Wayne Gisslen

Panning, Baking, and Cooling: Baking

Appears in
Professional Cooking: 10th Edition
Professional Cooking

By Wayne Gisslen

Published 2025

  • About
  1. Most cookies are baked at a relatively high temperature for a short time.
  2. Too low a temperature increases spreading and may produce hard, dry, pale cookies.
  3. Too high a temperature decreases spreading and may burn the edges or bottoms.
  4. Even 1 minute of overbaking can burn cookies, so watch them closely. The heat of the pan continues to bake the cookies even after they are removed from the oven.
  5. Doneness is indicated by color. The edges and bottoms should just be turning a light golden color.
  6. With some rich doughs, burnt bottoms may be a problem. In this case, double-pan the cookies by placing the sheet pan on a second pan of the same size.