Cookie Quandary

Welcome to another issue of Ask The Cook! As always, if you've got a cooking question, send it in! We'll answer as many as possible here in the weekly column.

With Thanksgiving behind us, cooking sights are being set on holiday parties and that time-honored ritual of Christmas cookies.

Without further ado, let's get to your questions!

Q. When I bake cookies, they always come out too flat. How can I make my cookies thicker and puffier? --Sandi D.

A. Here's a problem that crops up a LOT, especially during busy holiday baking sessions when you may have a number of different cookies in process at once.

When dough sits out and gets to room temperature, the fats in it become loose and the dough "sags." When you put it on the cookie sheet and put it in the oven, it will spread out too early into the cooking process, leading to thin, burnt, fit-only-for-skeet-shooting delicacies.

The cure? It's very simple. Keep your dough refrigerated until you're ready to dish it out. You should see a marked improvement.

BONUS TIP: If you're having trouble with cookies sticking to your sheets, and you don't like the sometimes-bitter taste and added grease of cooking sprays, try parchment paper. You'll find it with the bags and wraps at any large grocery store. It's a silicone-coated paper that you can use to line your baking sheets. Each piece can be used multiple times, and you'll not have to pry your cookies up ever again.

Q: How do you prepare a fresh pumpkin for cooking and recipes?

A: Remember that pumpkins, just like fall squash, need to be roasted before they're much use, by and large. Purchase "pie" or "sugar" pumpkins from your local grocer (or, better yet, farmer's market).

Snap the stems off the pumpkins and wash them thoroughly. Using a large chef's knife, cut each one into six or eight wedges. With your sharpest knife (fillet knives work well), cut the seeds and fibers from away from the flesh. Scrape off any recalcitrant fibers with a spoon.

Bake the wedges, uncovered, at 325° F for about 2 ½ hours. Allow to cool, then remove the skin and any dried, leathery bits. You should have a pile of lightly sweet, steaming pumpkin in front of you. As a final step, puree the flesh in a food processor or, better, a food mill until smooth and creamy.

You will now be ready to make pumpkin bread, cookies and pies that will knock the neighbors' socks off.

Q: I'm looking for recipes on fondues. --Darlene S.

A: Rather than give you recipes outright, here in Ask The Cook I'm going to try and give you the tools to create for yourself, and to recognize a sound recipe when you come across one. Here are a couple of tips for foolproof fondue:

The liquid: The biggest error new fondue makers make is thinking that cheese fondue and melted cheese are one and the same. The liquid you use, be it apple cider, white wine or something more exotic, is as vital as the cheese.

The cheese: Swiss cheese is the classic, but any easy-melting cheese will do. You can use that processed cheese food that shall remain nameless, but I don't want to hear about it.

The lumps: You've got your wine boiling, your expensive baby Swiss shredded ... you add the cheese to the pot ... and ... lumps! What went wrong? It's chemistry. You need some starch molecules in there to get in among the proteins and keep them from clumping. A tablespoon or so of corn starch mixed with the shredded cheese prior to it going into the pot will provide all the lump insurance you'll ever need.

The pot: When you first started fishing as a kid, did you go out and drop $750 on a custom-made rod and reel? Heck, no! You bought a $15 Zebco 404 and used it while you learned the mechanics of casting, reeling, etc. Use the same logic here. Don't get caught up in the current craze and lay out big bucks for your first fondue pot. There'll be plenty of time for that later, when you're an exalted fondue master.

Q: How can I add more flavor to my turkey soup? --Maryann J.

Chicken and turkey soups tend to be blank slates upon which we write with the large crayon of dried spices. That's not always the greatest idea.

Dried spices can vary widely in potency, and their effect on a cooked item can thus be catastrophic if too much is used. Whenever possible, stick with fresh herbs. And nowhere is it more possible, or more desirable, than with poultry-based soups.

This does not mean you have to enjoy your turkey soup while picking bits of sage leaf out of your teeth. Welcome, my soup-chugging chums, to the wonderful world of the bouquet garni, a bunch of fresh herbs that will rescue your soup from the depths of flavorlessness.

Most upscale grocers will carry bouquet garni bags, but I prefer to use a hank of butcher's twine to tie the stems of herbs together. Tie one end of the twine to the handle of your pot to make retreiving it easier.

What herbs to use? That's a matter of your own taste. I like a couple of good stalks of rosemary, a bundle of sage leaves, some parsley, and maybe a sprig of oregano if my Italian blood is kicking.

That's it for this week. Got a question? Send it in!