Hello - I’m trying to find outstanding cookie recipes found in bakeries to make for my cookie treats. I would like the confidence of having standardized recipes so that I know it will 100-percent turn out when baked and bake properly. If any of our cookietiers could assist me in this dilemma, I would really appreciate it! Thanks.
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Good luck with that. Even the most reliable cookie recipe can misbehave. I recommend starting with a recipe you like and just keep making it. You can fiddle with it. After a while you know it’s ready just by the feel or look.
Thank you! I guess what I am looking for is recipes that bakeries use. How do they find their recipes to sell in their bakeries?
Tracy Dunlap posted:Thank you! I guess what I am looking for is recipes that bakeries use. How do they find their recipes to sell in their bakeries?
I had a bakery and I did just what @Econlady described. I took recipes I liked that I used growing up and tweaked them a bit to my palate. All of the recipes in my books were also developed this way and were tested many times over by me and others before publication, so they are quite reliable - as long as you measure properly.
May I add that I’ve noticed that what works in one part of the nation doesn’t also work in another. I think it has to do with humidity or even elevation. That’s why you need to work with your own recipe until it becomes almost automatic.
And do use a scale to mesure your ingredients, including eggs. That way your dought turns out the same every time.
Thank you! Actually I do use a scale to measure ingredients, however I didn’t measure the eggs by scale if calling for 2 eggs, for example. Maybe I need to do that. Thanks
Thank you Julia for the advice! Here is a suggestion based on this question for a t.v. Baking show. Have baking professionals team up with a new cookie decorator (i.e. someone starting out, such as myself) and have them compete to see if the recipes the professional baker uses turns out when the newbie cookie baker tries for the first time?I’m sure a show like that would get a lot of laughs. Thanks!
Also, wondering what brands professional bakers use. (Butter, sugar, vanilla, Chocolate etc. ) I know that the (brands) can make a difference, and are these brands considered (trade secrets)? Just starting out and trying to research better brands so the cookies stand out and taste incredible. Thanks
A friend who managed a cookie business used what was cheapest. She even used margarine instead of butter. Everyone has their own opinion about what is best. I have the cocoa powder from king Arthur is amazing.
Really?! Wow this shocks me. I always thought the bakeries use some sort of secret brands to make their cookies so delicious.
I am also looking for nut-free cookie recipes and ingredient brands. It’s so hard to find products that don’t have peanuts/tree nuts in the product or produced in a plant or on shared equipment. It’s tough for the nut allergy people to find options.
The bottom line is important to businesses. Her boss watched pennies. She finally had enough and quit.
Tracy Dunlap posted:Thank you! Actually I do use a scale to measure ingredients, however I didn’t measure the eggs by scale if calling for 2 eggs, for example. Maybe I need to do that. Thanks
You are welcome!
I always find it interesting when someone is trying a recipe and the various results one can get. You can take a posted recipe (for example LilaLoa's vanilla), have 10 people make it, following the recipe, and get 10 different results. There are so many variants: oven, elevation, pan type, ingredient brand, ingredient weight, chilled dough vs nonchilled, parchment vs silpat …. the list goes on. I agree with everyone above. What one baker uses as their "amazing cookie recipe" may be a complete fail for someone else. Good luck and just experiment until it works for you 
