Choco-chip cookies are a much-loved treat and making them is really something that you should take the time to learn. These cookies are either crunchy, soft or etc.

Making these soft choco-chip cookies might seem a very hard challenge but I assure you it isn’t. Just take note of a couple of steps in making your cookie batter.

Normally an easy & good choco-chip cookie recipe would be the standard ones placed at the back portion of those choco chip packages. For your dough, just be sure to thoroughly mix the butter and sugars using your electric hand-held/ordinary mixer until dough is quite fluffy. Watch out for lumps of sugar & butter then be sure that they are already gone before adding in your vanilla and eggs.

These first few steps are crucial to getting those soft cookies. Don’t beat your batter together with eggs otherwise they might not become airy & fluffly. Just incorporate all ingredients until they are mixed together. Be careful not to overbeat your dough.

Next, into another bowl, combine salt, baking soda & flour together then mix them using your spoon then sift afterwards. If recipe requires flour (sifted) then be sure to sift your flour. After sifting, you stat adding in flour mix to your wet recipe ingredients until everything is incorporated well & add your choco chips.

Place your dough inside the refrigerator for around 2 hrs or better if overnight. When baking, preheat yor oven first before actual baking process. Roll out dough in 2-inch round shapes then place them 2-inches away from each other on your greased baking/cookie sheet. Be sure your sheet isn’t warm when you arrange your cookies onto it. You could even place it inside your fridge prior to baking.

Then, bake your cookies as per directions until they appear light golden and browned. But make sure cookies aren’t darkly browned or they might be crunchy and a bit hard. Be careful when cooking so you will get those lovely soft cookies and not the hard & crunchy ones. Take note of the steps above and for sure you will get those soft chewy cookies.

Enjoy!

Choco-chip cookies are a much-loved treat and making them is really something that you should take the time to learn. These cookies are either crunchy, soft or etc.

Making these soft choco-chip cookies might seem a very hard challenge but I assure you it isn’t. Just take note of a couple of steps in making your cookie batter.

Normally an easy & good choco-chip cookie recipe would be the standard ones placed at the back portion of those choco chip packages. For your dough, just be sure to thoroughly mix the butter and sugars using your electric hand-held/ordinary mixer until dough is quite fluffy. Watch out for lumps of sugar & butter then be sure that they are already gone before adding in your vanilla and eggs.

These first few steps are crucial to getting those soft cookies. Don’t beat your batter together with eggs otherwise they might not become airy & fluffly. Just incorporate all ingredients until they are mixed together. Be careful not to overbeat your dough.

Next, into another bowl, combine salt, baking soda & flour together then mix them using your spoon then sift afterwards. If recipe requires flour (sifted) then be sure to sift your flour. After sifting, you stat adding in flour mix to your wet recipe ingredients until everything is incorporated well & add your choco chips.

Place your dough inside the refrigerator for around 2 hrs or better if overnight. When baking, preheat yor oven first before actual baking process. Roll out dough in 2-inch round shapes then place them 2-inches away from each other on your greased baking/cookie sheet. Be sure your sheet isn’t warm when you arrange your cookies onto it. You could even place it inside your fridge prior to baking.

Then, bake your cookies as per directions until they appear light golden and browned. But make sure cookies aren’t darkly browned or they might be crunchy and a bit hard. Be careful when cooking so you will get those lovely soft cookies and not the hard & crunchy ones. Take note of the steps above and for sure you will get those soft chewy cookies.

Enjoy!

1.If you want to make light yet crunchy cookies, you need to combine the ingredients using an automatic mixer. However, when you want thicker cookies you need to mix your dough manually. Remember not to over beat or mix or beat the mixture or dough because it can result to hard and thick cookies.

2.When the cookie recipe needs butter by all means put this ingredient in. But if in case you don’t have butter, margarine and shortening are acceptable replacements.

3.Usually cookies that are made using shortening are thick while cookies which use margarine and butter are flat but they are flavorful and tastier. When you want to create thick and flavorful cookies then use 50 percent light margarine/ butter and 50 percent of shortening.

4.In order not to overcook the cookie mixture, try to find and use a pan that does not stick and reduce your oven temp. by around 25 deg.

5.If you use the regular baking tray for the cookies, place a ply of parchment sheet first before baking. The parchment sheet is going to prevent cookies from sticking to the tray which makes cleaning easier.

6.If you intend to bake several trays of tasty cookies, see to it that you use a minimum of two or more baking trays to prevent dough from spreading. You need to keep in mind that placing your dough or cookie mixture onto hot surfaces can result to flat and unappealing cookies.

