Popular Cookie Types

Having some trouble deciding on which type of cookie you’re in the mood to bake? Here’s a list of some of the most popular cookie types out there to get you started.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

The most iconic and classic of all cookie types, the chocolate chip cookie is a perfect blend of sweetness from the cookie and richness from the chocolate chips.

Sugar Cookies

Renowned for its mixture of sweet and buttery flavors, the sugar cookie is great on its own or with added frosting and/or sprinkles.

Peanut Butter Cookies

Peanut butter cookies are one of the simplest types of cookies to make: With just sugar, peanut butter, and eggs, you can make a salty-sweet treat!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Oatmeal raisin cookies may not be for everyone, but that doesn’t stop them from being one of the most iconic cookie types out there. With their distinctive texture and a hint of cinnamon, they’re a worthy inclusion here.

Shortbread Cookies

Shortbread cookies boast a wonderful mixture of sweet and buttery flavors that become even more pronounced with added powdered sugar or even a touch of buttercream frosting.

Gingerbread Cookies

While gingerbread cookies are most commonly associated with the holidays, their unique combination of molasses, brown sugar and ginger is a delicious treat all year round.

Snickerdoodle Cookies

Snickerdoodles are the perfect cookies for any cinnamon-lovers out there. While other cookies feature hints of cinnamon, the snickerdoodle proudly puts it front and center.

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

If normal chocolate chip cookies just don’t pack in enough chocolate flavor for you, then the double chocolate chip cookie might be exactly what you’re looking for.

Macarons

These French morsels combine a soft, chewy interior with a lightly crisp shell to create a textural experience all their own. Macarons are also often made in a variety of eye-catching colors that indicate their flavor.

Meringues

The deceptively small list of ingredients for meringue cookies (egg whites and powdered sugar) may cause some to misjudge just how much flavor each one holds. Both sweet and airy, these cookies are a popular choice for a very good reason.

Cookie vs. Cracker: What’s the Difference?

Though they’re usually both small, round baked goods, there are a few notable differences between cookies and crackers, with the biggest ones being their texture and taste.

Texture

Crackers are generally thin, crispy, and flaky. This is because crackers are often, though not always, made by layering the dough, which gives them an airy and crunchy texture. Additionally, many crackers will have holes poked in them to prevent air bubbles from forming, so they keep their flat shape.

Cookies, even firm ones, are usually much softer and chewier than their cracker counterparts. They tend to lean more toward a crumbly texture, rather than the crispy one found in crackers.

Taste

The largest difference between cookies and crackers is their respective flavor profiles. While some crackers can be sweet to a degree, such as graham crackers, they are most often considered to be a salty and savory snack. Cookies, on the other hand, generally have a sweet taste to them due to the amount of sugar used in baking them.

Cookies Versus Biscuits

Many people believe that “biscuits” are just English “cookies” and that “cookies” are just American “biscuits.” But this isn’t the case. The truth is that there are quite a few differences between the tasty treats we call cookies and the baked goods the Brits call biscuits.

Dough and Texture

Cookies are made using thick and soft dough that often leads to a much denser final product than British biscuits. By comparison, a fully baked cookie will generally end up much softer and larger than your typical British biscuit.

In contrast, a British biscuit’s dough is considerably tougher than that of a cookie, largely because biscuits require far fewer ingredients: just sugar, flour, and butter. Due to this, a biscuit’s texture tends to be much more firm and crumbly.

Varieties and Extras

Another area that highlights the differences of cookies versus biscuits is the added ingredients. While both have general base recipes for baking, it’s the extras that bakers choose to add in and how they do so that create such a wide variety of products within their own respective categories.

Cookies certainly have no shortage of extra ingredients that can be added to the dough. Chocolate chips, raisins, candies, and nuts are common add-ins for cookie dough. When baking cookies, these extras are most often added to the dough and baked within the cookie itself.

British biscuits, on the other hand, see most of their extras added after the baking portion is finished. These ingredients are more commonly used to dress up the baked good in elaborate fashion at the end, as opposed to the cookie approach, where they’re just mixed right into the dough. Some common additional ingredients for British biscuits include icing, caramel and/or chocolate drizzle, or jam.

Why a Cookie Does Not Spread

In order to get a perfectly shaped cookie, you’ll often want your cookies to spread out a little as they bake. If your dough isn’t spreading like you expect when it’s in the oven, consider the reasons why cookies don’t spread and make the necessary adjustments.

