Used a low-fat margarine, diet spread, or vegetable-oil spread instead of butter or shortening. Never use a low-fat spread with 60% or less fat. Low-fat spreads have a higher moisture content and will make cookie dough very soft. Butter makes cookies spread if the dough is too soft before baking.
How to Bake the Perfect Cookie
- Use the exact ingredients in the cookie recipe. …
- Measure cookie ingredients correctly. …
- Chill cookie dough if necessary. …
- Use the best cookie sheets. …
- Prepare cookie sheets as directed. …
- Bake a test cookie. …
- Mix, bake and decorate cookies in stages. …
- Line pans for perfect bars.
Secrets to Thick, Soft, & Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Underbaked cookies are the secret to softness.
- Using cornstarch in the dough is another secret to softness, as well as the secret to thickness.
- Using more brown sugar than white sugar results in a moister, softer cookie.
- Adding an extra egg yolk increases chewiness.
Water vapor escaping from the dough in combination with the carbon dioxide released by our baking soda is ultimately what makes our cookies light and airy. … Baking powder creates extra leavening and a fluffier cookie. Many recipes call for either one or a combination of both.
Most cookie dough spreads while baking as the fat melts because the formula is designed for this to happen. However, some recipes don’t spread, so they require that you flatten the dough before baking. Otherwise, you will have cookies that are puffy and unevenly cooked.
Use butter, stick margarine (with at least 80% oil) or shortening. Whipped, tub, soft, liquid or reduced-fat products contain air and water and will produce flat, tough, under-browned cookies. Try this tip with the 40+ cookie recipes that deserve a place in your collection.
To make sure they all bake evenly, rotate the baking sheet from front to back halfway through the baking time. If you’re baking two sheets of cookies at once, switch the position of the sheets from top to bottom and then rotate them from front to back.
Chilling cookie dough before baking solidifies the fat in the cookies. As the cookies bake, the fat in the chilled cookie dough takes longer to melt than room-temperature fat. And the longer the fat remains solid, the less cookies spread.
For those ooey, gooey chocolate chip cookies, 375 degrees Fahrenheit is your sweet spot. It’s the perfect temperature to ensure super crispy exterior edges, while leaving the center slightly underdone and, thus, doughy and fudgey. If you’re feeling particularly bold, give 400 degrees Fahrenheit a go.
Why Do Cookies Get Hard? … Over time, the moisture in the cookies evaporates, leaving them stiff and crumbly. It’s the same thing that happens to breads, muffins, and other baked goods. The longer they sit, the more stale they become.
Butter contributes milk solids and water to a cookie, both of which soften it. Brown sugar contributes molasses – again, a softener. Using lower-moisture sugar (granulated) and fat (vegetable shortening), plus a longer, slower bake than normal, produces light, crunchy cookies.
Adding melted butter to your recipe will change your cookies’ and cakes’ structure, density, and texture: Adding melted butter instead of the traditional softened butter will result in a chewier cookie. Softened butter in cookie dough will give you a more cake-like cookie.
Solutions:
- That fluffy texture you want in a cake results from beating a lot of air into the room temperature butter and sugar, and it does the same for cookies. …
- Use melted butter for a denser, chewier cookie.
- Play with the liquid ratio in your recipe. …
- Use all-purpose or bread flour.
- Increase the sugar content slightly.
Hints To Prevent Flat Cookies
- Refrigerate the cookie dough. …
- Butter vs. …
- Don’t use margarine. …
- Don’t overbeat the dough. …
- If you’re rolling the cookie dough, form the dough balls tall instead of perfectly round. …
- Use parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. …
- Room temperature pans.
If your cookies repeatedly turn out flat, no matter the recipe, chances are your oven is too hot. Here’s what’s happening. The butter melts super quickly in a too-hot oven before the other ingredients have firmed up into a cookie structure. Therefore, as the butter spreads so does the whole liquidy cookie.