I am not what you’d call an exemplar overall. I was an honor roll student with As and Bs, and my pride and desire to please generally require that I do a passable job on most things I try, but I do not shine. I’m an editor by trade, but I am pretty much hanging at the top of the bell curve among my co-workers. I can be amusing, but I am not great at generating comedy on my own.

One thing I am reasonably proficient at is baking cookies. I think every person I know who even dabbles in baking has at least one “mine is better than anyone’s” recipe, and I’m not going to try to boast that any of mine actually are better. I will say I get compliments, and that my skills have improved over the years.

So rather than brag on my dough, I’ll share a few tips about skills that I’ve acquired and impressions that I’ve formed.

Butter is butter. Salted, unsalted, light or yellow. I’m a butter snob in that I won’t use margarine and I’m not a fan of Crisco unless there’s a specific need for it (going dairy-free or making something thick that needs a higher melting point). I’ve never tried lard; that’s on my list to do one of these days. But as far as butter goes—generic is fine. Some people swear by Kerrygold and won’t use anything else, but honestly, I’ve done side by side tests and the results are not twice as good, so I don’t think it’s worth paying double the price. I can taste the difference when buttering a roll (and it doesn’t taste twice as good, either), but in cookies (even shortbread, where the butter is key to the flavor), I’m not finding it.

Vanilla is NOT vanilla. It doesn’t seem like something that’s a tiny fraction of the overall cookie should matter so much, but it really does. Imitation vanilla is OK, but it’s not as robust. I think all of us learned as children not to drink vanilla extract, which is generally the go-to flavoring choice. Recently, I have switched to vanilla paste, which packs more of a punch—and tastes better when you lick the spoon. My mom turns her nose up at this for certain things; she likes the subtlety of the extract in cheesecake and made faces when I used the paste. It also leaves flecks, so if you’re going for snow-white dough or frosting, that’s another time to stick with the extract.

Beyond that, I’m a proponent of playing with ingredients. Swap out vanilla for almond or other extracts. (This is especially good for the icing used on Christmas cookies.) Use brown sugar (or vanilla sugar!) instead of plain white. Try chopped chocolate instead of chocolate chips. If you’re using a recipe that calls for melted butter (they do exist), try browned butter instead. It took me decades to perfect my chocolate chip cookies, and a lot of it involved variations on salt and other flavoring.

Time matters, in all kinds of ways. First, I’m not sure why this is true, but it does make a difference to start with room-temperature butter and eggs. For one thing, soft butter isn’t as messy in the mixer as the hard stuff. But logistics aside, I have noticed that the final texture is a little less crunchy if you start with warmer stuff.

Second, when you cream your butter and sugar, go longer than you think you need to. Don’t just start adding other ingredients once everything is blended. You’ll want to go at least 2 minutes and up to 5, depending on your mixer, to get the light color and fluffy texture that goes a long way to making a good final product. On the other hand, you don’t want to overmix as you’re adding flour; if you keep mixing after everything is incorporated, the final cookies are tougher and harder.

Third, if you are making an all-butter cookie, take the time to chill your dough before baking so the butter is firmer at the outset and takes longer to melt when baking. If you have a crowded fridge like I do, it’s fine to chill the dough in the bowl and then bust it up for baking, but if you have the room, it does make a difference to put the cookies on to pans and then chill the pans—either way, the cookies hold their shape better and the texture is a little nicer, but the effect is more pronounced if the pans are cold. This sounds counterintuitive to my first point, but it makes sense in that slightly melted butter mixes well, but firmer butter holds its shape longer in the oven and thus maintains the structure and air pockets longer.

Good luck! Tell me what you come up with!