If you absolutely need to bake more than one batch at a time for an event, holiday baking, etc– rotate the baking sheets from the top rack to bottom rack once halfway through the baking process.
The simple answer to this question is, meet in the middle. Cookies should (almost) always be baked on the middle rack of the oven. The middle rack offers the most even heat and air circulation which helps cookies bake consistently.
Even heat created by the air circulating in convection yields the irresistible combination of crunchy and gooey – and some say it’s the secret to the perfect cookie. But, if you prefer a softer, chewy cookie, use Bake mode without convection.
Follow our simple tips and techniques and you’ll turn out perfect cookies every time.
- Bake Better Cookies.
- Soften Your Butter.
- Creaming Butter.
- Measure Your Flour Correctly.
- Line Your Pans With Parchment Paper.
- Add Eggs One at a Time.
- Add Flour or Dry Ingredients in Batches.
- Fold in Chocolate Chips by Hand.
For more even baking, position oven rack at the center of the oven and bake one sheet of cookies at a time. If you prefer to bake two sheets, space racks so oven is divided into thirds and switch cookie sheets top to bottom and back to front halfway through baking.
The pans are too close to each other or the oven walls. We recommend allowing 1 to 1 1/2 inches between pans and oven walls. The cookie sheet may be too large for the oven and not allowing sufficient heat circulation. The heat is trapped under the pan and the cookies will burn on the bottom before the tops are brown.
Rest the Dough A secret baker’s trick is to rest your cookie dough in the fridge. You can rest it for at least an hour, which will evaporate some of the water and increase the sugar content, helping to keep your cookies chewy. The longer you allow your dough to rest in the fridge, the chewier your cookies will be.
Oven Temperature
Generally, cookies are baked in a moderate oven — 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) — for 8 to 12 minutes, depending on the size of the cookie. For chewy cookies, allow them to cool on the baking sheet for 3 to 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
For cookies, it depends on what effect you want, but many standard types do well in forced-air ovens because the fan helps ensure that the whole oven stays at a uniform temperature despite the presence of several trays.
Which side of the oven is for baking?
The middle oven rack is the happy place where air is circulating, the heat sources are evenly distributed, and tops and bottoms aren’t in danger of burning or browning too quickly. It’s the perfect place for cakes, cookies, and brownies to stay and bake.
Keeping them on the sheet too long after baking can cause them to get hard or stick to the sheet. Cookies are done when they are firmly set and lightly browned. When you touch them lightly with your finger, almost no imprint will remain.
Why Do Cookies Get Hard? Like all baked treats, cookies are subject to getting stale. Over time, the moisture in the cookies evaporates, leaving them stiff and crumbly. It’s the same thing that happens to breads, muffins, and other baked goods.
7 Steps to Making Cookies
- Everything You Need to Know. Here’s a bite-size rundown of how to make a cookie.
- Sift Dry Ingredients.
- Cream Butter and Sugar.
- Beat in Eggs.
- Add Dry Ingredients to Wet.
- Fold in Chips or Nuts.
- Shape Cookies.
- Bake and Cool.
The short answer is, you can expect to bake cookies at 350 degrees F for between 8 to 12 minutes. That said, a lot needs to be put into consideration when determining how long to bake your cookies – the type of cookies, the size of the cookies, and the content in the dough.
Cookie temperatures fluctuate, with some recipes as low as 300 degrees Fahrenheit, and a few as high as 425 degrees Fahrenheit, but most recipes land on 375 or 350 to evenly bake the entirety of the cookie.
Mistake: When cookies turn out flat, the bad guy is often butter that is too soft or even melted. This makes cookies spread. The other culprit is too little flour—don’t hold back and make sure you master measuring. Finally, cookies will also flatten if placed and baked on hot cookie sheets.
8 Ways to Prevent Cookies from Burning on the Bottom
- Sugar Control.
- The Right Baking Sheet Color.
- Ungreased Cookie Sheets.
- Parchment-Lined Cookie Sheets.
- Oven Rack Position.
- One Sheet at a Time.
- The Sacrificial Cookie.
- Baking Time.
However, it may look a bit puffy or soft in the center, too. This is normal and simply means that the cookie may continue baking on the sheet and rack once removed from the oven. Taking cookies out of the oven at this stage will make them softer and chewier. Whereas, overcooking can create brittleness.
Do cookies harden as they cool? Yes, but how hard they become depends on where you cool your cookie. For example, a cookie that’s left on the baking pan will remain chewy, while those moved within minutes onto a cooling rack will be on the crispier side.
The most common cause is using a different flour than usual, such as cake flour, and measuring flour with too heavy a hand. Using larger eggs than called for can make cookies cakey, as will the addition of milk or more milk or other liquids than specified.
