Basic Ingredients and Tools for American Cookies

With thick American-style cookies, changing just the ratio or condition of a few ingredients can noticeably change the texture. Getting to know the ingredients and tools that come up again and again in this site’s cookie recipes will make each recipe easier to follow.

Ingredients

Flour

Flour is classified by its protein (gluten) content into bread flour, all-purpose flour, and cake flour. Bread flour is high in gluten and suits chewy breads, cake flour is low in gluten and suits tender baked goods, and all-purpose flour sits in between. Cookie dough usually calls for all-purpose flour, because it gives a texture that’s neither too chewy nor too crumbly. If you don’t have all-purpose flour, mixing bread flour and cake flour 1:1 gets you close.

Butter

Unsalted butter is made only from the fat in cream, with no additives and a clean flavor, so it’s the go-to for baking, where the sweetness and the flavor of the other ingredients need to come through. Cultured butter is made by fermenting the fat separated from milk with lactic acid bacteria, which gives it a deeper aroma. Butter temperature directly affects how much cookies spread, so it’s important to use the temperature each recipe calls for (melted, or just slightly softened).

Sugar

Not all sugar is the same: different types vary in flavor and in how well they hold moisture.

• White sugar: Fine-grained and highly refined, so it dissolves easily. It adds sweetness and browning, and it holds on to moisture, which keeps baked goods from going stale as quickly.
• Brown sugar / muscovado: Unrefined or partially refined sugars that keep their molasses, with coarser crystals and a distinctive, deep flavor. Muscovado goes through almost no refining at all, so its flavor is even stronger.
• Honey: Very good at retaining moisture, so it makes cookies moister, but its flavor is fairly strong, so it’s best used in small amounts.

Other ingredients

• Eggs: High in water, they act as a natural emulsifier that binds the dough together.
• Cocoa powder: Finely ground cacao solids with the fat removed, giving a rich, slightly bitter chocolate flavor. Used together with dark chocolate, it makes the chocolate flavor even more intense.
• Cornstarch: Even a small amount limits gluten development and makes the dough more tender.
• Baking soda: A leavening agent that releases gas during baking, giving cookies a lighter texture.
• Salt: Its main job is less about adding saltiness and more about balancing the sweetness of the other ingredients.
• Cream cheese: Made from milk and cream, it’s smooth and rich, and it works both mixed into cookie dough and as a filling.

Tools

• Small sieve / large sieve: For sifting dry ingredients finely and catching any debris. A small sieve is handier for small amounts, a large one for bigger batches.
• Kitchen scale: Essential for measuring ingredients precisely.
• Ice cream scoop: For portioning dough into equal amounts. Compared with dividing it by hand each time, the sizes stay consistent, which makes it easier to get even browning and doneness.
• Silicone spatula / mini silicone spatula: For mixing dough evenly and scraping the sides of the bowl clean. A mini spatula is handy for getting ingredients out of narrow jars, like jam or spreads.
• Bench scraper: For chopping dough or nuts into small pieces, or scraping dough off the bowl.
• Whisk: For lightly beating eggs or liquid ingredients.
• Oven: Start preheating at least 30 minutes before baking so the temperature is stable when the cookies go in.