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I think I am about at a midpoint in my experiments with butter cookies, and it might be a good time to summarize the important things I have learned about them so far.
First, the results of my last experiment. I made butter cookies with Crystal Farms unsalted butter, warming the butter to 72 F. before creaming for two minutes and mixing the flour in for two minutes plus twenty seconds. (Add half the flour, mix 20 seconds, add the remainder, mix two more minutes.) I will report three numbers for each value. First, the averaged results from warming the butter to 68.4 degrees. Second, the results from warming to 70.2 degrees. Last, last night's results, warming to 72.0 degrees:
Starting Temperature:
68.4 - 70.2 - 72.0
Ending Temperature:
68.9 (change of 0.5) - 70.9 (change of 0.7) - 71.8 (change of -0.2)
Weight of one level cup of creamed butter/sugar, not including weight of cup:
200g - 204g - 214g
Percent volume increase during creaming:
28.0% - 26.5% - 20.6%
Weight of one level cup of dough after mixing, not including weight of cup:
247 - 239 - 241
Percent volume increase during creaming and mixing:
0% - 3.4% - 2.5%
(I chalk the lower temperature when done creaming in tonight's experiment up to a combination of the short creaming time, a room temperature that was probably below 72 degrees, and to the bowl being a little bit cool and absorbing some of the heat from the butter.)
Last night's cookies, creamed at the highest temperature, turned out the best so far of these three batches at increasingly higher temperatures. The cookies from the Williams-Sonoma Goldtouch Commercial Quality Baking Sheet were pretty much the same as the ones I made earlier after six minutes' creaming, except they don't seem quite as sweet. The cookies from the Wilton pan are insignificantly pitted, but are flatter. However, they are not hard and not crispy. I probably didn't bake them quite long enough - they might have gotten a little crispier. I only made one pan's worth.
Last night's cookies seemed to want a little bit longer baking at 350 F. than did cookies I mixed at lower temperatures. The reason why is one of those unfathomable mysteries.
I noticed something different about this batch. One thing I didn't mention before is that the dough from the two batches I made at lower temperatures wanted to climb up the beaters. It would fill the insides of the wire cages and actually go up above the wire cages. I would stop beating half-way through and clear them out, particularly the dough that climbed over the top of the beaters, because it was hardly mixed at all and would have been two globs of mostly just butter in the middle of the refrigerated rolls. That was kind of a pain. The batch I made today didn't climb above the beaters at all. That was consistent with my discovery of the big mistake of trying to cream butter that was too cold, when it would just glom onto the beaters and not cream at all. I have not had the problem with dough climbing above the beaters with any of my experiments until those two. In all the previous experiments where I was mixing in flour and baking cookies, I was creaming the butter for six minutes. That raised the temperature of the butter a fair amount before the flour was added. Those two batches were probably the first ones I made where I added the flour at a bit lower temperature. I don't think this observation has anything to do with how the cookies turn out, but it's interesting! Besides the cookies coming out differently, it's another manifestation of the dough actually being different between the batches, and it's a difference that can be explained by a higher temperature.
The photo shows two cookies in the foreground, both from the Williams-Sonoma Commercial Quality Baking Sheet. The one on the left is from today, i.e. butter warmed to 72.0 degrees before creaming for two minutes. The one of the right is from the previous experiment, butter warmed to 70.2 degrees before creaming. Otherwise, everything was the same. You can see how much higher the cookie on the left rose than the one on the right. Both cookies are representative of all the cookies on the pan. The munching texture was equally different, better in the cookie on the left, in my opinion.
Here's the "stock" of results so far:
- the brand of butter I use makes a big difference. If I use unsalted butter from Weyauwega Star Dairies, they come out far too flat and pitted. If I use Crystal Farms unsalted butter, problems with pitting are nearly eliminated, and the texture is much nicer. Also, the taste seems slightly better due to the flavor of the Crystal Farms butter. I still need to try out Land o' Lakes unsalted butter, European style butter, and margarine.
- the amount of air introduced during creaming is not very important, except that there has to be some. The process of mixing in the flour beats almost all the air out of the creamed butter, but the amount that remains is extremely important. If I add the flour to creamed butter whose temperature is on the low side (below 70 degrees), there is not really any air left after mixing and the cookies will be far too flat and hard. If the butter is just a little warmer, there is a little air left in the dough, and that allows the cookies to rise slightly and not be hard. If it was too warm, the creaming wouldn't introduce enough air in the first place, but I'm not sure what would be "too warm."
