Everything tool you need to bake a perfect batch of cookies, according to pastry chefs

Cookies are one of the most low-stress, beginner-friendly desserts you can make, and they’re always a crowd pleaser whether they melt in your mouth or crunch as you take a bite. There’s room to grow, too — as you become confident in the kitchen, you can pick more complex recipes that require a bit more skill.

If you, like me, are gearing up for a holiday season that involves lots of cookie baking, read on. I talked to professional bakers about each step of the process and the best cooking baking tools to use. As an avid baker myself, I also added some of the tips and tricks I swear by. Plus, experts answered some of the most frequently asked questions about baking cookies, including what’s likely your biggest concern: how to avoid a burnt batch.

Want more from NBC Selected? Sign up for our newsletter, The Selection, and shop smarter.

Once you decide what type of cookie you’re making (learn about some of the most common ones here), it’s time to put the dough together. First thing’s first: read through the entire recipe and follow it exactly as it’s written, as obvious as that sounds, says Penny Stankiewicz, a chef-instructor of pastry and baking arts at the Institute of Culinary Education. Don’t substitute ingredients — if you do, your cookies won’t taste or have the same texture as the recipe intended.

There’s one exception to the rule: You can play with a recipe’s flavors and mix-ins. “As long as you don’t mess with the structural ingredients of the recipe, like flour, butter and sugar, you’re not going to wreck its integrity,” says Stankiewicz. “For example, you can change how much vanilla extract you add, sprinkle cinnamon into your dough or use two types of chocolate chips instead of one.”

Below are tools experts recommend using while making cookie dough.

You can measure ingredients by volume or by weight. Measuring by volume involves using liquid and dry measuring cups, while measuring by weight involves using a kitchen scale. Arlyn Osborne, a recipe developer, food writer and the author of “Sugarcane,” recommends measuring ingredients by weight since it’s more precise and helps ensure that cookies are consistent every time you make them.

The majority of cookies home bakers make involve the creaming method, which means the first step in the recipe is to cream room temperature butter and sugar together, says Stankiewicz. Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment is the easiest way to do so. Experts also recommend keeping a flexible silicone spatula on hand to periodically scrape the sides of the bowl. You can use a hand mixer or spoon to cream butter and sugar for cookies, but it’s not as efficient.

Mixing bowls are available in materials like glass, ceramic and metal, but it ultimately doesn’t matter when it comes to making cookies, says Elizabeth Barbone, a recipe developer and cookbook author who runs the sites Cook Fast, Eat Well and Gluten-Free Baking. What does matter is the mixing bowl’s size. Ingredients spill out of bowls that are too small while you’re stirring, and while there’s no such thing as a bowl that’s too big while you’re hand-mixing, there is if you’re using a stand mixer. Mixing bowls that are too big may prevent the mixer’s paddle from reaching its sides, smearing ingredients into a paste along the bottom of the bowl instead of whipping it until fluffy, says Barbone.

Each type of cookie has a signature shape (learn more about here), which you achieve using specific tools. Below, I listed what you need to form a few popular ones.

Cookie scoops help you create balls of dough for drop cookies that are the exact same size, ensuring that the batch bakes evenly, says Barbone. She prefers cookie scoops with trigger handles since they quickly release balls of dough, which makes shaping drop cookies fast and efficient.

Cookie scoops come in a variety of sizes, which you’ll see listed as a number that corresponds to the number of scoops per quart of dough. For example, a #40 scoop gives you about 40 scoops per quart and a #10 scoop gives you about 10 scoops per quart — this means the #10 scoop is larger than the #40 scoop. There’s no standard scoop size you should look for, but #40 is common for cookies, says Barbone. If you make cookies often, consider buying a large, medium and small scoop so all your bases are covered.

You don’t technically need to buy a rolling pin since you can use household objects as alternatives, like wine bottles and canned foods. But a rolling pin gives you more even results while making cutout cookies, so if you plan on baking often, it’s nice to have.

Cookie cutters come in hundreds of shapes: circles, hearts, squares, gingerbread men, menorahs, animals, numbers, letters, symbols… you name it, there’s a cookie cutter for it. Some companies even let you create custom cookie cutters, which is a great option for themed events. There’s options made from plastic and metal, either of which will do, but each material has strengths and weaknesses.

• Metal cookie cutters give cookies clean, crisp edges and they’re easy to clean since you can put them in the dishwasher, says Barbone. But they’re sharper compared to plastic cutters, so they’re not kid-friendly. Metal cookie cutters are also quite durable, says Stankiewicz. If you care for them properly, they can last for decades. In fact, Stankiewicz says her family’s copper cookie cutters have been passed down for generations.
• Plastic cookie cutters are duller compared to metal options. This makes them suitable for kids, but they can give cookies messy, smushed edges, says Barbone. Even if the plastic cookie cutters you buy say they’re dishwasher safe, it’s best to hand-wash them, says Stankiewicz — heat from the dishwasher can cause them to melt or become misshapen.

