A few days ago I posted asking for help with my cookie dough. Original post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Baking/s/wEGZHeFRiW
Y’all, I did it! Thanks to a bunch of helpful folks in this subreddit I got some solid advice on how I could fix my f’ed up cookie dough. The general consensus was that either:
-My butter was the wrong temperature
-I was not creaming the butter and sugar correctly
-I was not using enough flour
-The quality of my ingredients or utensils were subpar
-My ingredients were incorrectly measured and I should use a scale to ensure accuracy
This was all super informative and great advice. I learned so much!
Some rather unhelpful comments insisted that I didn’t know how to read a recipe or I didn’t know how to measure. Oof!
Here is what I did:
-Money is tight for me right now so certain things like getting a stand mixer or even getting a scale were not something I could swing. I also wanted to buy King Arthur flour or my beloved Kerrygold butter but it’s more than double the cost of what I had at home and just couldn’t justify the price at the moment. My budget being what it is I was determined to make the ingredients I had work for me somehow.
-Since the main pieces of advice I got that I could apply were butter temperature, creaming correctly, and to add flour if needed that’s where I decided to start for this batch.
-I chose to use the Nestle Tollhouse recipe because it’s a staple.
-I started with two sticks of butter that were still quite cold. I blended it with my electric hand mixer until it was combined with the sugars and noticed a HUGE improvement in the texture here. It was thick instead of soft, even after adding the vanilla and eggs in.
-I followed the recipe from here as I did last time. This time, however, I used a spoon to mix in the flour and chocolate chips to ensure I didn’t over mix. It was definitely an arm workout but it came together perfectly! I didn’t need to add flour and I think it’s because the butter temp and creaming process were where I f’ed up every time!
My dough is currently chilling so I can start baking batches of cookies!!
Though I am sure I could get even better results with higher quality ingredients, weight measuring, or not hand mixing I am happy I was able to work with what I had and accomplish something I’ve been trying to do my whole life. Thanks to everyone who chimed in to help me figure this out. I can’t wait to make tons of cookies for my family this holiday season!! 💖🎄🍪✨
by SpiritualPlan1822
32 Comments
That looks amazing!
Nice, enjoy the fruits of your labor.
That dough looks delish! 🤌🏼
Looks amazing!
And just for the record, you don’t need fancy butter, name brand flour, or a $300 mixer to make a good cookie.
I personally can afford those fancy ingredients but I’d never waste them on chocolate chip cookies. The difference would be so nominal it’s not worth it. I’ve made tons of super tasty recipes with generic butter and flour.
My butter creaming always fails. I switched to brown butter and i havent screwed up a recipe since
I used house brand ingredients whenever I I can and we have a successful mobile catering business. I have had no noticeable difference using King Arthur (on sale) or great value. Same with toll house chocolate chips vs great value or Safeway brand. I look at the cocoa butter percentage. Enjoy your baking
I made one of Sally’s cookie recipes today and did her ‘spoon and level’ method and then weighed the results. She had 2 1/4 cups of flour at 281g and my scale showed I had way less, like another 1/3-1/2 cup less. I think I was closer with my scoop and level measurement.
Worth noting that generally you shouldn’t buy European style butter (like Kerrygold) and throw it into American-written baking recipes. It has a higher fat content than American-style butter and can mess up the texture! The cheapest American butter money can buy is perfect for nestle tollhouse chocolate chip cookies and your dough looks perfect now! Way to go 🙂
I think I’m in the minority that prefers *not* to chill my dough. I’ve tried it both ways, and I’m still ‘team room temperature.’
But again, I’m in the clear minority on here.
Yay!! So glad it worked out for you this time!!! Great job at persisting! 🍪❤️
You just helped so many people on the internet. They’re going to search the same issue and have an answer.
Congrats! Did you by any chance let your original dough set in the fridge for any amount of time?
oof that’s a big improvement in dough texture. also you can get a digital scale for as low a 8$. they are very affordable.
yay! im glad you were able to figure it out and fix it! boo to those who were being mean with their comments. some people forget that we all start somewhere and have to learn all the tips and tricks along the way. happy baking!
you do not need a stand mixer or 8 dollar a lb butter to make cookies. These people are giving terrible advice. your butter temp is too warm or your measurements are off. I bet if anyone were to blind taste test fancy butter chocolate chip cookies with store brand, 95 percent couldn’t tell the difference.
🫡🫡🫡
Thanks for updating! I was curious what was going on!
Definitely an improvement! Glad it worked out 🙂
I use regular Kirkland unsalted butter from Costco. I prefer unbleached flour. But I adjusted my recipes to work with that. In time you will get it dialed in to get the results you want for your recipes. Good job on trying a few things and finding what works for you. Enjoy eating the results!!
You go girl!
The Tollhouse recipe also works perfectly using margarine instead of butter (my mother only uses Fleischmann’s and it’s always gotten her the best results). The flour can probably be mixed if your hand mixer can cope! But the chips should always be folded in.
I’d argue a scale is much more important than a stand mixer for cookie baking and a lot of other desserts. So if you ever get the money for a cheap one from a supermarket, it’s one of the best investments for consistent baking 🙂
Looks perfect this time!
Well done! Bet they’re going to taste delicious!
Looks perfect!! I use a hand mixer. You definitely don’t have to have a kitchen aid.
>I used a spoon to mix in the flour and chocolate chips to ensure I didn’t over mix. It was definitely an arm workout but it came together perfectly!
May I recommend a family secret: try a potato masher.
[https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/potato-masher-on-a-white-background-gm187373846-28816756](https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/potato-masher-on-a-white-background-gm187373846-28816756) Something like this. It makes mixing cookie dough go pretty well, just don’t continue using it after you’ve added the chocolate chips in because you’ll end up crushing the chocolate chips.
Btw, I find that even a cheap scale works out just fine for me, even if its not perfectly scaled to the gram, as long as you use it to measure all your ingredients it won’t mess up ratios or anything. You can probably find a decent one for around 7 to 8 bucks whenever you have room in your budget
Congrats!! I was fortunate to get gifted a kitchen aid mixer by a friend but I still prefer using my hand mixer 😂 ended up giving the kitchen aid to my mom lol
Your dough looks amazing
That’s what she said.
Beautiful! I’ll bet they taste amazing too. If you want to get a scale, it doesn’t have to be an expensive one. I have a $10 digital scale from Amazon that works just fine. I compared it against my friend’s $60 scale, and the difference was less than a gram for some sugar and the bowl it was in that weighed about 800g