Help with cookie batter..?

Question

I just made some chocolate chip cookie batter from scratch, just took them out the of the oven and they are flat and hard, What did I do wrong.I made these for my daughters bithday school party which is tomorrow .. I need help.. can I save the batter some how ?? please help !!!!

Answer 1

Try putting 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon of baking powder (not soda) and 1 tablespoon more flour into the batter. Also, bake them for 1-2 fewer minutes.

Good luck...hope they turn out better.

Answer 2

Your butter/margarine temp was probably too warm. Too soft butter reduces the amount of air incorporated into the batter when the butter and sugar are creamed together. This means the cookie will be dense and will spread too much. The tiny air bubbles expand when heated and raises the dough, and also reduces the rate heat transfers through the dough, which helps the cookie not spread because the outside of the cookie crusts before the inside gets hot enough to melt the butter.

To test for proper temp of butter; hold the stick between your thumb and a couple of fingers. It should not sag or squish between your fingers. Similarly hold the other end of the stick and try to bend. It should bend w/o breaking. For tub butter/margarine you should be able to rake a curl with the edge of a spoon. the curl should be fairly smooth and not sag. If you wish to use a thermometer the temp shoud be 70F (21C) give or take a degree or 2.

You might be able to somewhat salvage the dough by THOROUGHLY mixing in some baking POWDER (1 teaspoon for each cup of flour in the recipe), then chill the dough. To chill the dough, push it up against the sides of the mixing bowl and refrigerate for about 20-30 minutes.

Another answerer suggested starting over and using self-rising flour. While some cookies do use self-rising flour, the type of cookie recipe you are using works best w/ all-purpose flour.

Answer 3

There are a few likely causes. I'll outline some and their fixes

1) Dough was too warm. This is easy to fix and if it's not the problem, it won't do any harm. After you scoop the dough onto the sheet, put it in the fridge for 10-25 minutes. I ALWAYS do this when I make chocolate chip cookies, and they always turn out well.

2) Use parchment paper to line your pan instead of greasing a pan and putting the cookies right on there. Greased pans cause more spreading than parchment and it's way easier to clean up after using parchment. You can find it on the baking aisle or near foil & wax paper.

3) Butter was too soft. This is related to the first one. The cure is to not let your butter get so warm before mixing. If you softened it, you might have softened it too much. You want to get it to where it's just soft enough to work with.

4) Too much butter in the recipe. This is obviously the hardest to experiment with since you have to make a new batch every time to try adjustments.

You may notice that I refer to butter a lot here. If you're using margarine, most of this will still apply. If, somehow, you have a recipe that calls for vegetable oil instead, get rid of it and use a recipe that takes butter.

Here's my recipe for making cookies. I customized it and it calls for bread flour and everything is in weights, so it might be hard to use. But, if possible, I recommend trying it. I've made it 4 times in the last week. It turns out great every time.

Ingredients:
9 oz butter
6 oz brown sugar
6 oz sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
13 oz bread flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
12 oz choco chips

Method
1. Beat together butter and sugars.
2. Gradually mix in eggs and vanilla
3. Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix into butter mixture.
4. Gently stir in chocolate.
5. Scoop onto sheet lined with parchment
6. Chill for 15 minutes
5. Bake at 375 11-13 minutes

Answer 4

I use the recipe that Puccalove wrote, except that I use an equal amount of crisco (original) instead of butter.

I know exactly what you mean about your cookies falling flat! Usually, that happens to me if I do not use the correct amount of flour. Sometimes the weather can change the amount of flour needed.

If it happens again and you are still in the baking process, just add a little more flour to the batter and continue baking. You should notice a difference.
Good luck next time!

Answer 5

The usual culprit of cookies "spreading" too much is an excess of fat -- the butter or oil used in your recipe. I recommend adding more flour to the dough, but start with a small amount. Too much flour will make the cookies dense and tough. Make sure the flour is incorporated well. Perhaps start with an extra half cup and combine it well, and do a test batch.

Good luck -- but don't panic. You can probably get fresh baked ones in the morning from your local bakery if all else fails :-)

Answer 6

Might not be a problem with the batter. You might be overcooking them.

With cookies you actually have to undercook them a little - when you take them out of the oven they continue to cook. Don't remove them from the cookie sheet until they're pretty cool - then put them on a wire rack to cool even more. They will crisp up as they cool.

Answer 7

your cookie batter might be too thin. when i bake my chocolate chip cookies, i follow this recipe:
preheat oven to 375 degrees F
2 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour
1 tsp. of baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup (2sticks) of soften butter
3/4 cup of granulated sugar
3/4 cup of packed brown sugar
1 tsp. of vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups of chocolate chips
1 cup of chopped nuts (optional)

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time , beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto UNgreased baking sheets.
Bake for 9-11 minutes or until golden brown.

Answer 8

Trash the cookies. Do you have cake mix? If you have chocolate chips and cake mix, you can make cake mix cookies. they are excellent.
The recipe is on allrecipes.com

Answer 9

Make sure your either use Self-raising flour for a start - then add a little baking powder and baking soda

Answer 10

Run to the store and buy a box of Duncan Hines cookie mix and you will get a great result.