Don’t get me wrong, my cookies weren’t always little Sahara-reminiscent hockey pucks, but ever since I moved into my apartment, things just don’t seem to be going my way (cookie-speaking). Maybe it’s the new oven or maybe I’ve just lost my touch.
Whether peanut butter, chocolate chip, chocolate peanut butter chip, or sugar- I keep getting cookies that are as dry as. . . I don’t know, something incredibly dry. I’ve tried pulling the little bastards out of the oven sooner, but that just leads to raw and not delicious cookies.
Is there something (anything) I can do to make my cookies all gooey, chewy, and delightful like the ones in the bakery at the grocery store? Or am I- and those who I send cookies to- doomed to an eternity of good tasting, but hard on the teeth discs of deliciousness?
I’d try messing with the ingredients a touch. Perhaps add an extra egg, or decrease the flour slightly (if it calls for 2 cups flour, try 1 3/4 cup). Treat it as a science experiment and only change one variable at a time.
Different stoves, different environments (higher altitude, higher or lower humidity, etc) can all affect the outcome of your baked goods. I know that my oven ALWAYS needs an extra 1-2 minutes on each side of whatever I’m baking.
Alton Brown did a show about this. Big surprise, huh? It had to do with butter vs. margerine vs. shortening and baking powder or soda. But, my Google-fu is weak. Good luck and when come back, bring… never mind.
I think you need to check the oven temperature. Taking them out early won’t help if the oven’s too hot. Oven thermometers aren’t that expensive and usually work fine.
I had a similar problem until I finally realized that my oven temp was about 25 degrees hotter than what it was set for! So now, I turn the thermostat back about 25 degrees and set a timer. When you take the cookies out, as soon as they’re cooled, put them in a plastic bag. Believe it or not, the plastic bag keeps them soft.
I third (or fourth) checking the oven temp. At my last apartment, my oven ran 50 degrees hotter than what the dial was set on. I burned a lot of food before I figured that out.
Some of this is a repeat of others, but it’s my inital response to reading the OP
Use real butter. No margarine. Even better to use unsalted butter.
If the recipe says 10 minutes at 350, put then in for 12 minutes(ish) at 325. I always turn the stove down a bit - and it is calibrated correctly.
Remove from the oven when LIGHT golden brown. In fact, the centers should look barely cooked. Leave on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to racks.
Use room temp butter and eggs.
Sift the flour/baking soda/salt together. If you don’t have a sifter, whisk for a minute or so.
Hand mix. I have found that when I use my mixer the cookies always end up firmer.
You are all wrong. I found the Quran of cookies (chocolate chip anyway), Cook’s Illustrated - Best Recipes. I had been a crap cookie baker my whole life. I could turn high fructose corn syrup and a stick of butter into a brick. In Best Recipes there are two chocolate chip cookie recipes, one specifically for thick and chewy cookies like you get at a cookie shop. If you follow the recipe exactly (the one exception is cooking time, see below), you will get chewy delicious cookies every time, and I mean every single time. If you don’t follow it exactly, you will still get wonderfully chewy cookies most of the time. The “secrets” are some precision in order, amount and method for combining ingredients (baking being chemistry), extra egg yolk, and rotating the pans half way through (top to bottom front to back). For cookies the time to cook and temp are things that will never be exactly the same oven to oven, use the recipe as a rough guide, and keep an eye on the cookies then take them out just a little before you think you should.
When I saw the thread title, the first thing I thought was: set your security settings way low, turn off safe search, and google terms like “ball”, and “straight”. The rest of it should take care of itself, so long as you leave your computer on overnight, and click on EVERY pop-up.
Then I thought: Wait. DiosaBellissima surely knows better than to want to deal with the kind of things that go along with that kind of cookie.
I remember eating cookies my Grandma baked and saying “I love a little cookie with my stick of butter”. Her cookies had TONS of real butter in them and they were chewy, gooey, and utterly fantastic!
Hey all! I made some cookies to send to a friend far away tonight and I turned the oven down 50 degrees lower than what the recipe called for. Well, that did the trick. They are FANTASTIC.
Thank you all!
Of course, I’m going to next time try the extra brown sugar and butter- sounds great!
I’m with the crowd here, the secret is butter. Tons of butter. At least a few tablespoons more than the recipe says. Don’t fear the butter!!! It’s a cookie, it’s not *meant * to be good for you!
As a general recommendation, I would suggest whenever you move into a new place using a thermometer to test the temperature of your oven so you get a feel for it. There really is a big difference between 400 in one oven to another.
That and the idea of keeping a pizza stone or couple of bricks in the oven to maintain a more uniform temperature when you open the door to take out one batch of cookies.
