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Out of all the desserts you could possibly bake, cookies tend to sit on the simpler side. Yet, you may find that even straightforward recipes may yield cookies that are misshapen, lumpy, or too soft. Baking cookies is harder than you think; aside from making snickerdoodles with the perfect nutmeg-to-cinnamon ratio or choosing between dark or milk chocolate chips, it requires certain techniques in order to yield perfect results.
While it may seem like some of the issues arise when they're in the oven, setting the foundation for the cookies is everything. If your cookies are too thick or flat after baking, you probably didn't beat the mixture enough. To get perfectly soft, chewy cookies, you need to beat the eggs, butter, and sugar for up to five minutes.
Undissolved lumps of butter can ruin your batter — creaming the butter and sugar until it's smooth and airy gives you cookies that aren't overly dense. Beating butter that's too hard can make the process difficult, so opt for room temperature, softened butter and mix until the batter is creamy.
How to prep your cookie batter before you mix
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Just like the butter, all the ingredients in your batter should be room temperature. With the eggs, butter, milk, and even melted chocolate at the same temperature, the ingredients mesh together better, giving you smooth, even cookies. The airiness of the batter is also what makes cookies rise, lending them that fluffy texture.
Ensuring that you've measured every ingredient properly will help you avoid cookies that are too hard, runny, or small. Even if you like to eyeball things when cooking, baking isn't as forgiving. Inaccurate measuring may be ruining your cookies; follow every recipe precisely to avoid ruining the whole batch.
Finally, chill your cookie dough prior to baking. When cookies spread out too much in the oven, becoming misshapen and droopy, it's because the dough wasn't firm enough. After vigorously beating room-temperature ingredients together, the soft batter will give you cookies that fall apart at the touch. Let them sit in the fridge for about 30 minutes to become more solid.
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