Why Do Your Cookies Keep Ending Up So Hard? - Tasting Table (2024)

FAQs

Why Do Your Cookies Keep Ending Up So Hard? - Tasting Table? ›

According to The Kitchn, this occurs when you over-mix the dough. Mixing the dough naturally causes gluten to develop in the flour, and while you do need a good amount of gluten to give your cookies structure, too much of it will result in hard cookies.

Putting a slice of fresh white bread in the container with the cookies will help the cookies stay soft: fresh bread is moist, and that slice will give up its moisture for the greater good: keeping the cookies from drying out. We recommend white bread so that no flavor is transferred to the cookies.

Check Your Cookie Dough's Consistency

Tough – For rolled cookies, your dough can become “tough” by adding too much flour to your pin or counter before rolling it out. To avoid this, try using as little flour as possible while preparing to roll your dough.

Not using enough fat in the dough.

A greater fat ratio (butter, margarine, shortening, etc.) to flour will result in a more tender cookie. Start by adding just a ¼ cup additional to your recipe. Melting the butter before adding it to the sugar will also up the chew factor.

According to The Kitchn, this occurs when you over-mix the dough. Mixing the dough naturally causes gluten to develop in the flour, and while you do need a good amount of gluten to give your cookies structure, too much of it will result in hard cookies.

Corn Syrup (Light)

Light corn syrup is something you can add to any cookie mix to help achieve softness. This isn't the type of corn syrup regularly sold in various stores, but more of a sugar that verges on liquid, helping the other sugars in the mix to remain more liquid-like when baked.

add more oil or butter in the recipe, and when you bake them, have the oven temperature a bit low, and don't bake them for too long, take them out of the oven before they go brownish on the outside or edges. that will give you softer cookies. just make sure the insides are actually baked, and not runny.

At lower baking temperature, hardness of cookie increased as the baking time was decreased below 14 min. Hardness also increased significantly with increase in water content at all levels of sugar concentration in the formula.

Popping your dough in the fridge allows the fats to cool. As a result, the cookies will expand more slowly, holding onto their texture. If you skip the chilling step, you're more likely to wind up with flat, sad disks instead of lovely, chewy cookies. Cookies made from chilled dough are also much more flavorful.

What happens if you chill cookie dough overnight? ›

Chilling the dough also improves the way your cookies taste. "In terms of flavor, you'll notice more depth of flavor from the vanilla and the sugar will taste sweeter," says Haught Brown. "In terms of texture, chilled cookie dough produces a more evenly golden-brown cookie with a crisper edge and chewier center."

The science is simple: According to the flour authorities over at Bob's Red Mill, cornstarch can help “soften the rigid proteins of the flour, resulting in a light and chewy dessert.” “The cornstarch complements the flour in absorbing the liquids, but won't develop gluten structure like the flour will,” stresses ...

The bread/apple trick

Here's a baker's trick you'll find in our new Monster Cookies recipe: Adding a piece of fresh white bread to the storage container will keep cookies from becoming hard or stale.

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. Baking soda helps cookies spread outward and upward while cooking.

OVEN IS TOO HOT

Oven temperatures are a crucial factor in baking. If your cookies consistently come out flat, you may have selected the wrong baking temperature. If you bake cookies using too much heat, the fats in the dough begin to melt before the other ingredients can cook together and form your cookie's rise.

Add baking powder or baking soda

A lot of cookie recipes don't include baking powder but it's what makes cookies soft and fluffy. However, baking powder also makes the cookies cakier so if you prefer chewy cookies, use baking soda instead of baking powder.

While you might think an airtight container or zip-top plastic storage bag is the way to go, it will actually trap moisture inside, making the cookies soften. Instead, leave the bag partially unsealed.

Also, underbaking them by a minute or 2 will help them retain a dense, chewy bite, explains Jenny McCoy, pastry baking arts chef-instructor at the Institute for Culinary Education in New York. Adding more moisture to your dough in the form of extra butter, egg yolks, or brown sugar will make your cookies even softer.