If you are going to bake a great cookie, you have to start with great ingredients. You can’t purchase the cheapest ingredients you can find, and expect to produce the next best thing since Mrs. Fields.

The truth is, that cookie ingredients can make or break your cookies. These little delicacies tend to be temperamental. So treat them kindly by using the proper ingredients. Need examples?

Use fresh ingredients! Old or stale ingredients, make for stale tasting cookies.

Use butter, not margarine or butter substitute, and never lard (unless the recipe specifically calls for it). The better quality your butter is, the better the flavor of your cookie will be. Warm to room temperature before use.

Use bleached flour, not unbleached.

Use good quality eggs at room temperature, not straight out of the fridge.

Use the proper sugar. Substituting different types of sugars randomly will ensure your cookies are a huge flop. If you recipe calls for powdered sugar, use powdered. Don’t substitute for something else.

Use good quality extracts. The cheap ones, taste cheap.

Last but not least, measure all ingredients exactly.

Happy Baking!

I have to tell you a secret.

Sometimes, if I’m in the right mood for it, I can have just a tiny little bit of a mean streak in me. Nothing major, mind you, but it’s just enough pepper in my salt to create just a little “fun” from time to time.

You see, when I ran across this MisFortune Cookie recipe, I had all sorts of  “not-so-nice” thoughts go through my mind.

Can you imagine giving cookies like these as a gift to somebody who is about to have a baby boy, and you fill the cookies with fortunes that tell her she’s having a girl, no matter what the doctors say?

Or how about filling the cookies with lottery numbers. Just add a card that says “one of these is the winning number, but you have to guess which one“. If you had 100 cookies, they’d have to go spend $100 on lottery tickets in the hopes that one of them really is the winning number. Of course, the joke would be on you if they actually win…. But the possibilities are endless.

Now, that said, there are plenty of nice fortunes you could put inside these as well, but where’s the fun in that? (~Evil laugh~)

Whatever you decide to do, this is a really fun gift or party favor. You can make the fortunes specific to your event, and everyone will love them!

So now my secret is out. Shhh… please don’t tell. It’ll just be our little secret.

Happy Baking!

Photo Copyright & Recipe: ATableForTwo.com.au

These melt-in-your-mouth Florentine Lace Cookies are delicate, but oh so good at satisfying your sweet tooth! Bake a batch of these, and company may never leave! Wait… is that a good thing? Never mind. Just keep these to yourself. You can thank me later.

Photo published with permission.