I am using the same recipe as a friend and her cookies all come out so thick and soft. Taste of mine is great but I’m wondering why they come out so flat when I use the same recipe as someone else? Would love any thoughts!
Would something like chilling the dough help? Or, my friend mentioned she recently uses an extra 1/4 of flour, so maybe that will help?
by Dzweshy_redpanda
30 Comments
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yes, chilling the dough as well as adding that 1/4 cup of flour should change the outcome of the cookie.
Adding extra flour would definitely affect the texture. Your recipe has a higher fat content without the extra flour, which tends to make cookies flatter.
Try softened butter only and chill your dough. Cookies spread if your oven isn’t preheated or if there isn’t enough flour or too much sugar.
The entire purpose of chilling the dough is to make sure it doesn’t flow out so much 😉 Extra flour would also firm up the dough, but that’s a trade-off between flavour and convenience.
This is the problem with using cups vs grams for things like flour. Your cup vs her cup are probably very different in weight, but I agree with the other commenters about adding more flour slowly until you get a texture of dough that looks different than previous attempts.
Also on step 2, you want to do more than “mix”, you want to beat the butter and sugars together for like a good 5 minutes (just in case you aren’t doing this).
FWIW, yours look actually perfect. That’s exactly how I like mine!
Go back on the baking soda just tad… BS makes them spread
Change out your old baking soda. It worked for me
“mix together” can be interpreted differently. Those wet ingredients (sugar is a wet ingredient in baking, often) need CREAMED until they’re fluffy. This is nearly the tollhouse recipe, except it has cornstarch, so the flour ratio shouldn’t be off too much. Not sure how cornstarch affects cookies so maybe someone can chime in about that. But I’d say make sure your wet ingredients are being actually creamed, the butter isn’t melted or too soft (should be able to imprint finger into butter, but not have the whole thing give to pressure), and if it still turns out weird maybe 1/4 cup more flour OR same ratio of flour and remove the cornstarch.
Also maybe your baking soda is dead.
UnChilled dough, dark color or glass pan, no parchment paper, high fat ratio. Those are the 4 horsemen of the flat-cookiepocolypse.
Recipes aren’t just a list of ingredients. Is your butter the same prep/temperature as her? (That makes a huge difference). Does she chill the dough? (I always do for cookies). Different pan materials? Not all ovens are the same temp. You also admit that you aren’t using the same amount of flour as her. Recipes aren’t a cheat code to perfect results. I would go make them *with* her.
Those are perfect, don’t change anything!
Aside from letting the dough rest overnight, you can also use a glass that is slightly bigger then the cookie once out of the oven and place the glass over the warm cookie and, while holding the glass, rotate in a clockwise fashion to prop the cookie up and make it as round as possible.
Is your butter melted? I’d use room temp
Your cookies are going flat because the butter is likely a bit too warm, the dough is slightly under-floured or the oven is running too cold.
Tiny technique differences can do this even with the same recipe. Chill the dough for at least an hour and bake it cold (freezer), preheat fully to 375°F/190°C, do not put the dough on a hot aluminum sheet ! Take it out of oven when you preheat.
Keep the butter soft but not shiny, don’t over-cream, make sure your baking soda powder is fresh, and scoop the dough tall rather than flattening it. Do those things and you’ll get thicker, chewier cookies like your friend
The key is to not beat the dough. Fold and minimize mixing. Chill dough and use scooper. Hands are too warm
Try it with 1 egg + 1 yolk
Cut back on the baking soda by about a quarter teaspoon, that should also help
I used to have this issue and have increased my flour by about 1/4 a cup.
Refrigerate your dough for a minimum of one hour- up to 24 hours.
Use room temp butter and eggs- not cold.
Also, don’t add all of your dry mix to the wet at once, gradually mix it in a little at a time..
I hope you find your solution.
Chilling the dough or using colder butter and shortening would be my recommendation, in addition to the flour. If you’re using melted butter and shortening, go to room temp/softened. If you’re already using softened, you probably won’t be able to cream cold butter properly so maybe the extra flour is better.
When my cookies do this it’s usually because the butter is too soft
I would try what others are suggesting: add some flour, weigh ingredients rather than using cups, change out baking powder.
I would also suggest what finally worked for me to give the texture you’re describing, and that’s a bit of cornstarch.
Good suggestions especially about adding a bit more flour, and sufficiently beating the butter, sugar, and eggs.
I’ll add: what brand of butter are you using? I recently failed with a familiar recipe when I used a cheap store brand of butter instead of my usual Land o Lakes. I think the cheap butter had more water, so my cookies spread way too much. I should have rescued the dough with more flour, but didn’t realize they were going to be so bad.
I have some thoughts.
1. That’s barely enough brown sugar to activate the baking soda. I would switch to 1/2 tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp baking powder
2. Oven’s too hot. Reduce to 350. Everything is melting before your structure sets. Also preheat your oven for 30 minutes before baking.
3. Chill your dough before putting in the oven.
4. Alternatively your flour. First, add 1/4 of flour to balance your fat ratio. Next alter your flour, swapping bread flour for some of your total flour. I use a 3:2 ratio of bread flour to ap flour. You will definitely get more structure. Just be careful not to overwork the dough.
I sometimes use Banking Soda for volume
A little more flour, roll dough into a log in wax paper and chill. Cut dough a little thicker. Good luck
What fats and sugars are you using?
If you use shortening and/or brown sugar, they won’t spread so much. I like using room temp butter (ours is plant based, for allergies) and brown sugar!
You’re missing the power of ✨Baking Powder✨
I’d lean towards baking soda ratio being too high. Soda= spread, powder=puff.