Dough Is Too Firm

Dough being too stiff to spread is a common problem. If you find yourself in this situation, chances are good that you’ve added too much flour to your dough. In order to fix this, try adding in some more liquid (milk, water, or softened butter) one tablespoon at a time until your dough is slightly looser.

Dough Is Too Cold

If your dough has been sitting in the fridge for too long, it may be too cold and firm to spread properly. Simply allow it to sit out for 30 to 60 minutes so it can return to room temperature. This should fix your problem.

Oven Is Not Hot Enough

Cookies spread while baking because the fats in the dough melt. If your oven isn’t set to a high enough temperature, this won’t happen. Make sure that your oven has preheated to the appropriate temperature before baking.

Butter Is Too Cold

Make sure to pay close attention to the ingredients listed in your cookie recipe. If it calls for softened butter, you don’t want to immediately remove the butter from the refrigerator and add it to your dough. Leave your butter out for about a half-hour before mixing it in the dough. If you’ve already added cold butter to your dough, then leave the dough out to sit until it reaches room temperature before baking it.

What to Do When Cookie Dough Is Too Wet

When cookie dough is too wet, your cookies may come out too thin and crispy, too dense, or just plain bad. However, this problem is easily fixed if you know how. To fix a cookie dough that’s too wet, add in some more flour one tablespoon at a time. This should help absorb any extra moisture lingering in your dough. Repeat this until your dough is the correct consistency. Don’t add more than one tablespoon at a time, though: It is possible to over-correct your mistake and end up with a dough that’s too dry and crumbly.

What to Do When Cookie Dough Is Too Sticky

Unlike cooking, which allows the chef to get a little more creative with ingredients and measurements, baking is all about precision: When the balance of your ingredients is off, your final product isn’t going to end up how you expect. For instance, if you add a bit too much moisture to your cookie dough, you may find yourself with overly sticky cookie dough on your hands (literally). When cookie dough is too sticky, your cookies are likely to come out either too greasy, too flat, too crispy, or a combination of these.

Thankfully, sticky cookie dough is relatively easy to fix using one of two methods.

Solution #1: Refrigerate Your Dough

One of the main causes of sticky dough is adding too much melted butter. If you put your dough in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour, the butter will firm up a bit and make the dough much easier to handle.

Solution #2: Add Flour or Cornstarch

When cookie dough is too sticky, you may have an imbalance of wet and dry ingredients. You can fix this by adding a teaspoon of flour or cornstarch at a time until your dough is just how you want. The added flour or cornstarch will absorb the excess liquid and reduce the dough’s overall stickiness.

What to Do When Cookie Dough Is Too Crumbly

The key to baking the perfect cookie lies in the dough, but one of the most common problems people run into is accidentally making a dough that’s too dry and falls apart. When cookie dough is too crumbly, it’s hard to get a cookie that will hold together. This often occurs when you add too much of a dry ingredient, like flour, or overmix the dough. But there is a fix: To remedy a dough that’s too crumbly, try adding a tablespoon or two of a liquid ingredient. This could mean milk, melted butter, or even just water. It’s best to add only a little bit at a time until you reach your desired consistency since you could potentially add too much and then have to re-balance your mixture yet again with dry ingredients.

How a Cookie Exchange Works

One of the best ways to get your fill of Christmas cookies is by hosting a cookie exchange. Also known as cookie swaps, cookie exchanges allow friends and family to try a whole assortment of cookies without having to bake dozens of different kinds themselves.

So how does a cookie exchange work?

Each attendee brings a set amount of cookies (usually one dozen multiplied by the number of people attending) that they’ve made themselves. These can be anything from standard chocolate chip cookies to fancy holiday specialties. However, since the point of the party is to have a wide variety, the more original your cookie is, the better.

Once everyone has arrived and laid out their baked goods, guests can then select whichever cookies are most appealing to them and create their own assortment to take home. People will also exchange recipes in addition to the cookies themselves so their friends and family can make the cookies on their own any time they want!

That’s the general overview of how a cookie exchange works. If you’re thinking of throwing your own, here are some tips to keep in mind:

• Send invitations at least a month in advance. This will give your guests ample time to choose their recipes and bake their cookies.
• Let your guests know how many cookies they should make. You want to ensure that there are enough to go around.
• Offer food and drinks in addition to the cookies.
• Provide cookie bags or boxes, or let guests know if they should bring their own.
• Decorate and incorporate a theme.