If you’re planning on baking cookies for Christmas, you might want to give start preparing a little earlier this year. Refrigerating the dough ahead of time not only makes it easier to bake at a time that suits you, it also improves the texture of the cookies.
Picture: Alexi Ueltzen/Flickr
Many cookie recipes suggest you refrigerate for a short time before baking, but Kathleen Purvis’s research for the UK Telegraph has found that refrigerating for more than a day can give the dough more time for the flavours to develop:
The difference starts with the liquid in the egg, which hydrates the starch in flour. Giving the flour more time to absorb that liquid makes the dough firmer, but it also lets enzymes in the flour and the egg yolk break down carbohydrates into the simple sugars fructose and glucose. Separately, they taste sweeter and they caramelize faster when baked.
Try this with dough based on flour, sugar, butter and egg, or dough with strong flavours like peanut butter. Don’t use this technique for dough that must be cooked immediately, such as meringues and macaroons.
For more insight into refrigerating dough and baking, hit up the article below.
Smart cookies: Refrigerating dough saves time and enhances the flavour, too [The Telegraph]
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