Cooling Cookies

Cookies should be removed from the baking sheet as soon as possible, partly to stop them cooking further, and partly because they remain soft while still warm and will not break so easily. If they stick as they cool, warm them briefly in the oven to release them. Slide the paper off the baking sheet, peel the cookies from it and leave them on a rack to cool. Loosen cookies baked on the sheet with a sharp flexible knife. For sticky cookies (above), pour a little water under the paper, onto the hot baking sheet; the steam will loosen the cookies so that they can be lifted off the baking sheet easily.