# What happened to my cookie dough? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 12, 2015, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-my-cookie-dough/740260 "2015-12-12T18:09:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![PepinFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/49beb7/32.png) [@PepinFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PepinFan)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2015, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-my-cookie-dough/740260/21 "2015-12-13T17:34:41Z")
I was making a Jacques Pepin oatmeal cookie recipe. It doesn’t call for eggs. The dough didn’t come together in the mixer, rather formed coarse crumbles like for a pie crust (which I also have never been able to achieve on purpose!). I think it was just that my butter was too cold. Any ideas of how to fix this dough? It tastes fine. Just won’t stick together. I am certainly no baker though I love to cook. I double-checked the recipe and had all measurements correct. ---
**Author:** ![quiltguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e47774/32.png) [@quiltguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quiltguy)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2015, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-my-cookie-dough/740260/22 "2015-12-13T21:29:46Z")
PepinFan: Let the dough sit out until it comes up to room temperature, then knead it by hand. Cold butter when making cookies can be a real problem, but if you allow it to cream THOROUGHLY with the sugar(s), you’ll avoid future problems. Add the vanilla or other extracts, maybe a spoonful of water(the Nestle’s CCC recipe years ago called for a TEASPOON of water) to help the process. You can also grate the cold butter on the coarse side of a box grater, the smaller particles will come to room temp. quickly. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-my-cookie-dough/740260.md?page=1)