Finishing your cookies may be the most important part of making them. Eye appeal always heightens taste appeal. Make them pretty!
Make your cookies shine by mixing a pinch of salt with a fresh egg. Beat the egg and salt together (only a little), then let the mixture sit for about 15 minutes. Brush the egg mixture on each cookie before baking. Sprinkle on a little granulated sugar when desired (before baking). Egg wash is a great topping on Short Bread cookies.
Lightly toast coconut or oatmeal for use as a topping after the cookie is baked. Lightly brush the cookie with honey or corn syrup to make the coconut stick.
Melt chocolate (thin with a few drops of vegetable oil) and dip half the cookie. Place the cookie on wax paper and chill only until the chocolate sets up. Serve at room temperature.
Cookies freeze well and also will stay fresh when they are sealed in an airtight container.
Always wrap cookie dough when storing in the refrigerator. The baking soda, nuts and chocolate, will pick up odors and ruin the cookie's flavor.
Never mix types of baked cookies when storing or packing for gifts. Nuts pick up odors and so does chocolate. When different types of cookies are placed together they all will pick up the dominant odor. Ginger cookies will make all the other cookie types taste like ginger and so on.
Sending cookies through the mail makes for a great surprise, but you should always plan on about 7 days in transit. Send cookies like Sugar Cookies, Ginger Snaps and Short Bread. Seal them air-tight and in separate bags.
Experiment by sealing and letting your cookies sit for at least 5 days. If they are still good and are not crumbly, they will probably ship fine.
Popped popcorn is a good packing material to pack around bags of cookies as you place them in the shipping box. Put a note in the box telling the receiver to feed the popcorn to wild birds.
For holidays or parties, color granulated sugar with a bit of food coloring and sprinkle on unbaked sugar cookies. Lightly press the cookies flat with the bottom of a drinking glass and bake as usual.
Use as little flour as possible when rolling out or cutting cookies. The excess flour will draw moisture from the cookies and also ruin their finished appearance. Use bread type flour for dusting your cookie cutting board. Bread flour will brown quickly and not ruin the cookie's appearance.
Freshen up frozen or stored pre-baked cookies by placing them in the oven (300 degrees for 5 minutes) or better yet, place in your microwave for a few seconds.
Chocolate chip cookies may have a white haze on the chips and heating in the oven or microwave will make them taste and look like fresh baked.
Use high quality jam, not jelly, to dot or spread on cookies. Jelly is thin, weak in flavor and not suited for cookies.
Sandwich peanut butter or raspberry jam between your Vanilla Wafer cookies for a taste sensation.
Lightly toast macaroon coconut to make a super good topping.
Use glazed cherries to decorate Butter Wafer cookies or any cookie that needs a splash of color. Place a small piece of the cherry on the top of each cookie before baking. Glazed cherries do not have much flavor, so use almond extract in the cookie dough when you want a cherry taste.
Try toasting coconut, nut-meats and oatmeal before adding to the mix. Toasted coconut will give your cookies a new and special flavor.
Adding food coloring to coconut will give a festive air to your cookies. Color small amounts of coconut with different liquid food colors, then blend them together before adding to the mix.
NOTE - It is important to make notes and attach them to each cookie recipe that you make. Next time, you'll have the notes to refer to and your finishing process will flow much smoother. A sign post of great baking is consistency in everything you bake. Notes will help you keep the things you bake consistent time after time.