Cookie Troubleshooting

Baked Chocolate Chip CookiesWe often get calls from consumers that are having problems with baking cookies.  I thought it might be good to share some of the common problems and what they might be caused by.

Excessive spread, loss of shape

  • Use of the wrong margarine. Make sure that your margarine has 100 calories per tablespoon. Light margarine, tub or corn oil margarine contain too much liquid and will make the cookies spread.
  • If you are using butter make sure the dough is cold. Butter has a lower melting point and if the dough is warm the butter melts before the cookie is baked and they will spread more.
  • Do not place dough on a hot cookie sheet. The dough will start to melt before they are baked and will be flatter.

Tough texture

  • Overmixing of the dough.
  • Too little sugar or fat. If you want to reduce sugar or fat look for recipes that have been tested with lower sugar and fat. It doesn’t always work to just reduce fat and sugar and have them turn out.

Bottom crust too dark

  • Cookie sheet not centered in the oven.
  • Dark cookie sheet used. The dark color absorbs the heat.
  • Crowded oven.

Dry and crumbly

  • Wrong proportion of ingredients.
  • Incorrectly measured.
  • Rack position not centered.
  • Oven temperature wrong

Hard

  • Overbaked.
  • Using flour that is too high in protein (bread flour).

Off flavor

  • Rancid shortening, nuts or coconut.
  • Poor quality of ingredients. This could include old flour.
  • Too much baking powder.
  • Storing cookies improperly causes cookies to become stale and pick up off odors.

If you are having problems with your cookies give us a call at AnswerLine.  We would be happy to discuss with you what the problem might be.

Beth Marrs

I graduated from Iowa State University with a degree in Adult Home Economics Education. I love to cook and entertain and spend time with my family.

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