Should Totally Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies Be Flat After Baking? | Ask Nigella.com (2024)

FAQs

Should you flatten cookies after baking? ›

Flatten your cookies with a spatula when they first come out of the oven for perfect cookies every time.

The cookies are not supposed to flatten out completely during baking, but remain slightly mounded. This gives the cookies their soft centres. In the method it says to put mounds of the cookie dough on the baking sheet and not to flatten the mounds (step 5).

Too much flour causes the dough to become dry and crumbly, which prevents it from flattening out during baking. As a result, your cookies will stay in their original shape instead of spreading out into nice circles.

Q: Why are my cookies so puffy and cakey? Whipping too much air into the dough. 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. So don't overdo it when you're creaming together the butter and sugar.

Most cookie recipes include a range of baking times, like "8 to 10 minutes." I recommend removing the cookies from the oven at the earlier end of that range. They may look slightly underbaked when you do this, but the cookies will continue to firm up on the hot cookie sheets as they rest for a few minutes.

Place your dough on the bottom sheet of parchment. For recipes that yield more than a dozen cookies, you'll likely have to work in batches of two or more. Cover the dough with the second sheet of parchment. Rock your rolling pin back and forth over the parchment to flatten the dough.

Prepare the dough properly

You always want to use chilled cookie dough—even if that means putting it back into the refrigerator after you shape it. If you're using balls of cookie dough, form them tall to give them plenty of room to spread down as the ingredients melt.

Chilling is a step called for in many cookie recipes, and it isn't a place to cut corners. “When chilled cookies bake, the butter stays in a solid form longer, slowing the spread,” says Dawn.

Golden Brown Edges – Check the edges of the cookies for a golden brown colour. This indicates that the cookies have caramelized and are likely done. However, keep in mind that different recipes may yield cookies with different levels of browning. Set Centres – Gently touch the centre of a cookie.

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.

How do you make cookies flatten more? ›

Avoid packing the flour into the cup, as this can lead to using too much flour and result in dry, flat cookies. Adjust leavening agents: Baking powder and baking soda are responsible for the rise and structure of cookies. If your cookies are too flat, try slightly increasing these leavening agents.

Butter keeps cookies fluffy in two ways. First, creaming cold butter with sugar creates tiny, uniform air pockets that will remain in the dough it bakes up. Second, cold butter naturally takes a longer time to melt in the oven.

Flour adds fluff and texture to the cookies. Adding too little flour can cause cookies to be flat, greasy, and crispy. Most recipes assume you'll use all-purpose, but if you want a lighter, crumblier cookie texture, choose one with a lower protein content such as cake-and-pastry flour.

Reshape with cookie cutters

Once cookies are removed from the oven, using a round biscuit or cookie cutter to reshape into perfect circles fixes any misshapen cookies.

Why do my cookies go flat when I take them out of the oven? If your cookies look perfect in the oven and fall flat upon taking them out, you may have used too much sugar or too little flour. Always be sure to measure carefully using a kitchen scale and be careful not to over-bake.

Adjust leavening agents: Baking powder and baking soda are responsible for the rise and structure of cookies. If your cookies are too flat, try slightly increasing these leavening agents. Conversely, if your cookies are overly puffy and then collapse into flatness, it could be due to using too much leavening agent.

Cookies become hard when the moisture in them evaporates. This can be caused by leaving them out in the air for too long, baking them for too long, or storing them improperly. The lack of moisture makes the cookies hard and dry, which makes them difficult to enjoy.