What's Wrong With My Cookies? A Troubleshooting Guide (2024)

More than anything during the holidays, I enjoy baking cookies, specifically chocolate chip cookies. It's something my mom and I do together to relax, to escape the pressures of shopping and entertaining.

But every now and then, our chatty nature gets the best of us and when we pull out a batch of cookies from the oven, we can't help but gasp. What's wrong with these cookies?

It happens to all of us. With bakers of all experience levels in mind, my mom and I decided to experiment. We intentionally mucked up the cookie dough in a few different ways to see what would happen and if we could fix the problem. First, we didn't add enough flour; then, we added too much flour; with the rest of the dough, we added a couple extra eggs. But before I go too far down that road, let me share the recipe.

We used a simple, standard Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, which calls for:

  • 2 1/4 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup softened butter
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 eggs

As the recipe requires, we mixed the dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately, then combined them and added about one cup of semisweet chocolate chips. We baked on the second rack from the top at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes for all of the cookies.

Before we even put the cookies on the sheet, we could tell what was wrong. It's all in the mixer.

What's Wrong With My Cookies? A Troubleshooting Guide (1)

That's right—just by looking at the way your dough sticks to the mixer you can tell whether you have too much flour, not enough flour, or too many eggs. In this case you can counter the imbalance straight away, adding more wet ingredients or more flour until you get the consistency you want.

Even transferring the dough to the cookie sheet made the errors visible. Dough with not enough flour was sticky and hard to transfer. Dough that had too many eggs was runny and spread out on the pan. Dough with too much flour was like glue—we were able to roll into a ball and it stayed in exactly the same shape throughout its time in the oven.

As much as it pained us to move forward, we went ahead and baked the "problem cookies" to show what they look like when they come out of the oven.

Not Enough Flour

What's Wrong With My Cookies? A Troubleshooting Guide (2)

If your cookies are flat, brown, crispy, and possibly even a bit lacy around the edges, that means you need to add flour to your dough for the next batch. Our cookies were brittle and greasy and cooked much faster than the other dough balls on the sheet.

Though the culprit is usually a flour deficit, butter could also be to blame for this problem. Adding too soft or slightly melted butter to the dough can also result in flat cookies. Many bakers—my mom and myself included—heat the butter to soften it. Warming the butter too long in a microwave can cause it to start melting, so if you notice a little puddle around your sticks of butter, it's best to wait for it to cool off a bit. Avoid the microwave completely if possible by cutting butter into small pieces and letting them sit for 30 minutes. If you're in a rush, try grating cold butter with a cheese grater into the bowl. It softens quickly.

Scooping dough onto a warm pan can also cause the cookies to spread more; so for the second batch and beyond, my mom and I usually stick the dough in the fridge until it's time to load up the next cookie sheet.

The easy fix here is to add more flour to the dough, little by little, until it sticks well to the mixer.

Be sure you're using a thick, good quality baking sheet, too, as thin dark ones promote browning and will cause cookies to bake faster and burn more easily. Use parchment paper to avoid over-greasing the pan. If there's a surplus of cooking spray, it can cause cookies to spread too much.

Too Much Flour

What's Wrong With My Cookies? A Troubleshooting Guide (3)

If your cookies come out looking more like biscuits, you've likely added too much flour. Our cookies didn't expand much from the rolled-up balls we put on the baking sheet. They also didn't brown as well as the other cookies. It doesn't take much—in this case, my mom and I added just 3/4 cup extra flour to the dough. The cookies tasted good, but were dry and definitely crumbly.

To make the cookies more tender, Betty Crocker suggests adding 2 to 4 tablespoons of softened butter, or 1/4 cup of sugar, to the batter.

Too Many Eggs

What's Wrong With My Cookies? A Troubleshooting Guide (4)

If your cookies come out flat on top, with a cake-like texture, you've added too many eggs. In this case, my mom and I added two extra eggs. Adding extra eggs is not a common issue, but we were curious. The results looked presentable, though the chocolate chips were lost a bit in the dough. Biting into the cookie, however, we could tell a big difference. Yuck. They were gummy and lost much of their sweetness.

Saving cookies from too many eggs isn't as straightforward as saving it from too much or too little flour. It takes a little finagling. Add some flour and maybe a little bit more sugar.

