Turn Up The Flavor Of Your Cookies With One Flour Trick

You can't go wrong with a basic cookie recipe, but if your normal flour, butter, and sugar combination isn't cutting it for you, there's one easy upgrade for added flavor. This simple switch-up doesn't you require you to buy any new ingredients for your next batch of cookies. Rather, simply toast your flour prior to baking with it, and you'll taste the transformation.

In baking, toasted flour may become your new best friend because it's an easy and straightforward way to deepen a cookie's flavor. That's because your standard all-purpose flour is relatively neutral, so toasting it ahead of time adds a subtle nuance and complexity to an otherwise ordinary flour base. Specifically, the effect materializes in tasting notes that are both nutty and earthy, somewhat reminiscent of caramel. Toasting your flour yields an outcome not unlike the process of browning butter.

Toasting flour doesn't have to be a production, either. You can buy pre-toasted flours, including versions of cassava and oat flour. However, it's just as easy to make your own. Simply choose you preferred toasting technique, and the byproduct will come together in a matter of minutes.

Break out a baking sheet, open the microwave, or grab a skillet — toasting flour is a choose-your-own adventure. In any of the three situations, just make sure to spread your flour evenly across your tray, pan, or bowl, and don't let it cook for too long. Five minutes is a good general marker for all three toasting methods. If baking in the stove, however, you can up the timeline to half an hour, so long as you stir as you go. 

This trick works particularly well with all-purpose flour, as the neutral flour allows the enhanced nuttiness to shine. However, you can toast any kind of flour, whether whole wheat or your choice of flour substitute. 

You can incorporate toasted flour into any cookie recipes that call for flour. However, the toasting process will change your flour's composition, adding greater tenderness, so you'll want to find recipes specifically tailored to toasted flour rather than a non-toasted version. Luckily, these recipes run the gamut, from takes on chocolate chip cookies to basic batches of shortbread. It will only take one cookie recipe to establish toasted flour as your new favorite secret ingredient.