It's good to know what the real inside temperatures are for high and low settings. At high altitudes above 3,000 feet, dough rises faster. Therefore, when baking at high altitudes some experimentation is required. Follow the suggested guidelines. Use one suggestion at a time and remember to write down which suggestions work best for you. Reduce the amount of yeast by 25%. this will inhibit the bread from over rising. Increase salt by 25%. The bread will rise slower and have less of a tendency to sink. Watch your dough as it mixes. Flour stored at High Altitudes tends to be drier. You might add a few tablespoons of water, until the dough forms a nice ball. To save energy: When baking, oven heat can be lowered 25° if you use glass or ceramic baking dishes. To make dusting a pan with flour easy and convenient, place some flour in a salt shaker and keep it stored in the freezer. Instead of sifting the dry ingredients put them in a bowl and whisk to combine them. No more messing with a sifter. When creaming butter and sugar, try rinsing out the bowl with boiling water first. The ingredients will cream faster. When you make cookies that need a dusting of sugar after they have been baked, use a tea strainer and sprinkle the sugar over the cookies that way. The sugar comes out very fine and even. Bread stale? Don't toss it out, cut it into cubes or process into crumbs; place in a freezer bag and freeze for later use in recipes. Make a plain coffee cake special by topping with your favorite preserves and grill until the topping bubbles. For cutting homemade cinnamon rolls. After the dough is rolled up, slice it with dental floss rather than with a knife. It doesn't squish. To "Fold" egg whites into a mixture such as cake batter, heap them on top first. Then pass the spoon or spatula down through the center and across the bottom of the bowl; then bring up some of the mixture and place on top of the whites. Give the bowl a 1/2 turn and repeat until the whites are evenly combined. When you have meringue that is disintegrating or cracked: The best thing to do is make a Pavlova, the New Zealand national dessert. Assemble the bits in a ring, using a liberal amount of whipped cream to stick it together. Fill the ring with whipped cream and top with fresh fruit (sliced kiwi, berries or well-drained mandarin orange slices. When your meringue is hard to cut, dip the knife in very cold water before slicing. When your meringue is weeping: this is because it was cooled too fast. Cool it very slowly, by leaving it in the oven as the oven cools. Nuts and fruits will not sink to the bottom of a cake if they are lightly coated with flour before they are added to the batter. Storing cakes: Cover cut surfaces with plastic wrap to keep moist. Store in covered cake keeper or invert a large bowl over the cake plate. Cakes with cream, butter, cream cheese, or custard fillings or frostings should be stored in the refrigerator. Cakes with sugar frostings can be stored at room temperature for up to 3 days. Unfrosted cakes, quick breads, and apple pies freeze well. This way you can bake like crazy and relax when the holidays get closer. If you are wanting a way of freezing cookies, bake your cookies as usual and make sure they cool completely. Use Ziplock freezer bags, and laying it flat, put the cookies in. You can stack them if you want and just close it up and put it in the freezer. For freezing cake-like or soft cookies, it is sometimes best to freeze them on a cookie sheet first to harden then put them in the bags. This goes for iced cookies too. Any cookie should freeze well except anything with a meringue topping and things like filled thumbprints (with fruit) often tends to get gummy.) It also works best to frost the cookies AFTER thawing rather than BEFORE freezing. Cookies can last up to 8 or 9 months frozen. To divide cake batter evenly between layer baking pans, use a ladle or large spoon. Put an even number of ladles of batter in each pan. You shouldn't grease a baking pan with margarine or butter as they contain salt that generally causes hot foods to stick. Butter baking sheets and pans only when specified in the recipe. To butter a sheet or pan, coat with a thin, even layer of butter, using the butter wrapper, plastic wrap, waxed paper or a paper towel for spreading. To test the doneness of cakes, brownies, and pies, check them at the minimum baking time. If a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean cake, brownies, or pie is done. Use an instant read thermometer to check the temperature of water or other liquids that are added to yeast when baking breads, rolls and coffee cakes. The proper temperature ensures that the yeast is activated but not killed. If the yeast is dissolved separately, the liquid's temperature should be 105° to 115° F. When the yeast is combined