What my mom and I ended up doing was going with the egg-induced texture to create something entirely different. We added more flour, more sugar, chopped nuts, and baked the dough in a greased 9"x12" pan. Voilà, blondies!

Finding Your Perfect Cookie

What's Wrong With My Cookies? A Troubleshooting Guide (5)

I wouldn't dare presume to define the perfect cookie. It's different for every person. I personally like them the way my mom makes them, chewy in the middle and crispy on the edges, a little flat but not brittle. They hold up well when sealed in an airtight container and freeze beautifully. These are made by following the recipe above, only the butter is perhaps a little softer than called for.

Some folks want their cookies to be a bit fluffier, a tad taller. In that case, adding a sprinkling of extra flour and chilling the dough can help achieve that goal.

If you like chewy cookies, chill the dough before forming into balls and baking, them remove from oven just before they look completely done. (The tops should not be wet.) One person I know swears by sticking the entire baking sheet into the freezer immediately to stop any baking from residual pan heat, but you can also just transfer them to a wire rack to start cooling right away.

The Role of Each Ingredient

As a bonus, I did a little research to find out just what role each ingredient plays in chocolate chip cookies, so you can adjust your recipe however you feel like experimenting.

Flour adds fluff and texture to the cookies. Adding too little flour can cause cookies to be flat, greasy, and crispy. Most recipes assume you'll use all-purpose, but if you want a lighter, crumblier cookie texture, choose one with a lower protein content such as cake-and-pastry flour.

Baking soda helps cookies spread outward and upward while cooking. Adding too little can cause flat, lumpy cookies. Adding too much can lend a bitter taste to the cookies.

Salt enhances the flavors and balances the ingredients. Forgetting salt can result in overly sweet cookies. Adding too much salt can result in an awful taste.

Butter is an emulsifier and it makes cookies tender. It also adds in the crispy-around-the-edges element. Adding too much butter can cause the cookies to be flat and greasy. Adding too little butter can cause the cookies to be tough and crumbly. You should use unsalted butter to control the salt content, but if you only have salted on hand, reduce the amount of added salt accordingly.

Sugar sweetens the cookies and makes them an enticing golden brown. Adding too little sugar can affect the taste and texture of cookies. Adding too much can cause them to be brittle. Take your time creaming the sugar and butter together at the beginning. Many bakers underestimate the amount of time required to blend the two ingredients thoroughly, as this is rarely specified in a recipe, and it has a significant effect on the end result. Aim for 2 minutes to start.

Brown sugar adds a beautiful color as well as a more complex flavor. They'll also make cookies chewier, softer, and thicker than white sugar. Adding too much can result in dark brown cookies. Adding too little results in paler cookies.

Eggs bind the ingredients and make for moist, chewy cookies. Adding too many eggs can result in gummy, cake-like cookies. Adding too few eggs can result in dry, crumbly cookies. Beat each one in separately and thoroughly. If you run out of eggs while baking and find that you need more, you can add 1/4 cup vegetable oil for each egg required. Another vegan substitute is to mix 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseed in 3 tbsp water and soak for five minutes until it thickens.

Chocolate chips are the star of the recipe. Adding too many can result in thin, overcooked cookies. Adding too few is just plain sad. Experiment with blending different kinds of chips for variety; butterscotch, salted caramel, white chocolate, and milk chocolate are always popular.

For an unexpectedly amusing video about the chemical reactions that take place during cookie baking, check out the TedEd video below on the chemistry of cookies.

What's Wrong With My Cookies? A Troubleshooting Guide (2024)

FAQs

What's Wrong With My Cookies? A Troubleshooting Guide? ›

Dough with not enough flour was sticky and hard to transfer. Dough that had too many eggs was runny and spread out on the pan. Dough with too much flour was like glue—we were able to roll into a ball and it stayed in exactly the same shape throughout its time in the oven.

How to tell what's wrong with cookies? ›

Dough with not enough flour was sticky and hard to transfer. Dough that had too many eggs was runny and spread out on the pan. Dough with too much flour was like glue—we were able to roll into a ball and it stayed in exactly the same shape throughout its time in the oven.

Why are my cookies not setting in the oven? ›

One of the most common reasons why cookies didn't spread out in the oven is because you added too much flour. Cookies rely on the perfect ratio of butter to flour in order to spread just the right amount when baked. It's very easy to over measure flour when using cup measurements.

