Ugh, for some reason I always have problems baking anything. I’ve never been able to get anything to work out when I try by myself, though I have zero problems with someone else standing there.
Today I tried to make some sugar cookies. Things were going ok, until I got to mixing the sugar/egg mix with the flour. Instead of coming together like the directions say, it because really granular. It looked more like sand the more I mixed it. Since it stopped even trying to stick together I tried squeezing it together and then chilling it. Now it’s hard as a rock and when I tried to thaw it out it crumbled.
What did I do wrong? Is there any way to save the dough or is it trash?
What kind of sugar did you use - did it have a large grain? As long as you measured everything right and didn’t overmix, I’m not sure what could cause problems. Some cookie doughs are just really crumbly and hard before baking, but come out of the oven great.
was your butter/margarine room temperature or frozen or melted? Ideally it will be room temp, and never ever melted, even a little.
I can’t think of anything that would lead to the texture you described unless maybe you pulled the old salt-for-sugar switcharoo. ???
I have done a lot of baking in my time and you have me stumped. The only thing that sounds even close is putting too much flour in. But even that won’t make it granular. Just hard and crumbly.
I can tell you that I don’t trust any recipe at Food.com. I’ve read through many of them and there is always a problem with proportions or directions. There are many better sites for recipes, including allrecipes.com You might be interested to know that a properly written recipe for sugar cookies with that amount of flour should have at least 1 1/2 sticks of butter if not 2.
BTW, this is my favorite recipe and it’s never failed me:
Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies
1 c sugar
1 c butter
3 oz cream cheese
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg yolk
2 1/4 c flour
Combine everything but the flour until well mixed. Add the flour and mix until just combined. Divide into thirds and shape into discs. Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and refrigerate for a couple of hours. Let rest for 5-10 minutes before rolling out. Roll out into 1/4 inch thickness, cut, and place on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 375 degrees for 7-10 minutes or until the edges are just light brown.
Remember to bake same sized cookies together, so if you are doing some large and some small cookies you will want to bake them on separate pans. Small cookies need less time than big ones and keeping them separate means you don’t have to compromise on whether to over bake the little ones or under bake the big ones.
This one doesn’t spread so it’s great for detailed shapes. I like the cream cheese tang.
Did you happen to double the recipe, but didn’t double the wet ingredients? If not I’m gonna’ say the flour measurement was too much. Get a scale. What a relief using a scale, and always getting the big bulk measurements exactly right.
Hattip to my friend above about the salt/sugar thing. I made that exact mistake decades ago, while putting together a lemon chiffon cake. When I asked the cook what I could do to remedy the situation, he said “Throw it out, numbnuts, you screwed up big time.” I had scooped from the salt bin, which was right next to the sugar bin. Never noticed the difference in color, d’uh. Gotta’ love those old Navy cooks.
Coincidentally, I just made a batch of sugar cookie dough, using an All Recipes recipe, and it came out fine. The OP’s recipe looks about right, except for the flour to sugar ratio. My recipe has 5 cups of flour with four whole eggs and 2 cups of sugar. The OP’s recipe has the same amount of sugar for 1-1/4 cups less flour.
As for fixing it, you could let the whole mess come to room temp, then try to increase the flour and eggs to the quantity I mentioned above, add another 1/2 cup (one cube) of butter, a tsp of baking powder and another 1/2 tsp salt. Can’t guarantee it will work out
I wish I could have seen the dough myself. I’m a baker IRL, it’s my job, and I can’t remember seeing something like the OP describes. Too much flour would have made it tough, not crumbly.
Did you taste the dough?
What sort of leavening was in the cookie, baking powder, baking soda, cream of tartar?
I checked, and it was just normal sugar, I bought it last night. The flour might be a bit old, but someone else used a bit last week and she said nothing about it. I used baking powder, that I also bought last night.
I’m guessing I didn’t use enough butter, though I used the whole stick, 8 oz, like was called for. I made four balls of dough, two are out and the other two are in the fridge. They are all hard as a rock. And then they crumble if I try and press them out.
Maybe your fridge is too cold? It sounds stupid, but I’ve had liquids in the back of my fridge freeze. In any case, if you’re just going to start over with a new recipe, you might as well try baking them.
Nope, not too cold in the fridge. And I tried to flatten it out and it just crumbled, into dust. For whatever reason the dough didn’t stick together. My other recipe is a second set of cookies I was going to make anyway. My kids wanted to make sugar cookies to decorate.
I tried this recipe but substituted Stevia for sugar, applesauce for butter, greek yogurt for cream cheese, and cornmeal for flour. Terrible cookies! 0 stars!
Well then, I guess that’s my problem. I looked on the back of the stick and it had gradations on it of 8 something and I guess I misread it. I could have sworn it said 8oz on the back.
Heh, for years my mom was upset that her pecan pies always came out kinda runny. She was using her mom’s tried-and-true recipe, so she was sure it should turn out right. We always teased her about it, but we also really liked her pecan pies–they tasted great! One day she compared notes with her sister, and it turned out when she had written down the recipe she had transcribed one thing incorrectly–she was using twice as much butter as she should have.
No kidding. A couple years ago I was making fudge and accidentally used TWICE the amount of butter the recipe required. It was a little greasy and needed some paper towels on the top, but my GOSH, that was the best fudge I ever made.
I can’t believe I made such a silly mistake. At least now I know not to do it again. I guess it worked out since I only had the one stick anyway! The Molasses cookies I make take Crisco so I have to measure that out.
A couple years ago I was making fudge and accidentally used TWICE the amount of butter the recipe required. It was a little greasy and needed some paper towels on the top, but my GOSH, that was the best fudge I ever made.