why do my toll house cookies spread out too much as they cook?

Answer 1

It could be any of the following reasons:

If your cookies spread too much . . .
The baking temperature may be too low. Too much sugar, shortening, or leavening will cause spread. If pans are greased with too much shortening, spread may occur. Add a little more flour or chill your dough before forming the cookies.
Also, make sure your cookie sheet is cold and not hot/warm when placing the cookies on top.

If dough is too soft, stir 1 or 2 or more tablespoons of flour into the dough. Cookies may spread too much or be too crisp if the dough is too soft. This is especially true when you make drop cookies.

Answer 2

It sounds like a problem with the butter. You have to mix the sugar and butter together thouroughly before adding in the eggs one at a time. Chilling the dough for about an hour before you cook will help the flour have a chance to abosorb any extra moisture in the dough. Also, after it is all mixed together, be careful not to squeeze all of the air out of the dough when you are putting it on the trays. Pinch off golf-ball sized pieces of dough and do not flatten them out. The dough is best cold going into the oven since it will give you a chewier cookie. I use to make 2000 cookies a day in 60 cookie batches using a kitchen aid mixer and a conveyor belt oven. I think I started off using butter but went to margarine since the cookies were softer that way. The recipe was right off the bag of Nestle Choc chips. Use either half and half white and dark brown sugar or all light brown sugar. There is some weird brown sugar out there that pours, but I've had bad luck trying to bake with it. When your cookies are done, put them in an airtight container with a slice of bread. There is something about having the bread in there that keeps the cookies soft. This also works for keeping brown sugar from going hard...

Answer 3

Try this recipe:

1 stick of margarine (right out of the fridge, keep it cool)
3/4 cups of dark brown sugar
3/4 cups of white granulated sugar
1 teaspoon of baking powder
2 1/4 cups of flour
1 egg
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon of almond extract
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 package of semisweet chocolate chips

Heat over to 375 and then mix the sugars, margarine, and egg in a large bowl. Add both extracts. Because the margarine is still cold, it may take a while for it to mix, but if you keep it on the cooler side, then the cookies will maintain their form better. You may use a pastry knife or an electric mixer to mix these wet ingredients because of the harder margarine.
Once this reaches a smooth consistancy, stir in flour, baking powder, and a pinch of salt. It is easiest to add the flour a half a cup at a time (2 1/4cups total).
Finally mix in the chocolate chips and other Toll House cookie additives (nuts, raisens, etc.).

Then roll little 1inch spheres out from the dough. If the ingredients have been mixed properly and you added enough flour, these shouldn't stick to your hand. That's the sign that they won't be too runny. Then should make firm little balls. If you'd like to try a variation, you can use baking soda instead of baking powder or add another 1/8 cup of flour to make the cookies firmer (at the flour adding phase).
Place the cookies 2in apart and then bake them for 8-10 minutes. Make sure to check on them and remove them just as they are done. Leaving them in too long might also make them runny, depending on the recipe.

Answer 4

Multiple reasons. One if you use all butter, they will tend to spread more. Two, how hot is your oven? You may want to double check it with a thermometer that you can leave in there to be sure the oven is properly calibrated.

How to fix the problem
It takes a little more time but gives me the kind of cookies I want. I like my cookies a little thicker so they bake up crisp on the edges and soft in the middle. I put parchement or a silpat (silicone baking mat) down on the cookie sheet. I use a mini scooper to make evenly round balls of dough, fill the sheet up with cookies and place it in the fridge to chill for at least 2 hours or over night.

Then I put them on another lined cookie sheet but spread out the cookies about 12-15 per sheet. Turn the oven on and preheat to 350 rather than 375. Increase the baking time by about 2 minutes, ovens may vary, so watch your cookies carefully and see how long you need them to bake.

Chilling the dough and using a lower oven temperature keeps a blast of high heat from melting the butter in the cookies too fast. That leads to the spread that you note.

I also tend to prefer hot fresh cookies rather than ones stitting in the cookie jar. Once the dough balls harden, I put the extra in a ziploc bag and freeze them. You can bake them directly from the freezer and get hot fresh cookies anytime. It's a great time saver for me.

Good luck and enjoy your next batch of cookies.

Answer 5

One of two reasons:

Your cookies are too wet (you may be adding a little too much butter,or your eggs may be extremely large).

Or

You are placing the cookies too close together/placing too much in one dollop.

If the cookies seem wet (they make more of a puddle than a mound on the cookie sheet) you can add a bit of flour to them to stiffen them up-if it's a signifigant amount,go ahead and add a tiny pinch of baking soda and salt,too,to even that all out.

If you're putting too much in one dollop,do what I do. Get a teaspoon from your drawer (a teaspoon is an average sized spoon. a tablespoon's ladle is about half the size of your palm,or so) and get about 1/2 the spoon's ladle full of dough. Worst comes to worst,you can ALWAYS add more once it's on the baking sheet-but it's very hard to take away dough once it's on there. Good luck!

Answer 6

so does my toll house cookies. Because they already have oil in the dough so make sure you dont add butter on the baking sheet ot even baking spray and don't spred them out, just drop them on the sheet (and make smaller size cookies) also make sure you leave 2 inches spaces between each cookies you wouldn't want to end up with uneven and broken edges because cookies too close to each other tend to overlap during baking. HAPPY BAKING!!!

Answer 7

I recently learned a solution myself, since I had the same problem. Since butter melts as soon as it hits the hot oven, try using half butter, and half shortening, since shortening takes longer to break down in heat. Also try chilling your dough before baking, and add a little more flour to your recipe. It should give you a thicker cookie.

Answer 8

You are probably putting them in too big plops onto the cookie sheet. Try either using a teaspoon instead of a table spoon OR roll them into small balls. Whatever way you are doing it, just go smaller.

Answer 9

Maybe your'e adding too much baking soda or something. Or maybe you are making them way too big. You may have to make them much smaller.

Answer 10

most cookies expand when you bake them