baking question?

I am going through my mom's baking recipes. Yes, they are old.
All her recipes for cookies and cakes call for sifted flour.
Either measured before sifting or measured after sifting.....

With the flour we have now, is it required to sift???

I thought I had read, a while ago, that flour does not have to be sifted nowadays.....

I am needing to know because I am in charge of desserts for Christmas!!!!  

Pray for me!!!! and my crazy stove.....wish I had saved my mom's huge cookie sheets, when I moved..... and her cake pans

any tips on knowing when cookies are done? I always mess up.......

I am going to my cousin's for Christmas. She is a great cook/baker!!!! She is under a lot of stress and uncertainty for the holiday because her son's mother-in-law was just put under hospice care. I asked what I could do to help and she said 'Desserts"....OMGosh!!!!! There are 3 little boys and about 7 adults!!!

 

 

and If I start baking on Sunday, will they be fresh if stored in a plastic container????

thanks.
Cyn

I sift flour But I will let Beth or Norm give you advice.My cookie baking is just choc chip,oatmeal etc.I do not bother much with fancy cookies.lol


Good luck..

I, too, sift flour. I think it mixes in smoother ~ could be my imagination but if Grandma did it, and Mom did it, then I do it, too.

Anything you bake now should be fine between now and Christmas in a covered container.

Mix up your cookie dough one day and put in the refrigerator and bake off on another day. Those sugar cookies I made, rolled in sprinkles, were easy to have available to just bake a tray at a time and keep the rest of the dough wrapped in plastic wrap in the refrigerator until I wanted to bake again.

What are you thinking of making? OK, NOW subtract one or two choices. Don't think you have to make EVERYTHING. And, when in doubt, show up with a half gallon of good ice cream. Cookies & ice cream, pie and ice cream, cake and ice cream....always a nice finish to any meal.

Any more questions?

Thanks Beth and Barb...
I will probably have more as the time goes on....
Beth-great idea on the ice cream!!! I will go over all the recipes I pulled out and decide on a few of them.....
I was going to make a no fail awesome banana bread, but that may be too heavy after dinner.....
ice cream and cookies or cake sounds good.....

3/4 cup cold milk 
1 package (3.4 ounces) instant vanilla pudding mix 
2 cups eggnog 
1/2 teaspoon almond or brandy or rum extract
1 cup heavy whipping cream, whipped
1 loaf butter pound cake such as Etenmann's or sara Lee (can also use angel food cake)
1 cup cherry preserves, thinned with 2 tbs water  ((( you can use raspb or strawberry ))
fresh cherries, pitted and cut in half  (((( you can use raspberry or strawberry)


  In a bowl, whisk milk and pudding mix until blended. Gradually add eggnog; mix well. Fold in extract and whipped cream; set aside.
 Cut cake into 1/2-in. slices; place about a 1/3 of the cake in a trifle bowl or a high sided glass serving bowl. Top with 1/3 of the jam and a handful of cherries. Spoon 1 cup of eggnog mixture over all. Repeat twice. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours. Garnish with whole cherries and sweetened whipped cream. Chill until ready to serve.

I have pic. BRB.. BTW this is so good & so easy to make..

I have made this trifle so many times.You can just use vanilla pudding & any fruit..pound cake or angel food.whipped cream..

Thanks, Barb!

Two of my issues are: 1) oven stinks! I swear it is off by 20-15 degrees and does not heat evenly..roasting meat has always been a problem. I even have an oven thermometer..
2) how do you know when the cookies are baked...I mean a lite browning around the edges or a minute before that.. I know they cook after removing....

My mom was an awesome baker....I was good at cakes, especially pound cake and angel food cake, but cookies were something else....

that is why I suggested a no bake dessert.

If the recipe says sift before measuring, sift it. It will be a smaller amount than if packed. If it is sifted after measuring, I just stir it with a whisk.

If your oven temperature is off, get and use an oven thermometer and set the oven to the thermometer, not the dial on the stove.  If you want to fix it eventually, call a repairman and have him adjust the thermostat or he may need to replace the oven heating coil if it is electric.  

As to odor, see if an oven cleaner or baking powder based cleaner will help.

I usually only bake one cookie sheet at a time, and rotate about 1/2 way through the recommended baking time. I keep an eye on the edges of the cookies and when they show just a bit of browning I take them out of the oven. If you leave cookies on a hot cookie sheet after removing it from the oven they will continue to brown slightly so I usually remove earlier rather than later.

Sometimes it's a good idea to bake a couple cookies to test out the oven - if you screw up two cookies then the whole batch isn't ruined. Once you get the timing down on a couple at a time it should make it easier to judge the timing for when you get going with them.

Follow the instructions as written, if it suggests letting the cookies sit on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before removing, do that. If it instructs you to remove immediately, do that. And if, when you remove your cookies to a cooling rack and they fall apart or crack ~ try removing them from the cookie sheet to a newspaper lined countertop. That gets them off the hot metal and they cool without falling through the cooling rack.....not that ANY of my cookies have EVER done that!

