Making Cookies? Leave the Stand Mixer on the Shelf

By Genevieve Yam

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Rose Levy Beranbaum wants you to break the rules. The expert baker and author of 13 cookbooks (most recently The Cookie Bible), is usually a stickler for following recipes to a T. But like any great cook, she knows exactly when to deviate from a recipe. Beranbaum's Freedom Treasure Cookies are all about following your instinct and forgetting everything you know about precise measurements and step-by-step instructions. Instead, throw caution to the wind—and into the food processor.

Beranbaum's recipe template allows you to frankenstein together all the qualities of your favorite cookies with the odds and ends in your cabinet, like the shredded coconut, handful of nuts, or rogue chocolate chips leftover from a prior baking project. And since you mix the dough in the food processor, you can get all of your chopping and stirring done without dirtying too many bowls and cutting boards. These pantry treasures, Beranbaum writes in The Cookie Bible, "will give you the freedom to make your own dream cookie." Her handy base recipe is a road map for whipping up whatever cookie your heart desires, whether that involves white chocolate with dried cranberries, pecans and chocolate chips, or just some old-fashioned oatmeal and raisins.

"It's not only a great way to use your leftovers, but it also frees you from all the dictates of having to weigh or measure correctly," Beranbaum tells me. "You sort of do that up to a point, but you have the freedom to add whatever you want." Add chew to your cookies with dried fruit, a bright pop of flavor with citrus zest, or crunch with toasted nuts. If you’re looking for melty pockets in every bite, consider some chocolate chunks or butterscotch chips.

While many cookie recipes are made by hand or in the bowl of a stand mixer, Beranbaum instructs bakers to whizz up the dough for this recipe—among several others in the book—in the food processor. Throughout The Cookie Bible, the food processor stars in recipes for tahini crisps, shortbread cookies, and biscotti. Beranbaum tells me that, in addition to being faster, this keeps the ingredients cool, which prevents the dough from becoming overworked or spreading too quickly in the oven.

Shortbread cookies can be made in the food processor too.

Depending on the recipe, Beranbaum will use the machine to coarsely chop nuts before incorporating them back by hand after the dough has been mixed. When possible, she also pulses brown sugar to get rid of any lumps. Though there are certain baked goods Beranbaum wouldn't use a food processor for—like meringues or cookies where the nuts are added before the dough is mixed—it's the method she uses whenever possible.To make her Freedom Treasure Cookies, Beranbaum blitzes light muscovado and granulated sugar until it's as fine as possible, then adds the butter one piece at a time while the motor is running, followed by the egg, vanilla extract, the flour, and her additions—which can range anywhere from 3 cups to as many as 5¼ cups of add-ins. Ultimately, "people should use their judgment," Beranbaum says.

If you’re a fan of crisper cookies, you’ll want to bake them at 350ºF for 16 minutes, rotating halfway through. Looking for a cakier cookie? Bake them at 375ºF for the same amount of time. The higher temperature "will brown the cookies faster, keeping the centers softer and moister," Beranbaum writes.

It may be intimidating to freestyle a cookie, but as long as you follow her base recipe before you start to riff, there really is no right or wrong way to go about it. Free yourself from the expectations of what cookies should be—and make the cookie you want to eat. "The bottom line is that cookies are forgiving," says Beranbaum. "So as long as you can get it mixed, you’re probably going to be fine."