Baking and only about Baking- skip if your name is Michelle or if you don't like baking

I’ve really enjoyed baking cookies over the last year. I used to never bake cookies because I wasn’t very good at it, my cookies tasted horrible and it was too much trouble. I was a master at making cupcakes from boxed cake mix and making rice krispy treats in the microwave, but never cookies. Now, having acquired the proper equipment and tools, I love baking cookies. I’ve also discovered that people like to eat cookies especially if they don’t have to bake them. Here are some of my favorite things:

Kitchenaid six-quart stand mixer: My mixer is a lovely yellow refurbished unit from ebay. Adam suggested I buy myself one after spending a frustrating afternoon baking sugar cookies with me. Adam likes to eat cookies, but doesn’t like to bake. Suggesting baking as a fun activity is a sure way to bring down his spirits. He likes to cook instead which works out because I don’t really like to cook “real food.” I love my mixer. It weighs a lot and is unwieldy, but I dream of creaming butter whenever I look at.

OXO Cookie Scoops (big & small): My aunt has been baking for years and makes a great carrot cake. She imparted a few words of wisdom, “cookie scoops.” They’re like ice cream scoops or melon ball scoops and they make your cookie balls uniform in size and shape so they don’t burn or undercook due to uneven cookie sizing. Uneven cookie sizing is a real issue for me because I’ve never mastered dropping teaspoonfuls of cookie dough on a cookie sheet.

Air Bake Pans: “I used to burn my cookies a lot, but now I don’t because my beau bought me some Air Bake Pans. Now my life is perfect and my friends love my unburned cookies. You too can own this revolutionary new product for just one installment of …..” I know I sound like an infomercial sometimes, but these pans are great. I’m so happy Adam bought them for me. I was too parsimonious to buy them for myself.

Silpat: I got this for my roommate for her birthday because she used to bake a lot, but I’ve used this more than she has and I have to remind myself not to claim it as my own when I move out. I don’t bake with it, but I do roll out my sugar cookies on it. No need to flour your work surface, just roll the cookie dough out on the Silpat, use cookie cutters then pick up the edge of the flexible Silpat mat peeling the cut cookies off the Silpat. No need to dig fingernails into cookie dough to pick up cut cookies ruining their shape. It’ really great and since you don’t need to flour your surfaces for rolling, the cookies don’t taste floury.

Parchment Paper: Martha Stewart always insists on lining pans with parchment paper. I skipped that part of all her recipes for a long time because I figured it was one of those unnecessarily complicated “Martha Stewart” tips. One day I tried it and found out what the big whoop about parchment paper was all about. I used it to line my Air Bake Pan and baked some cookies. The cookies slide off the paper and I can transfer an entire pan of cookies for cooling by transferring the large sheet of parchment paper rather than each individual cookie. The best part is clean up is nonexistent with the parchment paper. Certainly no scraping of burned cookie parts. Now that I’ve seen the error of my ways, I no longer ignore Martha’s directions and I always use parchment paper. A note of caution: Be sure to hold on to the parchment paper when you pull the pan of cookies out of the oven. Using parchment paper means the cookies don’t stick to the pans and even the slightest downward angle of the pan could result in an avalanche of cookies sliding off the pan and onto the oven floor.

Silicone spatula: Mine is pink. It’s not necessary for baking, but I like it because it’s a nice happy color. It’s heat resistant for really high inferno type temperatures so sometimes I like to stick it in a hot frying pan just cause I can.

Pastry Pixie Apron: Also not necessary for baking, but I like it because it lends some legitimacy to my baking and because Adam gave it to me. :+)

Lastly, another great tip from my Aunt is freezing the cookie dough balls on waxed paper on a tray. Then throw the frozen cookie dough balls into a freezer bag for later. With the parchment paper and Air Bake Pans, pulling cookie balls out of the freezer and baking them is a breeze and it's more impressive than Pillsbury ready made dough.