The Extra Step That Makes Store-Bought Cookies Taste Gourmet

A cookie fresh out of the oven is hands down the best way to enjoy a baked good. However, a good store-bought cookie with some homemade touches gives a freshly baked treat a run for its money. Whether you don't have time for a full batch of freshly baked cookies or simply are not the best baker, the quick trick of adding melted chocolate to any box of store-bought cookies will upgrade them instantly. The cookies will have the look and taste as if they just came out of a gourmet shop.

To elevate the cookies even more, consider tempering the chocolate. During the tempering process, chocolate is heated, melted, and then cooled, allowing fat crystals, also known as beta crystals, to form. The structural change transforms the chocolate giving it a shiny, glossy finish. When chocolate is melted in a double boiler or microwave, it can be streaky, dull in texture, and have a white-gray finish to it.

Sprinkles, toasted and crushed nuts, chocolate chips, and crushed candy are also excellent choices to add on top of the melted chocolate. If you want to get a more detailed pattern on the cookie, consider putting the melted chocolate in a pastry bag for a clean design. Candy melts are also a great substitution for chocolate, as they come in all colors of the rainbow, making it easy to pinpoint designs for holidays and specific celebrations.

Chocolate is just the beginning when it comes to sprucing up a batch of premade cookies. Canned frosting can also be upgraded with food coloring, candy, or spices and zest to make one-of-a-kind flavor pairings. Take oatmeal cookies and fill them with cream cheese frosting for a sandwich cookie, thin out vanilla frosting and drizzle it over snickerdoodle cookies and sprinkle cinnamon on top, or add lemon zest to vanilla frosting and spread it on top of sugar cookies. Jam, marshmallow fluff, or peanut butter are also excellent choices to use for decorations and making sandwich cookies.

The prepackaged section of the supermarket is also a great place to look for inspiration. Different color candy melts can be used to cover Oreos, like pink for Valentine's Day and red and green for Christmas. Chips Ahoy or Nilla Wafers are great for sandwich cookies. Fill the chocolate chip cookies with peanut butter and the vanilla cookies with strawberry jam.

Your eyes eat first, so how you present your store-bought cookies can make all the difference. If you are serving multiple types of cookies, look for a platter with multiple levels. Not everything on the platter has to be edible, either, so embrace holiday decorations, ribbons, or bows. For Halloween, use candy and mini decorative ghosts and spiders. If you're decorating for Christmas, tie a bow around the platter like a giant present.