Baking Cookies

Because cookies bake quickly and most evenly on the middle rack of the oven, most cookie recipes in this book bake in separate batches. The standard 15 by 12 inch cookie sheet was used to determine the batch size. For cookies that require no pan preparation, lining with parchment is optional for ease in cleanup. It also works well to set a piece of parchment on the countertop and arrange the shaped cookies on top. When one batch is baked and removed from the cookie sheet, the parchment with the unbaked cookie dough can be slipped onto the hot sheet quickly and baked immediately, so that the dough doesn’t start spreading prematurely.