Does more butter make cookies softer?
Adding more moisture to your dough in the form of extra butter, egg yolks, or brown sugar will make your cookies even softer
.
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.
Baking cookies quickly in a hot oven – at 375 degrees F as opposed to a lower temperature
– will make for soft results. They’ll bake fast instead of sitting and drying out in the oven’s hot air. Ever so slightly underbaking your cookies will give you softer results than cooking them the full amount the recipe says.
It can also affect the texture of a cookie. Butter has a lower melting point than shortening or margarine, causing it to spread more during baking, so a cookie made with butter will be thinner and crisper than the same cookie made with shortening or margarine.
Butter contributes milk solids and water to a cookie, both of which
soften it
. Brown sugar contributes molasses – again, a softener. Using lower-moisture sugar (granulated) and fat (vegetable shortening), plus a longer, slower bake than normal, produces light, crunchy cookies.
For softer, chewier cookies, you will want to
add much less granulated sugar, slightly more brown sugar, and a fair bit less butter
. For cakey cookies, you will often be including even less butter and sugar.
While brown sugar keeps your cookies moist and soft,
white sugar and corn syrup will help your cookies spread and crisp in the oven
. Using more white sugar in your cookies will result in a crispier end product.
The heat of the oven will only dry them out more and make them hard as rocks. Microwaving them. If you
cover your cookies with a wet paper towel and nuke them for a few seconds
, they should soften up enough to eat.
Reheat them in the microwave on medium setting for 15 to 20 seconds
. This should be enough time for the cookies to soak in the moisture from the paper towel. If you take them out and they haven’t softened enough yet, wrap them in another damp paper towel and microwave again for 10 more seconds.
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.
Some folks swear that
placing a slice of white bread (or a flour tortilla) in the container with the cookies
will keep cookies softer longer. This may be true, but I haven’t ever had the need to do it. And that’s because I always pull the cookies out of the oven a minute or two before they are done baking.
If your cookies are rock hard, the site explains that it’s likely due to an
over-abundance of sugar
, which hardens, darkens, and flattens the cookies as they bake. Bake or Break adds that over-mixing your dough can be the culprit, too. When flour is blended with other ingredients, gluten starts to form.
Higher butterfat makes better cookies
.
2% may seem small, but it makes a BIG difference in quality, flavor, and texture. More butterfat means less water, and lower moisture makes cookies that rise higher, crisp more evenly, and have a nice flakiness.
“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.
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.
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.
Browning the butter
gives the cookies a more intensely nutty, butterscotch flavor
. Chopping the chocolate by hand creates large and small pieces for more textural and flavor contrast.
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.
- Don’t Chill Your Cookies. …
- Use Melted Butter instead of Room Temperature Butter. …
- Use Less Flour. …
- Don’t Beat the Butter and Sugar Too Much. …
- Add Baking Soda. …
- Decrease Baking Powder. …
- Drop the Pan on the Counter a Few Times after Baking. …
- Decrease the Amount of Eggs.
Butter is used in baking as a leavening agent, meaning it introduces air into baked goods and makes them light and fluffy. Additionally, it contributes to the flaky, moist texture of baked goods, as well as their rich and tasty flavor. Without these properties,
baked goods might be flat, dry, and flavorless
.
How does butter affect baking?
- Adds Flavor. Like most fats, butter doesn’t actually taste like much. …
- Adds Softness. Butter helps make cakes and muffins softer and more tender. …
- Adds Moisture. …
- Aids in Leavening. …
- Lengthens Shelf Life.
Does high quality butter make a difference?
High butterfat butter generally has a more pronounced flavor, plus a lower moisture content
; using butter that’s 17% water–as opposed to 13%–will give you unpredictable textural results. It’s especially important in baked goods like croissants and pie crusts, where the butter determines texture and taste.
A wacky ratio of sugar, butter, and fat.
Too much sugar, too much butter, or too little flour can all contribute to cookies that are on the run
.
