Cookies

Want to know the keywords that bring people to my blog more frequently than any others?

Best Lemon Cookies Ever.

You type that into Google? Guess who's number 1? Everyday, I get an average of 30-50 random hits just from people searching some variation of the above words. I know! A blog that spend so much time talking about children and mothering and poop gets all those hits because of a cookie recipe. It's a good thing the recipe that I posted really does make THE BEST LEMON COOKIES EVER. Have you seen it? You should go and visit right now.

Best Lemon Cookies Ever

And then make the cookies. Oh, how you won't be sorry.

But maybe lemon isn't your thing. YOU should get to enjoy cookie heaven too.

I am not good at a lot of things. I'm not very good at playing the piano. I'm not very good at soccer or basketball or any other sport requiring coordination. I'm not very good at being on time, or ironing clothes, or getting up in the morning.

But I am very good at cookies.

Sugar Cookies. Molasses Sugar Cookies. Oatmeal Cinnamon Cookies. Pumpkin Oatmeal cookies. Hershey's Chewy Cookies. Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. I have so many perfectly wonderful recipes just waiting to be shared. Why should the Lemon cookies get all the love?

So. I'm sharing. Not all at once. But often enough to make me happy, we will have a cookie day. And it will be glorious.

But FIRST, some cookie baking tips straight from my kitchen to yours.

1. Buy a Silpat. (It's a silicone baking mat that fits right inside your cookie sheet.) Amazon sells them for 18 bucks or so. That might seem like a lot, but please trust me. Your cookies will thank you. Silpats make it really easy to get evenly cooked, perfectly chewy cookies that don't burn on the bottom. Here: I'll even give you a link.

Silpat Baking mat on Amazon

2. Soften, don't melt your butter. Melted butter makes flat cookies. Softened butter makes fluffy cookies. If you're like me and don't ever, ever think to get your butter out three hours before you make cookies so that it's cooled to room temperature, stick it in your microwave for thirty seconds or so on 30% power. (This works with my microwave. You may have to play around with yours to find the perfect softening combination.)

3. This one is important. For all that is good and holy, use real butter. If a recipe calls for shortening, use butter instead. If a recipe calls for margarine, scribble the word out with a black magic marker so you never have to see it again, and USE REAL BUTTER.

4. If you like chewy cookies, watch your bake time really closely. If you wait until cookies look completely done before pulling them out of the oven, you'll never have a chewy cookie. They should look barely done, maybe even a little underdone in the middle. Leave them sitting on the pan for a few more minutes before moving them to a cooling rack so they can firm up a little more.

5. Don't ever skip the "chill your dough" step, if the recipe calls for it. If you're impatient like me, chilling the dough in the freezer for half the recommended time is perfectly acceptable.

So. That's all I've got. I hope you've learned something. And I hope you're craving cookies! I'll start posting my favorite recipes soon. I feel so passionately about cookies, I've even decided to add a cookie tab to the top of my blog. That way, all the recipes will be listed in one place. And if you decide to have cookies and milk for dinner every Sunday like we do (Not kidding. It's become a family tradition: big lunch, cookies for dinner), you'll have a place to find some tested and much loved recipes. Sound good?

Do you have any cookie baking tips you'd like to share?