Are You Skipping This Crucial Cookie-Baking Step?

If you've ever burnt a batch of cookies — and really, who hasn't? — this tip's for you. After you've cranked your oven up to the appropriate temperature and lined or greased the sheet pan as instructed by the recipe (if applicable), portion out one cookie onto the sheet pan. Bake it according to the recipe's instructions, including allowing it to cool for a few minutes before tasting. Now, take a bite. If it turned out as desired, bake the remaining cookies. If it's over- or undercooked or it stuck to the pan, adjust from there by tweaking the bake time, changing the oven temperature, or lining your sheet pan with parchment before baking the remaining cookies.

Baking a test cookie might seem like a waste of time, persnickety even, but we continue to do this (even as experienced bakers) whenever we're testing a new recipe or baking in an unfamiliar kitchen (each oven functions a little bit differently). We might skip this step if we've made the recipe before, but otherwise it's a must do. (Burnt cookies break our hearts.)