A few months ago, my pals over at Serious Eats asked if I’d be interested in delving into a bit of Cookie Science to explain how ingredients like butter, sugar, eggs, flour, baking soda and baking powder function within a recipe, along with an in depth look at how techniques like creaming until “light and fluffy” truly work.

Over a period of six weeks, I blasted through twenty-five pounds of sugar, fifteen pounds of flour, twelve pounds of butter, six dozen eggs, and a quart of vanilla extract. Not only did I walk away with a better understanding of cookies in general, I came to know the ins and outs of three recipes in particular: oatmeal, gingersnaps, and old fashioned sugar cookies.

While the articles focused on general rules of thumb that could be applied to most any cookie, I couldn’t help but learn all the ins and outs of those three recipes in particular. For example, when it comes to sugar cookies: less is more.

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