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Dessert

Basic Cookies

Basic Cookies are simple sweet biscuits made with flour, sugar, shortening, milk, eggs, baking powder, nutmeg, and baked.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Basic Cookies

Ovenhot oven
Timeabout 10 to 12 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Cream shortening and sugar.

  2. Beat eggs and milk together.

  3. Add eggs and milk mixture slowly to the creamed shortening and sugar.

  4. Add baking powder and half of the sifted flour.

  5. Add nutmeg.

  6. Add enough more flour to make dough roll easily on pastry board.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll dough thin and cut with cookie cutter.

  2. Sprinkle each cookie with a little granulated sugar.

  3. Bake in a floured tin in a hot oven for about 10 to 12 minutes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

845Calories
28 gProtein
27 gFat
121 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cookies together once baked.
Shortening
Creates a tender texture and richness by coating flour and trapping air when creamed with sugar.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cookies brown while creaming gives a lighter crumb.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure and richness.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the oven so the cookies rise and lighten.

The step that matters

Adding flour gradually. Flour is added in stages so the dough can be judged by feel; too much flour at once or too much extra flour makes cookies dry and tough, since gluten and starch set the texture.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, milk, egg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Jalapenofits less well
  4. Turmericfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, milk, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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