7.When you are ready to bake, see to it that you put the cookies within the center of your oven to allow equal heat distribution. A common practice in preparing cookies is providing 2-inch allowance on every side of your baking tray from the surface of your oven.

8.Be patient in baking your dough or cookies. Bake or put each baking tray inside your oven one at a time. When you put 2 baking pans simultaneously, the cookies or you dough mixture might not be properly baked. Some might be overcooked while some can be half-baked.

9.When placing the scoops of dough onto the baking tray, allow a minimum of one to 2-inch space between each cookie as well as at the sides of your baking tray. This provides equal distribution of heat which results to even baking of your great tasting cookies.

10.If you worry about making equal sizes of your dough or cookies, you may use a scoop just like the one you use in scooping your ice cream to measure the mixture or dough. Using an ice cream scooper allows cookies to have equal sizes. These tips are recommended by experienced bakers so they are proven useful in preparing and baking perfectly yummy cookies. Have fun!

Baking or making cookies is easy to do but when you want to achieve better tasting cookies you need to follow these simple tips and tricks that have been tried and tested to achieve yummier results.

1.If you want to make light yet crunchy cookies, you need to combine the ingredients using an automatic mixer. However, when you want thicker cookies you need to mix your dough manually. Remember not to over beat or mix or beat the mixture or dough because it can result to hard and thick cookies.

2.When the cookie recipe needs butter by all means put this ingredient in. But if in case you don’t have butter, margarine and shortening are acceptable replacements.

3.Usually cookies that are made using shortening are thick while cookies which use margarine and butter are flat but they are flavorful and tastier. When you want to create thick and flavorful cookies then use 50 percent light margarine/ butter and 50 percent of shortening.

4.In order not to overcook the cookie mixture, try to find and use a pan that does not stick and reduce your oven temp. by around 25 deg..

5.If you use the regular baking tray for the cookies, place a ply of parchment sheet first before baking. The parchment sheet is going to prevent cookies from sticking to the tray which makes cleaning easier.

6.If you intend to bake several trays of tasty cookies, see to it that you use a minimum of two or more baking trays to prevent dough from spreading. You need to keep in mind that placing your dough or cookie mixture onto hot surfaces can result to flat and unappealing cookies.

7.When you are ready to bake, see to it that you put the cookies within the center of your oven to allow equal heat distribution. A common practice in preparing cookies is providing 2-inch allowance on every side of your baking tray from the surface of your oven.

8.Be patient in baking your dough or cookies. Bake or put each baking tray inside your oven one at a time. When you put 2 baking pans simultaneously, the cookies or you dough mixture might not be properly baked. Some might be overcooked while some can be half-baked.

9.When placing the scoops of dough onto the baking tray, allow a minimum of one to 2-inch space between each cookie as well as at the sides of your baking tray. This provides equal distribution of heat which results to even baking of your great tasting cookies.

10.If you worry about making equal sizes of your dough or cookies, you may use a scoop just like the one you use in scooping your ice cream to measure the mixture or dough. Using an ice cream scooper allows cookies to have equal sizes.

These tips are recommended by experienced bakers so they are proven useful in preparing and baking perfectly yummy cookies. Have fun!

The cookie history was traced during the seventh Century in Persia. But during the 1800′s, cookie recipes started to get published on cook books. However, the name used was small or tiny cakes. The name cookies actually came from this Dutch term: koekje/koekie which denotes small or tiny cakes.

During the first part of 1900s until today, recipes for making cookies vary in flavors and styles. These little bites of sweetness are usual goodies baked inside one’s kitchen, and it is assessed that 50% of the entire homemade cookies were choco-chips.

However, there are numerous tasty cookie flavors which have not yet been tested or baked at homes. Cookie recipes on cook books are categorized according to their manner of preparation and cooking. The five cookie recipe categories are as follow:

1. Drop Cookies: This is one of the usual categories of home-baked and yummy cookies. It is prepared and baked by pressing and dropping the dough or cookie mixture from your spoon down to the parchment or wax paper. This type is actually easy to bake. You just combine all the ingredients, scoop, drop and cook. The famous examples are peanut spread , choc-chip cookies and oatmeal cookies.

2. Cookie Bars, Squares/Pan Cookies: These are probably the simplest and the easiest cookie recipe. You surely can make it without dropping a sweat. The cookie mixture is placed inside a container or mold and then sliced in small sizes right after cooking. Brownies fall in this category even if it’s a batter cookie and it has many variations.

3. No-Bake Cookies: This category does not need any oven. It is one of the best ways to familiarize children to baking. Among the known samples of this type are krispies, coconut-date balls, peanut spread/butter squares/bars and rum rounds or balls.

4. Shaped Cookies: This cookie category is usually designed and molded by hands. Shortbreads and spritz cookies are samples of shaped cookies.

