Taking the PST (Perfect
Squidge Temperature)
For brownies and blondies, you are the captain
of your squidge; you control the fate of the
fudginess! I’ve listed the PST with a digital
thermometer for each tray bake. If you have
underbaked and it’s too gooey, return it to a
130°C (265°F) oven to heat first and THEN
bake further.

Buttery breaks
All cookie doughs benefit from a final stiff spatula
mixing to bring any un-incorporated buttery
seams or pockets of mixture back into the dough
or batter. You can also do this by giving the dough
the lightest knead, a squeeze in plastic wrap or a
smeary mix on your work surface. Buttery seams
will produce fractures in cookies and means that
some of the dough hasn’t received all the butter
love it should have.

Frosting reception
I am a very lean filler of sandwich cookies,
preferring more cookie to frosting filling. Increase
the filling amounts if you prefer more frosting.
For piping fillings without frustration, get your
frosting to an easily squeezable consistency and
place your cookies on a clean tea towel (dish
towel) on a tray for traction. To sandwich, push
the top cookie down with a motion that is part
swirl/part shimmy, so the frosting meets the
cookie edge.

One-tray life
If you only have one tray, bake the first full tray,
then gently slide the baking paper off with the
cookies onto a cooling rack. Note: this only works
with very shallow-sided trays. Load the next batch
onto the tray – freshly paper lined. Bake this batch
for a few minutes less, as the hot tray will jump
start the bake.

Bad bakes
Overspread occurs because the butter, sugar
(too much) and flour (too little) ratios are out of
whack, or the dough got warm during mixing.

Cookies that fused while they baked can be made
round again. While they are fresh out of the oven
and still soft, take a large round cutter, place it
over the cookie on the tray and make little gentle
swirly circles. The misshapen cookie edges will
rub against the sides and reform into a circle.

When the cookie crumbles
Don’t bin them. Most imperfect cookies
(misshapen/a little darker than you’d like/too
many) will make brilliant crumb for cheesecake,
a streusel for a strudel or just delicious sprankles
on ice cream.