Christina Tosi Shares Her ‘No. 1 Baking Tip’ — the Tester Cookie

Mar. 15, 2025

Christina Tosi.Photo:Cindy Ord/Getty

Cindy Ord/Getty

Christina Tosi’s secret to aperfect batch of cookiesisn’t an expensive baking tool or a fancy technique she learned in pastry school — it’s “the tester cookie.”

After making your dough, but before baking off the full batch, Tosi suggests scooping one single cookie on a tray and putting it in the oven.

Christina Tosi with the LG InstaView Refrigerator with MyColor.LG Electronics

LG Electronics

The tester cookie takes the guesswork out of baking. “The tester cookie tells you, ‘Are there hot spots or cold spots in my oven? Does this time and temperature work for my oven?'” says Tosi. “Developing this brilliant relationship with your oven is really important. It will change the way that you think about baking and your confidence level.”

If the one cookie doesn’t come out to your liking, you can adjust — without having just wasted a good portion of your dough.

“You start to learn how to think first off, ‘Oh, I actually like a little bit more golden brown,'” says theBake Clubauthor. “Or ‘I was hoping it would be taller, so now I’m going to scoop it a little taller,’ or ‘I actually want it to spread more.’ Okay, cool, flatten it a little bit more before you put it in the oven. ‘I wanted more chocolate chips in it…'” she adds trailing off.

Christina Tosi with the Smart Induction Slide-in Range .LG Electronics

During the event at her flagship Milk Bar location, Tosi demonstrated LG items like the LG Smart Top Control 1-Hour Dishwasher  and the LG InstaView Refrigerator with MyColor. (The window on the refrigerator door lights up one of five vibrant color options so you can see what’s in the fridge without opening the door.)

“I’m a mom, I’m a baker, I’m all of the things. I feel like LG has my home tapped,” she tells PEOPLE.

Her kids —Frankie, 3, andSonny, 1, whom she shares with husband, restaurateurWill Guidara— are right there with her baking every day.

“Our home revolves around the kitchen. They help, they pull up the stool. ‘I want to cut the apple. I want this. I want that. What about this? Can I add this to it? Open up the fridge. Knock on the window,'” Tosi mimics. “They freaking love it.”

She calls motherhood “one of the most challenging roles in life” — but also one of the “most creatively invigorating roles.”

“They re-engage parts of my imagination that even spending time around other brilliant creative people at Milk Bar doesn’t tap into,” adds Tosi. “It’s a brilliant, humbling ride of a lifetime, and I’m so excited to see who they continue to become.”

source: people.com