with dry ingredients first, the liquid's temperature should be 120° to 130°F. For perfect cream puffs, use a damp fingertip to gently press down any peaks that form on top of the batter after it is dropped onto the cookie sheets. The peaks tend to overbrown in the oven and may break off when handled. For best results in baked foods, choose a margarine that contains at least 60 percent vegetable oil and preferably 80%. Most light spreads only contain 40 percent and will make the dish watery. A margarine that contains 80% oil will be 100 calories per tablespoon. When making a thick cake, a toothpick may not be long enough to use for testing for doneness. A strand of uncooked spaghetti may be used instead to test the cake for doneness. If you bake in dark, nonstick baking pans you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 25F degrees to keep food from overbrowning. In creaming butter and sugar for a cake, a little hot milk added will aid in the creaming process. When using defrosted phyllo or strudel leaves, cover the leaves that are not being used with damp toweling or plastic wrap to keep them from drying out. You can bake muffin batter as a quick bread in a loaf pan. A recipe that makes a dozen muffins can be baked in a standard loaf pan. Just bake it at 350-375°F for about 50 or 60 minutes or until it tests done. If you want to bake a quick bread recipe in muffin tins just fill each tin about 2/3 full and bake at 400°F for 20 or 25 minutes or until they test done. Wet your counter lightly, place waxed paper on top, and it won't slide. Now you can make your biscuits or pie crust without sliding waxed paper! Proportion of liquid to dry ingredients for batters and doughs: Pour Batter Drop Batter Soft Dough Stiff Dough        1 Cup Liquid 1 Cup Liquid 1 Cup Liquid 1 Cup Liquid     1 Cup Flour 2 to 2 1/2 Cups Flour 3 to 3 1/2 Cups Flour 4 Cups Flour    Pancakes To make extra-light, airy pancakes, separate the eggs and mix the yolks into the batter first. After everything else has been added, beat the whites until stiff and fold them in at the end. For a taste treat and extra light pancakes, try substituting apple cider for the milk called for in the recipe for pancakes. To jazz up pancakes, french toast, or waffles, add a dash or two of cinnamon and/or vanilla to the batter.    Pie For the flakiest pie crust: keep everything cold, particularly the butter or other fat! Cold fat makes steam in the oven, which puffs layers part and makes pastry flaky. If the fat warms up during handling, refrigerate 20 minutes. Melted fat gets absorbed by the flour, resulting in a tough, chewy crust. For a rich brown finish on top crust of pie, brush with cream or milk before baking. The lower crust should be place in the pan so that it covers the surface smoothly. Be sure no air lurks beneath the surface, for it will push the crust out of shape in baking. In making custard-type pies, bake at a high temperature for about 10 minutes to prevent a soggy crust. Then finish baking at a low temperature. To prevent crust from becoming soggy with a cream pie, sprinkle the crust with powdered sugar before adding the filling. After baking a pie, cool it on a wire rack. This allows air to circulate under it and keeps the crust from becoming soggy. For a pie or crust that will be baked, choose a glass pie plate or dull metal pie pan. Use shiny metal pans, which keep crusts from browning properly, only for crumb crusts that are not baked. Cut drinking straws into short lengths and insert through slits in pie crusts to prevent juice from running over in oven. Try substituting ground nuts in a one-crust pie. Press pie shell just like you would with a graham cracker crust. If the oven is turned off just when the meringue is brown, and the door is left slightly open, the pie cools slowly and prevents the meringue from splitting. When using egg white meringue, always make sure that you spread it to the edges, this helps keep it from shrinking and pulling away. You can keep meringue from weeping by topping HOT pie filling with meringue and spreading to "seal" pie crust edges. Crumb crusts need not be baked before filling, but if used unbaked they must be chilled thoroughly before adding the filling or the crust will disintegrate. When pie recipes call for dotting the filling with butter, rub the cold butter over the coarse side of a cheese grater and sprinkle the grated butter over the top. This allows the butter to be more evenly distributed over the pie. Substitute light brown sugar for granulated in your apple pie to really perk up flavor. For flakier pastry, substitute 1 teaspoon vinegar for 1 teaspoon of the cold water called for in the recipe. The answer to a more flaky Pie Crust is COLD. Everything cold, the bowl, water, utensils, (if you can afford it) a marble slab to roll it out on, some people even chill the flour. Be careful with that last one, condensation will create lumps, test your refrigerator with a small amount (some can handle it, some can't), sometimes putting it in a good airtight container will help prevent the condensation. Pie dough tips    If you want to make the kind of pies you see in the bakery case,you may be surprised to learn some tricks of the trade that will make your pie crust flaky every time.    