Bar cookies are another "tricky" dessert for some people. IF you bake, say a pecan bar, with a shortbread crust on the bottom and that gets baked and then the topping goes on and gets baked again....well, sometimes you think you need to bake longer than suggested. It's OK to remove when just set - the carry-over heat will finish it off after it's out of the oven. IF the edges are too hard to eat, well, just cut the edges off and only serve/take the inside part. Consider it a 'cook's treat' or Artie play toy to be batted around the hardwood floor.

Whatever you make will be appreciated. Never admit to ANY mishap. Just share the successes!

I am with Norm. I just whisk my flour if it says "sifted". It does make a difference in a recipe if it says sifted before or after measuring. The best way to bake is by using a scale but so many recipes don't have the weight listed.

Thanks, Everyone!

Norm, I rent and it would take an "Act of God" for the super to call in a repairman for the stove. Things have to really be broken for them to do so to anything. I cannot complain too much about the appliances. I have gotten a new washer, dryer, refrigerator, disposal, kitchen sink faucet, and a new stove. This stove was the cheapest smooth top around and came from a store which is known to sell "seconds"......I had no choice in the matter... The property manager thinks the stove is 'awesome'...He feels the same about the washer. It is a front loader with a small drum.. a cheap one...and I have to really bend down to put the clothes in--no platform included...... The only thing which has not been replaced is the dishwasher!!! and I do not use it very often...

For the cookies,I will sift, do a couple of 'test' cookies and take it from there.. I will sift the flour, make a couple of 'test' cookies and take it from there..

I will not panic! I will be confident! I will try to channel my mom's spirit!!!!

I may start out with something on Sunday afternoon...I will take my time!

I sound so panicked! It is just that I have not baked in a long time! Now that I have the time to devout to it--I may do ok..

I ordered some Polish food from the store today! Will pick it up Saturday! Real Polish Christmas special Kielbasa, cheese babka, red horseradish, rye bread, and the Polish love knot cookies!! and some great frozen Pierogi.. I am giving half of this as gifts.....kind of bittersweet memories of my dad....

thanks again!

As to odor, see if an oven cleaner or baking powder based cleaner will help.[/quote]

Norm, there is 'no ordor' from my oven....
I have cleaned it....

I actually use my table top convection toast oven more than my regular oven..

Barbara101 wrote:that is why I suggested a no bake dessert.

Beautiful Trifle!!

Yup, I may go with the no bake stuff...

I also found some 'no bake' cookies!

Seemed very interesting to try.......

then again, there is the bakery as a stand by!!!

Thank You All for your help with baking cookies!
I really needed it!

After the 3rd batch, I finally got it down!!

I had to increase the heat by 5 degrees and rotate 1/2 way thru the time.. It did take a bit longer to bake. I used the suggested time as a guideline to check on things...

Yes, Beth..I finally remembered to take them out when I thought they needed a 'couple more min"....

I did sift the flour!
My shoulder could not take the hand mixing and my hand held, cheap, mixer was not strong enough...
I took out my aunts old Sunbeam Mixmaster mixer..It had always been my standby. I never got a KitchenAid. This mixer is about 40 years old, but was able to handle the batter!!!

I was talking to both my mom and my aunt for help!!
I stopped using parchment paper; after I lost an entire tray of cookies because the paper caught on my oven mitt while I was turning...Yes that was fun! scraping burnt cookie dough off the bottom element!!
It was a scene out of I love Lucy!

But I managed!!

I also found out why my mom hated to make one certain kind...I had the same experience with them....

I made 5 different kinds of cookies.
some of my mom's and a few I found...

Candy cane crush, vanilla nut cookies, drop peanut butter cookies, lemon drop cookies and my favorite, tollhouse cookies (chocolate chip with chopped peanuts)...

I did one per day and even frosted them with old fashioned butter cream frosting and decorated them!



I was in pain each night and definitely needed a drink after that!

Merry Christmas!!

FABULOUS!!!

And to think you are already able to laugh after such a short period of time.....I remember the time my parchment paper caught fire....still not funny (to me....).

Congratulations on a great job. And don't think just because that Mixmaster is old that it's days should be numbered.....a bunch of us 'oldies' are stronger than some might think! The only reason I got rid of mine was because I got a KitchenAid as a gift one year.....otherwise I'd still be using it. (I do have to admit, I like the paddle on the KA a whole lot more than the double beaters on the MM)

Beth, I can understand why you would like the paddle on the Kitchen Aid...I was wishing for it this week...
My first few cookies came out overdone....Good thing it was a huge recipes, so I got to throw away a lot of them.. I hope they softened up a bit...these were the vanilla nut cookies which were a bi@@@ to roll out! I finally really why...they are a chill, and slice cookie--not a roll out one! My mom always rolled them out and swore when they stuck to the counter, rolling pin cookie cutters...and with plenty of flour....but she loved to cut them out and decorate them. If I make them again, I will slice and bake....no cookie cutters..

The ones in the "I Love Lucy (Cindy)" episode were the peanut butter one...but that was a good thing cuz I redid it. Came out more uniform in size and not too crispy.. I decorated them also..
After that I had a light bulb go off in my head, after I said out loud, "Auntie Mary--help!" (it was her mixmaster)...and I calmed down and it worked!!!!

now I am done with it!!! we will see how they go over...I have some bakery cookies at home, as a back up.....lol

You can take the roll of cookie dough and roll it in sprinkles so when you cut them each cookie will have some kind of decoration around the edge.