How do you troubleshoot a cookie press? ›

If you're having trouble getting consistent shapes or they're pressing too big or too small, try pressing a few cookies' worth of dough into the air and wiping the dough away to start over. This resets the pressure in the barrel, which is essential for good shapes.

How to fix cookies that are too flat? ›

Adjust leavening agents: Baking powder and baking soda are responsible for the rise and structure of cookies. If your cookies are too flat, try slightly increasing these leavening agents.

How do you fix common cookie problems? ›

Using too much flour will make your cookies too cakey, so try reducing the flour amount by two tablespoons. Avoid using cake flour instead; try a mix of all-purpose flour and bread flour for a more dense and chewy texture. Using too much baking powder. According to the science geeks at Serious Eats—we love you!

How do you know if cookies have gone bad? ›

Off Smell or Taste: Any rancid, sour, or just "off" smell or taste is a clear indicator that cookies have gone bad. Mold: This is a definite sign of spoilage. If you see any mold, the cookies should be discarded immediately.

What can I do if my no bake cookies won't set? ›

Why Didn't My No-Bake Cookies Set? Likely, you didn't boil the mixture long enough. You want the butter, milk, sugar, and cocoa mixture to boil for 2-3 full minutes and reach between 190°F-200°F. If you don't boil them for long enough, they will turn out gooey and will not set.

Why aren t my cookies setting? ›

Click 'Tools' (the gear icon) in the browser toolbar. Choose Internet Options. Click the Privacy tab, and then, under Settings, move the slider to the top to block all cookies or to the bottom to allow all cookies, and then click OK.

Why didn't my cookies bake properly? ›

oven temperature: If the oven is too hot, it can cause the edges and outside of the cookies to set too fast. Then as the inside heats up, the cookies can't spread out at all, and they may even crack. Read all about what happens when we bake to better understand the role of the oven temperature.

How do I manually check cookies? ›

Other than the developer console, you can also view cookies in Chrome from the browser address bar. For that, click on the padlock symbol (or the 'i' symbol) on the left of the address bar to view the site information and click on cookies. It will show the cookies on the website in the Allowed tab.

Why are my cookies not coming out of the press? ›

If it's too cold, it'll be hard to squeeze out of the pres. If it's too warm, it'll be too soft, and it won't hold its shape when baked. Holding your hand on the tube will warm the dough, so try to use just one hand on the trigger – place your other hand on the cookie sheet to keep it from moving.

Why won't my cookies get hard? ›

It's all about moisture. To keep it simple, cookie recipes that contain a lot of butter, brown sugar or egg yolks are going to yield soft and chewy cookies, because those ingredients add moisture and retain it for a longer amount of time.

Why do my cookies come out flat and hard? ›

OVEN IS TOO HOT

Oven temperatures are a crucial factor in baking. If your cookies consistently come out flat, you may have selected the wrong baking temperature. If you bake cookies using too much heat, the fats in the dough begin to melt before the other ingredients can cook together and form your cookie's rise.

Can old baking soda cause flat cookies? ›

Yes, baking powder and baking soda can expire! Once they've been opened, it's best to use them within six months, so make sure to check expiration dates before you start baking. Expired leavening agents lose their effectiveness, leading to flat cookies.

What makes cookies fluffy and not flat? ›

Room temperature butter is just the right consistency to incorporate air when it's creamed with sugar. These trapped air pockets result in risen, fluffy cookies. If the butter is any warmer, it won't incorporate enough air and your cookies will have less rise.

How do I check for insecure cookies? ›

You can determine whether or not a session cookie is missing the secure flag by checking the domain against https://securityheaders.com. Alternatively, you can validate with the Google Chrome developer tools when examining the HTTP Response header Set-Cookie.

How do you test if a cookie is working? ›

How to check cookies in Chrome?
  1. Right-click and click on Inspect to open the developer console.
  2. Go to the Applications tab on the console.
  3. Expand the Cookies dropdown under the Storage section. Under Cookies, select the website to see the cookie details.

What is wrong with my homemade cookies? ›

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.

How do I check my cookies? ›

In Google Chrome, click ⋮ → "Settings" → "Privacy and security" → "Cookies and other site data" → "See all site data and permissions". On Safari, click "Safari" → "Settings" → "Privacy" → "Manage Website Data…". On Firefox, click ☰ → "Settings" → "Privacy & Security" → "Manage data…".

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