- if I cream for six minutes, the temperature of the butter rises a fair amount during creaming, so if I start with the butter at 68 or 69 degrees, the flour is added with the butter at a much warmer temperature and the resulting cookies are great. If I only cream for two minutes, I have to warm the butter to a higher temperature before creaming, otherwise the butter isn't warm enough when I add the flour.
- warming the butter to a higher temperature before starting creaming keeps creaming from incorporating as much air into the butter as when creaming from a lower temperature, but that's not a key issue, as long as there is "enough" air introduced from creaming. However, the cookies made with only two minutes' creaming are generally not quite as high as those with six minutes' creaming, so it is possible two minutes' creaming is not quite "enough", although the cookies actually come out more or less OK.
- pans that don't heat the dough too quickly produce better butter cookies, i.e. not as hard
- longer creaming seems to increase the sweetness of the cookies
- two minutes of mixing flour with the butter at my Sunbeam Mixmaster's Level 2 is enough, but nothing less will give adequate mixing. Too bad, because less would not cause as much air to be lost from the dough.
I think that about sums it up. Here are the things I see doing in the near future:
1. Do one more creaming temperature experiment, at about 74 degrees. See if the Wilton pan cookies are then the same as the cookies from six-minute creaming.
2. Try creaming for four minutes, starting at a couple of different temperatures.
3. Try increasing the amount of baking powder from 0.5 tsp to 1.0 tsp, and see what that does for the cookies creamed for two minutes.
4. If the "best" procedure turns out to be two minutes of creaming, try it with superfine sugar.
5. Make the cookies with the "best" procedure, using unsalted Land o' Lakes butter, a European style butter, and margarine.
6. Try a larger amount of vanilla, and different vanillas.
7. Investigate what happens if I bake the cookies at 325 instead of 350, but for a longer period of time, with the Wilton or other dark non-stick pans.
8. Try adding lemon zest.
9. Try different brands/kinds of flour and see if they affect the results at all.
10. Make the cookies with baking soda instead of baking powder.
That will keep me busy for probably three more months. I have to admit I'll be glad to move on to other cookies! But I'm sure learning a lot, nonetheless. Luckily, I still think the butter cookies are delicious!
First, the results of my last experiment. I made butter cookies with Crystal Farms unsalted butter, warming the butter to 72 F. before creaming for two minutes and mixing the flour in for two minutes plus twenty seconds. (Add half the flour, mix 20 seconds, add the remainder, mix two more minutes.) I will report three numbers for each value. First, the averaged results from warming the butter to 68.4 degrees. Second, the results from warming to 70.2 degrees. Last, last night's results, warming to 72.0 degrees:
Starting Temperature:
68.4 - 70.2 - 72.0
Ending Temperature:
68.9 (change of 0.5) - 70.9 (change of 0.7) - 71.8 (change of -0.2)
Weight of one level cup of creamed butter/sugar, not including weight of cup:
200g - 204g - 214g
Percent volume increase during creaming:
28.0% - 26.5% - 20.6%
Weight of one level cup of dough after mixing, not including weight of cup:
247 - 239 - 241
Percent volume increase during creaming and mixing:
0% - 3.4% - 2.5%
(I chalk the lower temperature when done creaming in tonight's experiment up to a combination of the short creaming time, a room temperature that was probably below 72 degrees, and to the bowl being a little bit cool and absorbing some of the heat from the butter.)
Last night's cookies, creamed at the highest temperature, turned out the best so far of these three batches at increasingly higher temperatures. The cookies from the Williams-Sonoma Goldtouch Commercial Quality Baking Sheet were pretty much the same as the ones I made earlier after six minutes' creaming, except they don't seem quite as sweet. The cookies from the Wilton pan are insignificantly pitted, but are flatter. However, they are not hard and not crispy. I probably didn't bake them quite long enough - they might have gotten a little crispier. I only made one pan's worth.
Last night's cookies seemed to want a little bit longer baking at 350 F. than did cookies I mixed at lower temperatures. The reason why is one of those unfathomable mysteries.
