Baking cookies can pretty easy but it’s not without it’s tricks and it’s actually quite common to make mistakes. Don’t believe me? Have you ever had a cookie that was too hard, too flat, or a little burned? There you go – now you believe me when I say it’s quite easy to mess a recipe up and underdeliver on your cookies! But fear not my friends because with my tips below, you too can avoid these cookie baking mistakes. 😉
- Measure. Measure. Measure
Not measuring your flour or doing it the wrong way may be the biggest cookie-baking mistake. Make sure you always use measuring props (measuring spoon or cup) and most important of all, have a digital scale. Adding too much flour will make your cookies dry and rough (more like biscuits) and adding too little will make them flatter and more chewy.
- Flour is power
You may feel like playing around with the flours as there’s such a variety in the market! And while it’s true that most cookie recipes call for all-purpose flour, you may be shocked to read recipes that use more than one kind. Using the wrong kind of flour will change the texture and possibly taste of the cookies so, before you start making that recipe you found online, make sure you have the right flour at home.
- Mix it baby – but just enough!
I know kneading and mixing dough can be therapeutic! If you're the type who likes to mix until you drop it your cookies will turn out bad. In fact over mixing can add excess air to the dough and lead gluten to get tougher and you’ll end up with hard cookies. For perfect texture cookies, mix or roll the dough just enough to get a uniform dough.
- Chill eggs won’t do
Chill eggs (straight from the fridge) will deny your cookies a fluffy and light texture. For that, you need room temperature eggs. Cold eggs don’t allow the dough to properly sit and form little air pockets it won’t have prevent the dough from aerating properly, meaning you won't have those air pockets that help improve the texture of your cookies. Quick tip – if you don’t have time to allow the eggs to reach room temperature, put them in a bowl with warm water for just a few minutes and it’ll do the trick.
- Stale baking soda means flat cookies
Baking soda and baking powder are the magic ingredients that make dough rise. Even though they have long shelf lives, if they’ve been open for 6 months or more, they kinda lose their dough-raising property. You may think this is not that important when it comes to cookies but, think again. It will make a difference and your cookies will be flat(ter than they normally should)!
- Too much grease leads to a slippery slope
Cookie dough is mean to spread in the process of baking. But it’s not meant to spread so much that they start fusing with one another – think ginormous cookie. The main reason for that to happen is by greasing the cookie sheet too much. The best tip anyone can give you is to skip greasing the pan and instead line it with parchment paper or a baking liner. This way the cookies will still spread, but not too much!
- There is such a thing as too much cookies
I know you want to bake as many cookies as you can and maybe your tray doesn’t fit as many cookies as your recipe yields. However, the other thing that will make your cookies turn into the ginormous cookie we talked about above, is having too much dough on a tray. The rule of thumb here is to separate the cookies on the baking tray at least 2 inches from each other. This will prevent cookies from merging into each other AND it’ll also allow your cookies to grow as they should since there aren’t too many sharing the heat. If you have to bake in two trays or even two batches, go for it and you won’t regret!
- Pre-heating is a must!
I’m not talking about leaving the tray in the oven while it preheats. And I know you didn’t just not pre-heat it intentionally. You got so caught up getting the dough ready that you forgot it! This step is extra important but And this is especially important with cookies because they might only bake for 10 or 12 minutes, so your oven really needs to be at the right temperature when they go in.
- No peaking!
It’s so hard to wait for your cookies to bake after all the time preparing them but you have to be strong sister! Opening the oven door to take several peeks won’t help your cookies bake faster and, every time you do it, the heat escapes through the door and the oven temperature drops. Again, cookies are not as sensitive as cakes but doing that may stop your cookies from spreading and cooking evenly, or from browning. The best way to track it is to follow the recipe and set the timer for the minimum baking time on it. Trust the process and find the next recipe you want to bake while you wait!
- An extra minute might be too much
Every recipe tells you a minimum baking time and that’s your golden reference. Set your timer for that minimum time and check if your cookies are lightly golden on the top AND bottom! If so, remove them and let them cool down. Remember that for cookies, even an extra minute might be too much. Not only they may come out slightly burned, they may also become tooth breaking hazard as they’ll turn hard after cooling.
*** Well, I hope these tips can help you bake amazing cookies next time! And if you’re looking for Vancouver’s Best Cookies, we’ve got you! 😉