5. Ice Box/Refrigerator Cookies: This cookie is done by freezing or chilling the batter/cookie mixture before cutting and cooking/baking them. Some books classify this as the slice-and-bake cookies. Just keep small logs of your desired cookie mixtures inside the freezer or fridge, and then cut prior to baking and best eaten fresh out from your oven. This is good especially when you suddenly have cookie cravings.

Everybody in your family or even your friends will appreciate your effort regardless of the category that you would like to bake. Baking your own homemade cookies will always an extra special treat.

You can bake this ginger cake in one of two ways depending on who it’s for.

You can use either 2 loaf tins greased and lined (or ready made linings as it is much easier) or use 1 18cm round greased and lined deep tin. The amounts are the same for both ways but the baking times will be slightly different. The 2 loaf tins take about 50 minutes and the deep tin takes about 1hr.

1. Preheat your oven to 180c/160c for fan assisted ovens/gas mark 4.

2. Grease and line your chosen tin(s).

3. Make sure the rack in the oven is in the middle of the oven to make sure the ginger cake is evenly baked.

Ingredients

8oz/225g self raising flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tablespoon of ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground mixed spice

4oz/125g butter cut into cubes (plus extra for greasing the tins)

4oz/125g dark muscavado sugar

4oz/125g black treacle

4oz/125g golden syrup

9 fl oz/250ml whole milk

3oz/85g drained stem ginger, grated finely

1 egg

Method

Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and all the dry spices in a large bowl. Do not be tempted not to sift the flour, as the bicarbonate of soda will stay in clumps and not disperse through the cake.

Add the butter and rub it onto the flour mixture with your hands until it resembles breadcrumbs.

Put the muscavado sugar,treacle,syrup and milk into a large saucepan and put it on a low heat, keep stirring until the sugar has dissolved, then turn up the heat and bring the mixture to just below boiling point so it does not burn the sugars or it will be bitter, take off the heat.

Mix in the grated stem ginger into the flour mixture thoroughly coating it well.

Carefully pour in the treacle mix into the flour mixture (it will bubble as there is bicarbonate of soda in the mix) stir as you go and mix with a wooden spoon.

Break in the egg and beat the mixture well.

Pour the ginger cake mixture into the prepared tin(s)

Bake the cake for around 50 minutes and check it by pushing a clean skewer into the middle of the cake until it comes out clean.

When cooked leave it in the tin(s)until cool then turn out.

Keep the cake(s) in the paper that you have baked them in but put a clean one on as well for presentation, the cake(s) will keep for about 2 weeks if put in an airtight container or if you prefer you can freeze them by wrapping in greaseproof paper then cling-film or large food bag, it will keep well for around a month.

Once you and your family and friends have tried this delightful ginger cake recipe, the chances are it won’t last that long and you will find yourself making another one very soon!

Top tips

When you place the ginger cake in the oven, cover the top with greaseproof paper for 30 minutes to prevent the top of the cake going too dark. Remove the greaseproof paper from the top of the cake during the last 20 minutes of cooking time.

If you like it more gingery put in more stem ginger not too much or it will be heavy.

Ginger cake is best served with custard, single white cream, or enjoyed on its own with a fine cup of tea.

Bread is one of the commonest foods in the world. It has been in existence even before the birth of Jesus Christ. Its prices has continued to rise over the ages. Bakers even go on strike over price related issues sometimes. The cost of a typical loaf of bread is between $3 and $5 in some countries. And even more in some economically ravaged countries.

In the developing countries banned chemicals like bromate and saccharine are even used. It is considered safer and cheaper to produce your own bread from home. Neighbors will buy bread from you. You will have a ready market when demand grows. A 50kg bag of flour can make about 100 loaves of large size bread with a handful of other ingredients.

The required ingredients are wheat flour, yeast, salt, sugar, milk, water, oil or fat and maybe an egg or two, depending on your chosen recipe. There are some quick bread recipes that are great alternatives to making homemade bread loaf the old fashioned way. When the demand for your bread grows to about one flour bag per day, you can use a bread maker (worker) that will do the work for you for an agreed amount of wages per month. Planning is very essential in bread making. You must choose a basic recipe if you are a newbie. Plan you production batches in advance. Read through the recipe over and over again to familiarize yourself with the ingredients as well as the process. Get all the equipments and ingredients ready at hand. Pre-measure your ingredients. Keep records of the timing required.