I noticed something different about this batch. One thing I didn't mention before is that the dough from the two batches I made at lower temperatures wanted to climb up the beaters. It would fill the insides of the wire cages and actually go up above the wire cages. I would stop beating half-way through and clear them out, particularly the dough that climbed over the top of the beaters, because it was hardly mixed at all and would have been two globs of mostly just butter in the middle of the refrigerated rolls. That was kind of a pain. The batch I made today didn't climb above the beaters at all. That was consistent with my discovery of the big mistake of trying to cream butter that was too cold, when it would just glom onto the beaters and not cream at all. I have not had the problem with dough climbing above the beaters with any of my experiments until those two. In all the previous experiments where I was mixing in flour and baking cookies, I was creaming the butter for six minutes. That raised the temperature of the butter a fair amount before the flour was added. Those two batches were probably the first ones I made where I added the flour at a bit lower temperature. I don't think this observation has anything to do with how the cookies turn out, but it's interesting! Besides the cookies coming out differently, it's another manifestation of the dough actually being different between the batches, and it's a difference that can be explained by a higher temperature.
The photo shows two cookies in the foreground, both from the Williams-Sonoma Commercial Quality Baking Sheet. The one on the left is from today, i.e. butter warmed to 72.0 degrees before creaming for two minutes. The one of the right is from the previous experiment, butter warmed to 70.2 degrees before creaming. Otherwise, everything was the same. You can see how much higher the cookie on the left rose than the one on the right. Both cookies are representative of all the cookies on the pan. The munching texture was equally different, better in the cookie on the left, in my opinion.
Here's the "stock" of results so far:
- the brand of butter I use makes a big difference. If I use unsalted butter from Weyauwega Star Dairies, they come out far too flat and pitted. If I use Crystal Farms unsalted butter, problems with pitting are nearly eliminated, and the texture is much nicer. Also, the taste seems slightly better due to the flavor of the Crystal Farms butter. I still need to try out Land o' Lakes unsalted butter, European style butter, and margarine.
- the amount of air introduced during creaming is not very important, except that there has to be some. The process of mixing in the flour beats almost all the air out of the creamed butter, but the amount that remains is extremely important. If I add the flour to creamed butter whose temperature is on the low side (below 70 degrees), there is not really any air left after mixing and the cookies will be far too flat and hard. If the butter is just a little warmer, there is a little air left in the dough, and that allows the cookies to rise slightly and not be hard. If it was too warm, the creaming wouldn't introduce enough air in the first place, but I'm not sure what would be "too warm."
- if I cream for six minutes, the temperature of the butter rises a fair amount during creaming, so if I start with the butter at 68 or 69 degrees, the flour is added with the butter at a much warmer temperature and the resulting cookies are great. If I only cream for two minutes, I have to warm the butter to a higher temperature before creaming, otherwise the butter isn't warm enough when I add the flour.
- warming the butter to a higher temperature before starting creaming keeps creaming from incorporating as much air into the butter as when creaming from a lower temperature, but that's not a key issue, as long as there is "enough" air introduced from creaming. However, the cookies made with only two minutes' creaming are generally not quite as high as those with six minutes' creaming, so it is possible two minutes' creaming is not quite "enough", although the cookies actually come out more or less OK.
- pans that don't heat the dough too quickly produce better butter cookies, i.e. not as hard
- longer creaming seems to increase the sweetness of the cookies
- two minutes of mixing flour with the butter at my Sunbeam Mixmaster's Level 2 is enough, but nothing less will give adequate mixing. Too bad, because less would not cause as much air to be lost from the dough.
I think that about sums it up. Here are the things I see doing in the near future:
1. Do one more creaming temperature experiment, at about 74 degrees. See if the Wilton pan cookies are then the same as the cookies from six-minute creaming.
2. Try creaming for four minutes, starting at a couple of different temperatures.
3. Try increasing the amount of baking powder from 0.5 tsp to 1.0 tsp, and see what that does for the cookies creamed for two minutes.
4. If the "best" procedure turns out to be two minutes of creaming, try it with superfine sugar.
5. Make the cookies with the "best" procedure, using unsalted Land o' Lakes butter, a European style butter, and margarine.
6. Try a larger amount of vanilla, and different vanillas.
7. Investigate what happens if I bake the cookies at 325 instead of 350, but for a longer period of time, with the Wilton or other dark non-stick pans.
8. Try adding lemon zest.
9. Try different brands/kinds of flour and see if they affect the results at all.
10. Make the cookies with baking soda instead of baking powder.
That will keep me busy for probably three more months. I have to admit I'll be glad to move on to other cookies! But I'm sure learning a lot, nonetheless. Luckily, I still think the butter cookies are delicious!
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