Often, these mixing methods are categorized by the baked item you are making, and the degree of mixing used to ensure the best baked good possible.
There are three major mixing methods used in baking which consist of:
- The Muffin Method.
- The Biscuit Method.
- The Creaming Method.
Acidic brown sugar, on the other hand, speeds gluten formation and egg protein coagulation, so the dough sets quickly, making cookies thick and tender/chewy.
Why do we need to rotate the pans during baking?
Plus, irregularities in the heat source may make one corner hotter than the other. To avoid one section of your bake drying out or browning too much, you’ll want to rotate your pan to make sure each side gets the same amount of love.
Is the top shelf in the oven the hottest?
Most (if not all) ovens are hotter at the top than at the bottom. Thus, if you have two baking sheets in your oven, one on a higher rack and one on a lower rack, the one on the higher rack will cook faster. Therefore, it is important not only to rotate your pans from front to back, but also from top to bottom.
Does an oven bake from the top or bottom?
A conventional oven generally has two heating elements, one on top and one on the bottom. For most cooking (other than broiling), only the bottom element is used with the heat rising to the top.
What is the bottom shelf of the oven for?
Gas ovens that contain the heating unit in the bottom may offer the space as a broiling drawer. This is often a very narrow space that functions as a broiler and fits shallow baking sheets, dishes, or pans. It’s ideal for browning the tops of casseroles, caramelizing chicken skin, or even roasting vegetables.
To ensure a chewy texture, take cookies out of the oven when they are still slightly underdone, which often means they will droop over the end of a spatula. Crevices should appear moist and edges on smooth cookies should be lightly browned.
Those are the PERFECT looking cookie. Dry around the edges, golden brown around the bottoms, and the top is just losing that glossy sheen. There is a teeny bit left but that keeps them gooey. The center will set and fall a bit as these cool and they’ll be soft for days.
Place one baking sheet at a time onto center rack of preheated 350 degree F oven. Bake until cookies are golden around the edges, still have pale tops, and are soft in the center, about 8 to 10 minutes. (Do not overbake! They will firm up more during cooling.)
Yes! You can absolutely soften hard or stale cookies. Simply place the cookies in an airtight container, throw a slice of white bread in there with them, and then close the lid overnight. The cookies will absorb the moisture from the bread and you’ll wake up to a deliciously soft dessert.
Once it’s clear that you do have limp cookies or less-than-crispy crackers, put them back into a preheated 300° F or 325° F oven, regardless of the original (presumably higher) baking temperature.
The creaming method is used to make cookies, cakes, and so much more in the baking world. The creaming method for cookies and cakes is a common mixing method in baking.
8 Steps for Better Cookie Baking
- Soften the butter. Oh, it’s such a pain to make cookies with hard butter.
- Preheat the oven.
- Buy ingredients in bulk.
- Line your baking sheets.
- Make sure the goodie shows.
- Use parchment paper and binder clips for bar cookies.
- Trim the ugly edges.
- Serve on a tray with milk.
Yummy Chocolate Chip Cookies in Six Steps
- Step 1: Gather Your Materials.
- Step 2: Mix Your Dry Ingredients.
- Step 3: Blend the Rest.
- Step 4: Add Your Dry Ingredients.
- Step 5: Bake the Dough.
- Step 6: Let Them Cool.
- 6 People Made This Project!
Why You Need to Chill Your Cookie Dough. For starters, chilling prevents cookies from spreading out too quickly once they’re in the oven. If you use a higher fat butter (like Kerrygold), chilling your dough is absolutely essential. Popping your dough in the fridge allows the fats to cool.
Chilling cookie dough controls spread.
Chilling cookie dough before baking solidifies the fat in the cookies. As the cookies bake, the fat in the chilled cookie dough takes longer to melt than room-temperature fat. And the longer the fat remains solid, the less cookies spread.
Refrigerating the dough allows the flour to fully hydrate, which (in addition to chilling the butter) helps to make the cookie dough firmer, says baker and food stylist Jason Schreiber, who recently published Fruit Cake: Recipes for the Curious Baker ($21.85, amazon.com).
“When you bake at a lower temperature, you will get that perfect cookie with a soft center and crisp exterior,” she adds. Just make sure you increase baking time by a couple of minutes or you will end up with gooey underbaked cookies.
If you’re baking your cookies at 325 degrees, you’ll need to bake them longer than you would at 350 degrees. This is because, as previously noted, the lower temperature of the oven will result in the cookies baking at a slower pace. Some sources say to bake cookies at 325 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes.