Understand that pie dough is not bread dough. It is not to be kneaded or over mixed. The best tool for mixing the shortening into the flour is your hand.    Crust will flake if you put a cold pie crust into a hot oven. After you mix the pie crust until it resembles small peas, you wrap it in wax paper or saran wrap and refrigerate it for awhile.    When mixing any liquid into a pie dough, be sure it is cold.    Roll out the refrigerated pie dough and fill with your favorite filling. You can keep your inside crust from getting soggy by brushing the pie dough with powdered sugar before adding the fruit, or you can swipe the dough with egg white before filling.    Place the assembled pie in a preheated oven, and bake according to directions. To guard over spills, line the bottom of your oven with aluminum foil. A good pie bubbles and leaks. Be sure to have pierced the crust so steam can escape while it cooks.    Remember, mix, don't knead. Refrigerate dough before you roll it out, then place pie in pre-heated oven. The cold shortening will pop in the heat, causing the pie crust to flake. Washes For Pastries and Bread Wash     Result 2% milk and sugar  -  Crispy and golden Egg yolk and water  -  Shiny golden surface Egg yolk and cream  -  Shiny brown surface Egg white  -  Light-colored crispy surface Egg white and milk  -  Transparent shiny surface Whole egg and salt  -  Shiny surface Whole egg and milk  -  Medium shiny surfac Whole egg and water  -  Golden surface, less intense shine You want a good pie? Then get a good pie plate like a heavy, clear glass one. The bottom seems to brown better and the entire crust can be monitored easily through the clear glass. Good, heavy, ceramic plates are also good, maybe a little better on a extra-thick crust because they brown more slowly and therefore more evenly. The ones that are glazed inside and on the rim, but not the outside are the best. They tend to discolor some but also improve with age. Don't throw away those pastry scraps. Either brush butter on them, sprinkle with cinnamon & sugar, and bake like cookies. Or: Roll out thin and brush with butter, sprinkle with cinnamon and BROWN SUGAR, then roll into loose tubes and bake. The Chef always deserves a snack, and their great for kids too, nomatter how old. Pie crust dough freezes better in a ball, it takes up less room in the freezor and pie shells are easily broken when frozen. (Thaw at room temerature in the plastic to prevent it from drying out) Once you roll out the crust and want to transfer it to the pie pan, use a spatula or scraper to gently lift the edge of the crust onto a small cookie sheet. Then, gently continue to push the cookie sheet under the dough. It should lift easily. Next position the cookie sheet over the edge of the pie plate and gently shake it into the pie plate. It just might tear - but do not let this throw you. Pie dough is very malleable. Just squeeze it back together with your fingers... If anyone has had trouble with soggy bottom pie crust: Place bottom crust in pie pan. Place small amount of corn starch on bottom crust and spread out with finger tips. Fill pie like usual. The corn starch acts like a barrier and as pie bakes, it thickens, also helping to prevent a soggy crust. When filling a tart or pie crust with a wet or uncooked filling, the shell can get soggy. Sealing the crust with a glaze or a coating helps maintain desired crispness. Brush cooked tart shells with warm melted jelly, strained jam or preserves. It is best to use a complementary flavored fruit preserve, like raspberries with a chocolate filling or lemon with lemon curd. If all that is required is a protective seal, use a neutral-tasting apple jelly or strained apricot jams. Melted chocolate painted on a crust also prevents a soggy shell, and, of course, enriches the overall taste of the tart. For savory quiches or tarts, a thin finish of mustard does the trick. If the crust is to be baked filled, a glaze of beaten egg with a pinch of salt seals the crust. If you'll be baking pies for the holidays, try creating a snowflake pattern for the top crust. Fold the round crust in fourths and cut out a few decorative shapes with clean kitchen scissors just as if you were making paper snowflakes. Unfold the crust, smooth folds, place it on top of your pie and bake as usual.

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