A Cookie a Day by The Spruce Eats
Introducing Our Cookie Course
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The Spruce / Diana Chistruga
Sign Up! And, Bake Your Best Cookies Yet
Ready to bake your way to better cookies? We put a lot of love and labor into a cookie course, keeping both beginners and seasoned bakers in mind. We collected our best tips, tricks, and recipes for every level and palate. So, let’s grab our aprons and call up our favorite taste-testers as we embark on a sometimes nerdy, always downright mouthwatering journey of cookie baking and all the warm, fuzzy feelings it evokes.
Each week, we’ll dive into a different step of the cookie-baking process and make some seriously delicious cookies along the way. We’ll give you an ingredient list, the recipe, our top tool recommendations, and a plan.
Week 1:
- The cookie: soft peanut butter chocolate chip cookies
- The skills: the basics, the tools you need, and how to cream butter
Week 2:
- The cookie: melt-in-your mouth caramel cookie sandwiches
- The skills: how to cut and roll cookie dough
Week 3:
- The cookie: jam-filled, buttery Linzer cookies
- The skill: how the amount of butter, flour, and sugar changes your cookie
Week 4:
- The cookie: tender sugar cookies with icing
- The skill: cookie decorating basics
Week 5:
- The cookie: soft vegan gingerbread cookies
- The skill: the science of vegan and gluten-free cookie baking
Few things warm my spirit more than the smell of sugar, spices, and crispy, caramelized cookie edges dancing through the air. Perhaps the only thing better is seeing the joy others feel when I share my creations. From classic sugar cookies to jam-filled kolaches to cream cheese spritzes, everyone has a cookie that tugs at their heartstrings. For me, baking Italian butter cookies takes me back to holidays in my grandmother’s kitchen, where we made dozens of varieties and discovered new flavor combinations and techniques each year.
In many ways, cookies are the underdog of pastry. “Serious” bakers don’t see them the way they do bread, for example: as bakes that can really showcase their knowledge and skills. To me, that’s all the more reason to love them. Cookie baking is for everyone. Once you get a handle on the most basic cookies, you’ll understand enough of their art and science to know exactly how to create your perfect biscuit every time.