6 Reasons Why Your Cookies are Spreading (2024)

Description

Even if you have a recipe that's always worked for you, humidity, room temperature, or even switching ingredient brands can alter how your cookies behave in the oven. Here, our test kitchen cooks share the reasons our cookies sometimes misbehave.

  1. Room Temperature Butter

    If it's too soft, it will melt faster in the oven and ultimately spread out. Next time, allow the butter to soften at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes or until it gives slightly when pressed with a spoon.

  2. Excess Sugar and Fat

    Measuring is key in baking. If your cookie contains excess sugar or fat, it will spread while baking. If your first batch of cookies spreads, try adding a few tablespoons of flour to help thicken the remaining dough.

  3. Mixing Butter & Sugar

    Creaming is the act of mixing butter and sugar to incorporate air bubbles into the butter, creating a light and fluffy cookie. If your butter is under mixed, it won't have the air pockets to hold it's shape. If it's over-mixed, the air pockets decrease in size and are unable to hold their shape in the oven—causing your cookies to spread. It's best to cream butter and sugar on medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes.

  4. Dough is Too Warm

    Storing your dough in the fridge helps to harden the fat and prevent your cookies from spreading. Allow it to chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

  5. Greased Cookie Sheets

    Most cookie doughs have enough fat in them to prevent them from sticking to the pan. Adding grease to the pan can cause them to spread even more. However, if you're concerned about cookies sticking to the sheet, try the baking spray that contains flour.

  6. Warm Cookie Sheets

    6 Reasons Why Your Cookies are Spreading (1)

    If you're batch baking your cookies, make sure you're placing cookie dough on cooled cookie sheets. If the cookie sheets are too warm, they can cause the cookies to spread.

  7. Oven Temperature

    Oven temperature is crucial to perfectly baked cookies. If your oven temperature is too low, it can cause your cookies to spread, yielding thin, tough cookies.

  8. The Test Cookie

    If you're worried about your cookies spreading, don't be afraid to do a test cookie. Just bake one at first. This helps to ensure that your cookies will turn out just the way you want them.

6 Reasons Why Your Cookies are Spreading (2024)

FAQs

6 Reasons Why Your Cookies are Spreading? ›

Your cookies may be spreading after cooling due to factors like warm butter, overmixing, ingredient ratios, oven temperature, warm baking sheets, or not chilling the dough. Adjusting these factors can help prevent excessive spreading.

What six factors produce the spreading of a cookie? ›

Your cookies may be spreading after cooling due to factors like warm butter, overmixing, ingredient ratios, oven temperature, warm baking sheets, or not chilling the dough. Adjusting these factors can help prevent excessive spreading.

What causes my cookies to spread? ›

Cookies spread because the fat in the cookie dough melts in the oven. If there isn't enough flour to hold that melted fat, the cookies will over-spread. Spoon and level that flour or, better yet, weigh your flour. If your cookies are still spreading, add an extra 2 Tablespoons of flour to the cookie dough.

How do you increase the spread of cookies? ›

How To Ensure a Good Spread
  1. Warm Dough. To encourage a good spread during baking, you may want to try using warm cookie dough instead of refrigerating it. ...
  2. Chilled Dough. ...
  3. Get Your Oven Nice and Toasty. ...
  4. Use Fresh Baking Powder. ...
  5. Use the right baking sheet. ...
  6. Use a Scoop & Don't Overcrowd. ...
  7. Don't Overmix. ...
  8. Add More Liquid.
Feb 22, 2023

What are the 6 methods for making cookies? ›

There are many varieties of classifications for cookies. This refers to the way in which the cookie is prepared after the dough has been made. For example, there are drop, icebox, bar, sheet, cut out, pressed, rolled, molded or wafer. Let's take a minute to look at these methods.

What are the six main types of cookies explain? ›

The stiffness and the method of handling the dough make it convenient to classify cookies into six basic types: drop, bar, rolled, refrigerator, pressed and molded. The dough for bar cookies and drop cookies is softer than the dough for the other types of cookies.

What causes cookies to spread and be flat? ›

9 REASONS COOKIES SPREAD TOO MUCH & WAYS TO FIX THEM
  • OVEN IS TOO HOT. Oven temperatures are a crucial factor in baking. ...
  • INGREDIENTS MEASURED INCORRECTLY. ...
  • BAKING SHEET IS TOO HOT. ...
  • BUTTER IS TOO SOFT. ...
  • BAKING SHEET IS OVER-GREASED. ...
  • DOUGH WASN'T CHILLED BEFORE BAKING. ...
  • DOUGH IS OVERMIXED. ...
  • BAKING SHEET WAS OVERCROWDED.

Why are my cookies spreading and not rising? ›

Your oven temperature is incorrect.

An incorrect temperature can cause your chocolate chip cookies to spread too much. Just like a cold oven can affect your cookies, so can an oven that is too hot. If your oven is too cold, then it can cause your cookies to spread too much before the edges set.

Is A macaron a cookie? ›

A macaron is a meringue-based sandwich cookie made with almond flour, egg whites, confectioners' sugar, and food coloring. Common fillings include buttercream, ganache, and fruit-based jam. The meringues have smooth tops, ruffled edges (called the "crown," "foot," or "pied"), and flat bottoms.

What are the 2 kinds of dough? ›

If we want to further subdivide our baking forays, we then go into the types of doughs we can use. Traditionally, there are two categories: leavened and unleavened doughs.

Are cookies ending? ›

Google is ending third-party cookies for all Chrome users in 2024, but advertisers and publishers will still need to obtain consent to process user data. Learn how to prepare for the end of third-party cookies in Chrome, what technologies will replace them, and why consent remains pivotal. Updated February 7, 2024.

Why isn't my cookie spreading? ›

Dough being too stiff to spread is a common problem. If you find yourself in this situation, chances are good that you've added too much flour to your dough. In order to fix this, try adding in some more liquid (milk, water, or softened butter) one tablespoon at a time until your dough is slightly looser.

Why are my sugar cookies spreading? ›

However, if you over-cream it, the butter will melt too quickly and your cookies can spread. For the best results, he suggests placing butter and sugar in the bowl and creaming together just until the sugar is mixed in and the texture is uniform.

What makes a chewy cookie? ›

Cornstarch helps product soft and thick cookies. Using more brown sugar than white sugar results in a moister, softer cookie. An extra egg yolk increases chewiness. Rolling the cookie dough balls to be tall and lumpy instead of wide and smooth gives the cookies a bakery-style textured thickness.

What factors affect a cookie? ›

Have you ever baked cookies that were too hard, too soft or didn't taste the way they should? The ingredients you used could be the culprit – using different sugars, melted butter, baking powder or baking soda can alter a cookie's texture and taste.

What are 3 factors that contribute to a chewy cookie? ›

The ingredients you use and how you shape your cookies both play an important role in whether your cookies turn out crispy or chewy. The type of flour and sugar you use, if your cookie dough contains eggs, and whether you use melted or softened butter all factor into the crispy-chewy equation, too.

What causes cookies to flatten and spread? ›

If you use too much butter, the cookies will end up flat and greasy. And if you use too little flour, the amount of butter and sugar will be proportionally too high, meaning the cookies will spread for the aforementioned reasons.

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