Cookie Forming Help, Please

[Kim Shook]

I’d like a little advice here. I made these cookies for Easter:

P1100778 by ozisforme, on Flickr

This is what they looked like on the website where I got the recipe.

I love how they got the lines between the colors so sharp, but I know that is practice (and possibly a little expert photoshop-ing). What I’m really wanting to know is how they kept the coils so separate and defined. Mine looked like that before they went into the oven, but flattened out like you see in my picture. Could it just be a matter of refrigerating the cooky sheet before putting it into the oven?

[Lisa Shock]

Yeah, if you used the same dough, refrigeration is the answer -as long as your coil diameters were the same. Oven temp will also play a role here, and convection helps with this sort of thing a lot.

[ruthcooks]

In consolation, yours look beautiful. Theirs are a different beautiful, but look more like the Betty Crocker cookies dough they are made from. Did you actually use that commercial dough?

I always give my loaded cookie sheets about 10 minutes in the freezer before baking. Eliminates the slumping problem.

[andiesenji]

I agree with the chilling.

I place the cookies on sheets of parchment, stacked on a tray and put them in the freezer for 20-30 minutes.

I then slide each parchment sheet onto a sheet pan and straight into the oven. I find they bake more evenly if the pan itself isn't chilled - but perhaps that's just a fluke.

I do have a convection oven.

I do the same thing with half & half and quarter cookies.

[janeer]

Honestly...I like yours better.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Agree with the chilling, and I'll add that the very fine definition in the colours comes from using very well-chilled dough when you twist them up - that way you get adhesion without mixing the colours too much.

Although I do like yours better - there's something sort of unreal about the well-defined ones....

[Lisa Shock]

Yeah, honestly, yours look like lollapalooza lollipops, very nice.

I think where the directions may have failed is in not noting the room temperature. (you can just refrigerate for about 20 minutes and be fine) These lovely commercial test kitchens have the luxury of remaining at a constant 68°F while those of us in the real world experience more fluctuations. I know this sounds very picky, but I noticed this at home as I pulled my cookie sheet out from the drawer under the preheating oven and it was hot.

The testers also probably wore gloves which further insulated their hands and kept the dough colder.

But yeah, I have made a huge batch of dough and baked some immediately and chilled the rest and seen similar results, flat and tall.