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[Sappho]

I'm trying to make Christmas cookies for my flatmate, but the first step is to mix cold butter and sugar, and we don't have an electric mixer (or even a whisk). I'm trying to do it with a fork, but it's not working so well. Any tips? Will the recipe suffer much if I let the butter get warm and soft first? They're just basic sugar cookies.

[forsaken1111]

Did you try a wooden spoon? Really it just takes some muscle.

Yes, I do bake sometimes.

[Sappho]

I just found a site that says cold butter will make flatter cookies and melted butter will make fluffy cookies. Can anyone verify this? If that's true, I'll just melt it - I prefer fluffier cookies anyway.

[forsaken1111]

I just found a site that says cold butter will make flatter cookies and melted butter will make fluffy cookies. Can anyone verify this? If that's true, I'll just melt it - I prefer fluffier cookies anyway.

True to an extent, also depends on how they cool afterwards. It won't be a big deal if you need to melt it. Experimentation is half the fun.

!!SCIENCE!!

[Sappho]

Okay, it's melted, but not hot. Wish me luck! I'm not a very good cook, generally speaking, so I really hope this works out.

[forsaken1111]

Good luck, and if they don't come out quite right just keep trying.

[Sappho]

The cookies came out just awful. They have three different types of flour here and I picked one at random - apparently it was the wrong one. The consistency of the cookies is more like biscuits, and you can't taste the sugar at all even though it's 30% of the recipe. Now I have to decide what to do with the other (uncooked) half of the dough...

[nenjin]

Sounds like you maybe used bread flour instead of all purpose?

[Sergius]

You should use the flour that doesn't have baking soda in it. I think.

[malimbar04]

or cold butter , isn't that the idea of cold butter anyways?

with the dough you could always just eat it. Sure, it's not the healthiest, but the sugar buzz will be am amazing half hour.

[Sappho]

In this country there are three common types of flour. One is very fine, the other is slightly coarser, and the other has large grains (used for breading and frying things). I wasn't sure which of the two finer ones was closest to the all-purpose flour used in the US, so I grabbed the middle one. Apparently I should have used the finest one.

My flatmate just stares at me in amazement when I tell him in the States we mostly just use one standard type of flour for just about everything. He says he can't imagine living in such a place.

[Sergius]

Here we have two "types" of flour: Prepared, and Non-Prepared.

The first basically includes yeast or soda or something, that thing that makes cakes inflate.

The second is just the flour. Hard to find nowadays

At least, those are the regular types you find at the supermarket.

[nenjin]

Just out of curiosity, where are you Sappho? Might be worth asking a local what differences are.

The first basically includes yeast or soda or something, that thing that makes cakes inflate.

Gluten. It gets you more rise and airiness in your dough, so you end up with those fancy air pockets inside the loaf. Most artisan bread calls for high gluten flour, because regular flour produces a denser bread that is kind of boring.

[lordnincompoop]

Just out of curiosity, where are you Sappho? Might be worth asking a local what differences are.

The first basically includes yeast or soda or something, that thing that makes cakes inflate.

Gluten. It gets you more rise and airiness in your dough, so you end up with those fancy air pockets inside the loaf. Most artisan bread calls for high gluten flour, because regular flour produces a denser bread that is kind of boring.

She's in Prague. You can see that in her profile.

[Sergius]

No no, gluten flour is a separate one (they make gluten noodles with it or something which is supposed to be not-as-bad for diabethics).

Looking it up, the closest translation I find is "leavening". Which I think specifically is sodium bicarbonate, aka baking soda.

Well I guess there are more than two types here...