Jessica Vargas
When cookie dough is sticky, it’s generally because there’s too much moisture. You need to get a good balance of the dry and wet ingredients so that the dough isn’t too wet or too dry. Having cookie dough that’s too wet results in cookies that spread out far too much during baking.
Add cornstarch. If you find yourself with sticky cookie dough, there’s another dry ingredient you can add: cornstarch. Go slowly, simply adding a teaspoon at a time and then combining. You don’t want to add cornstarch if your dough is extremely sticky, but if it’s just a little bit too sticky, it’s the perfect remedy.
It’s pretty simple, actually. You need to chill the batter. To do so, wrap the cookie dough in plastic wrap and stick it into the fridge. It should chill for at least 30 minutes, but the longer, the better.
Sticky cookie dough is often caused by one thing and that is the temperature of the dough. Cookie dough that is trying to stick to everything, not wanting to form any shapes, or even tearing when you do manage to get it into a mold is cookie dough that is too hot to work with if you want your cookies to turn out well.
If your cookie dough is indeed too runny, try adding a tablespoon of flour at a time and mixing until fully incorporated after each addition. Give the flour some time to soak up the moisture, do not rush. Stop adding as soon as the dough reaches your desired consistency.
If you mix (or roll out) cookie dough too much, you’ll add excess air to the dough, causing it to rise and then fall flat in the oven. Overmixing the dough can also lead to excess gluten development, resulting in dense cookies.
Chilling the dough is a key step in making sugar cookies, especially when you’re making cut-outs. Even if you’re tight on time, make sure to get the dough in the fridge, or even the freezer, even if it’s only for a little while. Skip this step, and the dough will be sticky, and much harder to work with.
The ideal thickness to roll out your sugar cookie dough is about 1/4″ – that way, they’ll be tough enough to be handled and decorated, but thin enough to stay a little crunchy.
If you’re feeling extra hopeless, try adding the flour and then placing the dough in the fridge to harden up. This method works for dough that isn’t runny, so it can do wonders for dough that needs a little more help.
As a general rule of thumb, you should refrigerate cookie dough for at least 30 minutes and up to 24 hours. More than that and you won’t see a noticeable difference in the final product, says Haught Brown.
One problem that you might run into is that your cookie dough ends up being too runny. This often happens because you added too much liquid, usually milk. There are a few different routes that you can take to fixing this problem depending on what you have on-hand and how much extra liquid has been added.
You can leave your sugar cookies out overnight to dry. In fact, it’s recommended that you leave your iced sugar cookies out overnight to fully set.
Lining a baking sheet when making cookies: Not only will the parchment help cookies bake more evenly, the non-stick quality also helps prevent them from cracking or breaking when lifting them off the sheet. Decorating home-baked goods: Parchment paper makes the perfect wrapper for baked goods.
If your cookies have icing, they will not last as long. Ideally, you should eat them within three to five days of making them. If you want to keep them for longer, it’s best to freeze them. Properly-stored iced sugar cookies will often last longer than sugar cookies without icing.
Once cookie dough reaches 1/4 inch-thick, place the dough in the fridge to chill for 20 minutes. Chilling cookie dough before baking solidifies the fat in cookies and helps retain your cookies’ shape.
My Sugar Cookie Recipe will allow me to re-roll the dough three times before the cookie texture and softness of the cookie become affected. If the dough is re-rolled too much it will become cracked and tough.
Anywhere from 24 to 72 hours. The longer you chill the dough, the more flavor will develop. The flour will also absorb more of the moisture so the thicker and chewier the final texture will be.
So when you bake them, they spread less and hold their shape better,” adds Epperson. “Which means a better likelihood of a soft, chewy cookie in the center.” Chilling the dough creates fluffier cookies with better consistency.
How long can I keep cookie dough in the refrigerator before baking? Most cookie dough can be refrigerated, well-wrapped, for three to five days before baking. If you want to make it farther in advance, freeze the dough.
Cookie dough can be mixed by hand or with an electric mixer. Take butter or margarine from refrigerator 10-15 minutes before using or cut into 1-inch pieces so it will blend more easily and evenly with other ingredients.
Usually it takes anywhere from 3 to 5 minutes of beating eggs and sugar using an electric mixer to reach ribbon stage. But don’t rely on time. Instead, use some key visual clues to recognize when you’ve succeeded: Texture: The mixture should have thickened significantly, becoming almost foam-like.
Many home chefs are guilty of throwing all the cookie ingredients into a bowl at once, but Cowan said you should always mix wet ingredients first and then slowly incorporate the dry ingredients. “I recommend mixing the wet ingredients together just until there are small chunks of butter remaining,” Cowan told.
If you don’t have a heat sealer or cello bags, an airtight container will keep them fresh for a few days. Store the cookies in a cool and dry place away from direct sunlight (not in the refrigerator!). If the cookies are exposed to light for a long period of time, the colors in your icing can fade, especially pink!
If you’ve baked them until the edges turn a golden hue, they’re overbaked — they’ll be hard and crunchy instead of soft, tender, and chewy. Make sure to bake them until they just start to get a hint of color and they look slightly crackled across the center.
Royal icing is probably the most popular icing for decorating cookies. Made using egg whites or meringue powder, royal icing dries hard, making it a fabulous option for cookies you plan to package or mail. It’s most often used for outlining and “flooding”, or filling in, cookie designs.
Once your sugar cookie recipe is fully baked and decorated, properly store them “in a tin or an airtight container, once they’re cool,” says Brette W.
The most common reason for dry cookie dough is that there is not enough fat in the dough. Either the recipe itself didn’t call for enough fat or it was just measured incorrectly. Fat acts as a lubricant in cookie dough, greasing it up so that it is smooth and pliable.
Roll dough between sheets of parchment or waxed paper. Rather than roll dough on a floured surface, roll it between sheets of non-stick parchment or waxed paper. Adding extra flour to dough as a result of rolling can make cookies tough.