A cookie press, which you use to make spritz cookies, is a cylindrical tool with a plunger on one end and interchangeable discs on the other. Each disc has cutouts on it, creating different shapes. You load dough into the body of the press and use the plunger to push it through the disc’s holes, resulting in perfectly shaped cookies. You move the press’ head along the sheet pan and push out one cookie at a time.

Barbone recommends buying a cookie press that comes with metal discs, which cleanly release dough so each cookie’s shape is clearly defined. Avoid plastic cookie presses: They’re more prone to getting clogged and breaking, she says.

After rolling dough into logs while making slice-and-bake cookies, you wrap each one in plastic cling wrap and put them in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight. The plastic wrap keeps the dough fresh while it’s chilling and keeps odors and moisture out. If you’re looking for a plastic wrap alternative, reusable beeswax wrap is a great option, and some brands make silicone tools to help you size, shape and store slice-and-bake dough.

Putting cookies in the oven is often the most nerve-wracking step for home bakers — no one wants to put effort into perfecting dough and end up with a burnt final product. To ensure cookies come out golden brown and ready to sink your teeth into, use the below expert-recommended tools.

Even when you set your oven to a specific temperature, it probably doesn’t warm up to exactly where you want it, unless it was recently calibrated, says Stankiewicz. This means your baked goods are likely cooking at a slightly lower or higher temperature than you’re anticipating, which impacts cooking time. To confirm that your oven reaches the right temperature before adding your cookies, Stankiewicz recommends buying an oven thermometer. It hooks onto the oven’s racks and reads its internal temperature, which you can monitor while your oven is preheating to adjust its settings accordingly.

Experts recommend keeping a few half-sheet pans in your kitchen at all times because they’re so versatile. You can use them to bake and cook sweet and savory foods, plus they last for years if cared for properly.

For cookies specifically, it’s best to use rimmed sheet pans. “I never use a sheet pan without a rim because there’s always a chance something could slide off the edge,” says Barbone. This is especially the case with cookies. Recipes often tell you to rotate the sheet pan halfway through to ensure all of the cookies bake evenly, and if your sheet pan doesn’t have a rim, the cookies may slide off during this process.

Additionally, pay attention to the color of your sheet pan. Darker sheet pans tend to conduct more heat, which means the bottoms of your cookies will bake faster than the tops, says Stankiewicz. This is often why people end up with cookies that are burnt on the bottom but still raw on top. Use a lighter colored sheet pan to avoid this issue, says Stankiewicz.

Parchment paper and silicone baking mats serve the same purpose and are essentially interchangeable when it comes to baking cookies. They line your sheet pan, provide a nonstick surface to bake on and make cleanup a breeze. You can also line your pan with tin foil, but since the material conducts heat, it tends to make the bottoms of your cookies darker and speed up baking time — try to avoid it if you can, says Sarah House, the food innovation chef and recipe and development lead at Bob’s Red Mill.

Beyond one being disposable and the other being reusable, the main difference between parchment paper and silicone baking mats is how much cookies grip onto them. Silicone baking mats are so nonstick that cookies don’t have much to grasp onto, which might cause them to spread too much while baking, says Barbone. Parchment paper is still nonstick, but cookies can grip to it more, reducing spread. Barbone opts for parchment paper instead of silicone baking mats for cookies, but it’s ultimately a personal preference.

Always keep track of how long cookies have been in the oven relative to the estimated bake time detailed by your recipe. You can use a mechanical or digital timer, or devices like your phone or watch.

Remember that a recipe’s estimated bake time is just a guideline, says Stankiewicz. Factors like the type of oven you’re using, whether you preheated it and how many trays of cookies are baking at once can impact baking time. Because of this, one of the best ways to determine cookie doneness is by using your nose. “Once you start smelling the cookies, start checking on them,” says Stankiewicz. From there, pay attention to the cookies’ color and texture. Fully baked cookies are usually golden brown and have a matte rather than glossy appearance, so once you see those signs and smell them, pull them out of the oven.

When you take your cookies out of the oven, let them cool on the sheet pan for five to 10 minutes before gently moving them to a cooling rack with a spatula, says House. If you leave cookies on a hot pan, they’ll continue baking and can become overdone. But placing cookies on a cooling rack allows air to circulate around them, cooling them quickly and preventing extra baking.