Bread making is a science and an art. It has formulae in recipes and creativity in the processing and designing. Make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature before you start. Yeast likes a warm environment and must not be exposed to air before usage. The measuring of dry and wet ingredients is of utmost importance to create a tender, tasty loaf. Dry ingredients are measured into one mixing bowl while wet ingredients are also measured into another mixing bowl before they are finally mixed together in the process of production. When all your ingredients are mixed, you will then knead the dough by sprinkling little quantity of dry flour on your kneading table and dipping your hands in the flour so that the dough doesn’t stick to your hands or the table top.

Kneading is necessary to develop the gluten in the bread dough, mix in air for rising, and distribute the ingredients so the yeast can feed. The yeast feeds on the sugars in the dough, and creates a fermentation process, which enables the dough to rise properly.

One of the mistakes in bread-making is not kneading the dough long enough. You have to knead the bread between 8-10 minutes. After you have done kneading, form the dough into a ball and set in a greased bowl. Cover and let rest. Your dough will need to sit for 1-2 hours to rise. Make sure your kitchen is warm to aid the rising process. At the end of this time, uncover the dough, punch it down, and shape the dough into how you want it to be when you bake it, Put it into the greased baking pan and cover it for another rising or proving session. When it is has risen, put the baking pan that contains the dough into the pre-heated oven for baking. Once your bread is done, let it cool completely before slicing. Advantages in making your own hand made bread:

·         It is a way of doing physical exercise for me

·         You will make your home made bread under proper hygienic conditions

·         You will eat delicious fresh and hot oven produced bread

·         You will be eating bread at a reduced cost

·         It is also a way of providing job for yourself and family members

·         You can grow from hand made to machine made bread

·         You will stick to your best recipe that will also be loved by your customers

·         Designing bread loaves will become fun for you and many more

You can make loaves of bread in two different ways.

1.     You can make it from scratch by hand. 

2.     You can also use a bread making machine to make the dough for you.

The second yields fast results, but seems to lack that “homemade” quality that comes from kneading and seeing the loaves take shape from your very own hands. Bread designs will be discussed in subsequent write ups.

Benson O. Adepiti,  

http://hotbusinessnuggets.blogspot.com

You can bake this ginger cake in one of two ways depending on who it’s for.

You can use either 2 loaf tins greased and lined (or ready made linings as it is much easier) or use 1 18cm round greased and lined deep tin. The amounts are the same for both ways but the baking times will be slightly different. The 2 loaf tins take about 50 minutes and the deep tin takes about 1hr.

1. Preheat your oven to 180c/160c for fan assisted ovens/gas mark 4.

2. Grease and line your chosen tin(s).

3. Make sure the rack in the oven is in the middle of the oven to make sure the ginger cake is evenly baked.

Ingredients

8oz/225g self raising flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tablespoon of ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground mixed spice

4oz/125g butter cut into cubes (plus extra for greasing the tins)

4oz/125g dark muscavado sugar

4oz/125g black treacle

4oz/125g golden syrup

9 fl oz/250ml whole milk

3oz/85g drained stem ginger, grated finely

1 egg

Method

Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and all the dry spices in a large bowl. Do not be tempted not to sift the flour, as the bicarbonate of soda will stay in clumps and not disperse through the cake.

Add the butter and rub it onto the flour mixture with your hands until it resembles breadcrumbs.

Put the muscavado sugar,treacle,syrup and milk into a large saucepan and put it on a low heat, keep stirring until the sugar has dissolved, then turn up the heat and bring the mixture to just below boiling point so it does not burn the sugars or it will be bitter, take off the heat.

Mix in the grated stem ginger into the flour mixture thoroughly coating it well.

Carefully pour in the treacle mix into the flour mixture (it will bubble as there is bicarbonate of soda in the mix) stir as you go and mix with a wooden spoon.

Break in the egg and beat the mixture well.

Pour the ginger cake mixture into the prepared tin(s)

Bake the cake for around 50 minutes and check it by pushing a clean skewer into the middle of the cake until it comes out clean.

When cooked leave it in the tin(s)until cool then turn out.

Keep the cake(s) in the paper that you have baked them in but put a clean one on as well for presentation, the cake(s) will keep for about 2 weeks if put in an airtight container or if you prefer you can freeze them by wrapping in greaseproof paper then cling-film or large food bag, it will keep well for around a month.

Once you and your family and friends have tried this delightful ginger cake recipe, the chances are it won’t last that long and you will find yourself making another one very soon!

Top tips

When you place the ginger cake in the oven, cover the top with greaseproof paper for 30 minutes to prevent the top of the cake going too dark. Remove the greaseproof paper from the top of the cake during the last 20 minutes of cooking time.

If you like it more gingery put in more stem ginger not too much or it will be heavy.

Ginger cake is best served with custard, single white cream, or enjoyed on its own with a fine cup of tea.