I followed a recipe that called for leaving the dough in the refrigerator for an hour. During that hour a family emergency called for me to leave the dough in the fridge overnight. This morning the top of the dough is hard. I haven’t done anything with it yet and am wondering if I can still make this work.
Sure, just leave it out long enough to get pliable. I’ve refrigerated unused cookie dough plenty of times.
It may be a little dried out on the very top but I don’t think it’ll have any noticeable impact on the final baked cookie.
Thank you. I’m new to baking, just started after I retired so still in the learning stage.
OP: Bake a sheetful and assess the outcome. If you feel they’re too dry either bake them a minute or two less, or work into the dough a spoonful or so of water, to compensate for whatever dehydration might’ve occurred in the fridge. I make it a habit to undertake most cookies, since many people I know prefer a softer product.
And in future, always make sure that any batter or dough you’re temporarily putting in the fridge and don’t want to dry out is covered with plastic wrap or in a sealed container (can’t tell from the post whether you did this or not).
But yeah, letting the cookie dough rest a little bit at room temperature will soften it up just fine. Have fun with the cookies, I bet they’re delicious! (You do know that you have to crosshatch peanut butter cookies with a fork before baking, right? Otherwise they’re not real. ;))
Oh, and: when you put the baked cookies on a cooling rack, press an unwrapped chocolate kiss onto the top of each one and leave them to cool completely. The heat of the cookie will soften the chocolate so that it adheres to the cookie but it will re-harden in its original kiss shape if not disturbed. So you will have PB cookies with little chocolate elf hats on them, which my chocolate-eating friends tell me are THE BEST.
I find refrigerating cookie dough at least overnight to a day or two makes for better cookies, but yeah the dough has to be covered or it will dry out.
Or just eat the dough as-is.
No! You can’t use it! It’s dangerous! Give the dough to me and I’ll safely dispose of it.
Just kidding of course. Like everyone else said they’ll be fine if perhaps a smidge dry. Add a little water to get them to the same consistency as when you put them in the fridge. Then let them warm back up to room temperature before you bake them so a colder starting temperature doesn’t affect the bake time. Enjoy!
Many cookie recipes work better with cold dough, they don’t flatten out so much.