Once the cookies are cool, decorate them however you’d like, although it’s not a required step — they’re delicious straight out of the oven. A few ideas: you can dust your cookies with powdered sugar, make a glaze or frosting or top them with sprinkles.

As long as you bake cookies all the way through, the experts I talked to say most batches have a week-long shelf life. Store them in a container with a tightly sealed lid to keep air, odors and moisture out, and stack them with parchment paper between each layer so they don’t stick together.

If you need to store fully baked cookies beyond a week, Barbone recommends freezing them. The best way to do so is by laying the cookies out on a sheet pan or plate and putting them in the freezer. Once they’re frozen, transfer them to an airtight container or a tightly sealed bag. Frozen cookies keep well for at least three to five months, says Osborne.

• Drop cookies: As the name implies, you make drop cookies by dropping balls of dough onto a sheet pan. The dough spreads in the oven, giving the cookies a round shape once baked — think typical chocolate chip cookies, for example. Drop cookies are the easiest cookies to make.
• Cut out cookies: The star of any holiday cookie box, cut out cookies are made by rolling out dough and using cookie cutters to create shapes. They’re also a great option for beginner bakers. People traditionally make cut out cookies from sugar or gingerbread cookie dough, but the flavor possibilities are endless.
• Slice-and-bake cookies: To make slice-and-bake cookies, you roll dough into logs and refrigerate them. Once the dough is chilled, you slice the logs into rounds and bake them on a cookie sheet. Slice-and-bake cookies are shortbread cookies, meaning they’re buttery and have a crumbly texture. They’re pretty straightforward to make.
• Spritz cookies: You make spritz cookies with a cookie press, a tool that pushes dough through a patterned disc. The dough is very soft, which makes it easy to force through the press. Once they bake, spritz cookies have a lighter texture compared to cut out cookies, says Barbone. Using a cookie press can be tricky, so experts recommend mastering more beginner-friendly bakes first, like drop, cut out and slice-and-bake cookies.

Throughout their years of baking cookies, the experts I talked to have seen and experienced their fair share of mistakes. Below are their tips for avoiding common issues.

• Cookie dough easily sticks to your rolling pin and countertop. To prevent this, people often sprinkle flour on the dough and surface its resting on, but doing so adds flour to the dough and too much can dry it out. Instead, Stankiewicz recommends rolling out the dough between two pieces of parchment paper to prevent sticking.
• If you’re measuring dry ingredients by volume, spoon them into measuring cups until they dome over the top. Then scrape a knife along the top of the measuring cups to level them off, says Osborne. This helps you avoid adding excess ingredients to your dough.
• The bottoms of cookies can burn for a number of reasons, but if you notice it happening every time you use a specific sheet pan, odds are the pan is too thin. Thin sheet pans transfer too much heat to cookies’ bases, causing them to bake faster than the rest of the treat and get darker at the bottom. Instead of buying a new set of pans, consider stacking two on top of each other, says Osborne. Doing so adds an extra layer of protection for the cookies’ bases since the two pans absorb double the amount of heat.
• To keep cookies soft, add a piece of white bread to the container you’re storing them in. The bread releases moisture inside the container, which the cookies slowly absorb so they don’t dry out. Replace the piece of bread every two days.
• If drop cookies lose their round shape in the oven, it’s fixable. Cookies are soft and moldable when they’re hot, so you can adjust them slightly, turning them back into a perfect circle. Take a circular cookie cutter or cup that fits over your cookies and gently swirl it around each one immediately after removing the pan from the oven, says Stankiewicz.

At NBC Selected, we work with experts who have specialized knowledge and authority based on relevant training and/or experience. We also ensure that all expert advice and recommendations are made independently and with no undisclosed financial conflicts of interest.

• Elizabeth Barbone is a recipe developer and cookbook author who runs the sites Cook Fast, Eat Well and Gluten-Free Baking.
• Penny Stankiewicz, a chef-instructor of pastry and baking arts at the Institute of Culinary Education.
• Sarah House is the food innovation chef and recipe and development lead at Bob’s Red Mill.
• Arlyn Osborne is a recipe developer, food writer and the author of “Sugarcane.”

I’m a reporter at NBC Selected who’s written about kitchen tools for over six years, including articles about pie baking tools, Dutch ovens, nonstick cookware and plastic-free cutting boards. I’ve also been an avid baker for over a decade. To write this article, I interviewed four professional bakers about their favorite cookie baking tools and tips. I curated a list of their recommendations, and I also added products that I swear by after testing them.

Catch up on NBC Selected’s in-depth coverage of tech and tools, wellness and more, and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, X and TikTok to stay up to date.