Q: Why are my cookies so puffy and cakey? Whipping too much air into the dough. That fluffy texture you want in a cake results from beating a lot of air into the room temperature butter and sugar, and it does the same for cookies. So don’t overdo it when you’re creaming together the butter and sugar.
How To Make Thicker Cookies (Using 10 Simple Tips)
- 1 – Refrigerate Your Cookie Dough.
- 2 – Use Room-Temperature Butter.
- 3 – Use the Correct Fat.
- 4 – Focus on Your Mixing Technique.
- 5 – Add Less Granulated Sugar.
- 6 – Add More Flour.
- 7 – Use Bleached Flour.
- 8 – Check Your Rising Agent.
Use a silicone baking mat or parchment paper. Coating your baking sheet with nonstick spray or butter creates an overly greasy foundation, causing the cookies to spread. I always recommend a silicone baking mat because they grip onto the bottom of your cookie dough, preventing the cookies from spreading too much.
The simple answer to this question is, meet in the middle. Cookies should (almost) always be baked on the middle rack of the oven. The middle rack offers the most even heat and air circulation which helps cookies bake consistently.
Problem #5: Crispy on the outside, raw on the inside
That, or the dough wasn’t cool enough before baking. Warm cookie dough or excess butter will cause the cookies to spread too much, baking quickly on the outside but remaining raw in the middle.
Prevent Burned Cookies
Usually cookies have enough fat in them to not stick. If you’re concerned about sticking, use parchment paper to line the pan, as it won’t promote over-browning. Parchment paper also makes it so sticky ingredients don’t make a mess of your pan; it guarantees easy clean up.
Chocolate chip cookies are done when they have a firm golden edge or bottom and appear slightly set on top. If the edges become dark brown, they are overbaked. If edges aren’t golden and tops are soft and shiny, bake a little longer.
When it doesn’t have enough time to set, your just-made decorations are prone to nicks and smudges. Follow this tip: Leave the cookies undisturbed for at least 24 hours to fully dry. Depending on the thickness of your icing and the layers on the cookie, it may take longer.
So, let your cookies cool just until they hold their shape (generally after about 5 minutes on a cookie cooling rack) and savor them warm while you can. Here’s how to store the rest. So next time you’re wondering, “Do I need a cooling rack to cool cookies” the short answer is … it’s better to have one than not.
Putting a slice of fresh white bread in the container with the cookies will help the cookies stay soft: fresh bread is moist, and that slice will give up its moisture for the greater good: keeping the cookies from drying out. We recommend white bread so that no flavor is transferred to the cookies.
The glucose and fructose found in brown sugar are hygroscopic, which means they suck up and hang on to moisture. Moisture means soft, chewy cookies.
Baked cookies should not be refrigerated.
Most cookies have top crusts that remain relatively soft and flexible as the cookies set during baking. However, if the top surface dries out before the cookie is finished spreading and rising, it hardens, cracks, and pulls apart, producing an attractive crinkly, cracked exterior.
“Most people think the butter should be so soft that it’s broken down, but the most important thing is that you want a little bit of give to the butter.” If you want to get technical, she says the precise temperature should be between 63 and 68 degrees — where it’s cool to touch, but your finger can leave an indent.
Generally for 1 or 2-inch-deep pans, you will fill them 1/2 full of batter. For pans that are 3 or 4-inch-deep, the batter needs to be about 2/3 full.
Using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, or a hand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar for your cookie dough until they are light and fluffy. This should take about 5 minutes on a medium/high speed. Scrape down the bowl at least once about half way through the mixture.
Why Cream Butter and Sugar? Creaming butter and sugar together adds pockets of air that aerate the batter. This air puffs up cakes and other homemade treats as they bake, giving them a lighter and more appealing texture. The air is added by beating room-temperature butter with sugar on high speed.
Unless you want extra-crispy cookies, avoid overmixing your dough. “Overmixing your dough will result in flatter, crispier cookies,” Cowan said. If you overmix, you will end up aerating the dough (adding air) which causes the cookies to rise and then fall, leaving you with flat cookies.
Rest the Dough A secret baker’s trick is to rest your cookie dough in the fridge. You can rest it for at least an hour, which will evaporate some of the water and increase the sugar content, helping to keep your cookies chewy. The longer you allow your dough to rest in the fridge, the chewier your cookies will be.
Too much butter causes cookies to spread a lot and ultimately crisp out on the outside being able to completely cook. Extremely chewy cookies (when the recipe isn’t meant to make chewy cookies). This is because of the liquid content in the butter. Moisture helps develop gluten and gluten helps make chewy cookies.
It really doesn’t matter. Dark brown sugar gives the cookies a bit more molasses flavor; while light brown sugar takes us into caramel territory. As long as your brown sugar is soft, you’re good to go.