“For this practically perfect tray, we dropped the temperature to 300°F, and extended the baking time: 22 minutes for chewy, 30 minutes for crisp.
Bake these cookies long and slow: 20 minutes at 300 degrees. But watch the time as every oven is different. Don’t overcook; edges should brown but centers should be pale and soft as the cookie will darken after you remove from oven.
Cookie temperatures fluctuate, with some recipes as low as 300 degrees Fahrenheit, and a few as high as 425 degrees Fahrenheit, but most recipes land on 375 or 350 to evenly bake the entirety of the cookie.
However, the standard baking temperature for cookies is 350 degrees Fahrenheit. While 350 degrees F is standard, you can also bake cookies at 325 degrees F.
Bake until the cookies are lightly browned and no longer wet in the center, 6 to 8 minutes; if baking more than one pan at a time, switch pan positions halfway through baking. (Take the cookies out of the oven 1 or 2 minutes before the cookies are cooked, as they will continue to cook on the baking pans.)
Bake for 13 – 15 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges.
The short answer is, you can expect to bake cookies at 350 degrees F for between 8 to 12 minutes.
LOWER THE TEMPERATURE
“Bake low and slow,” says Matheus. Turn your oven down 50 degrees from what your recipe recommends. “When you bake at a lower temperature, you will get that perfect cookie with a soft center and crisp exterior,” she adds.
350° is the standard temp for a cookie, and it’s a great one. Your cookies will bake evenly and the outside will be done at the same time as the inside. Baking at 325° also results in an evenly baked cookie, but the slower cooking will help yield a chewier cookie.
Generally, cookies are baked in a moderate oven — 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) — for 8 to 12 minutes, depending on the size of the cookie. For chewy cookies, allow them to cool on the baking sheet for 3 to 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
- Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
- In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended.
- Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted.
Double Your Yolks Most cookie recipes call for at least one egg. You can try omitting the white of each egg, which tends to dry out when baked, and replacing it with an additional yolk Plus, egg yolks have more fat than egg whites, which helps to keep your cookies moist and chewy.
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.
Keeping them on the sheet too long after baking can cause them to get hard or stick to the sheet. Cookies are done when they are firmly set and lightly browned. When you touch them lightly with your finger, almost no imprint will remain.
Reasons cookies are browning too quickly and raw in the middle. Your cookies might be browning too quickly because of: the colour and material of your sheet pans: bakeware made of darker materials will absorb more heat and depending on the metal, some are better heat conductors.
Cookies should (almost) always be baked on the middle rack of the oven. The middle rack offers the most even heat and air circulation which helps cookies bake consistently.
Moreover, the lower the oven temperature, the more evenly the cookie bakes, with less of a contrast between the edges and the center. In fact, when the oven temperature gets low enough (around 275°F (135°C) and below), you completely lose any contrast, producing a cookie that’s more or less homogenous across the board.
If they are something like a butter cookie, make sure you are baking at a low temperature – 200 – 250 degrees F – so that the cookies bake through but do not colour or are just golden.
Issues with cracking usually derive from the sugar coating, not enough or expired baking powder or baking soda, or the oven temperature isn’t hot enough. Solution: Granulated sugar is more effective at drying the surface than powdered sugar.
Problem #4: Pale and soft cookies
They were probably baked from a good consistency dough but ended up a bit under baked and raw on the inside. Either the oven temperature is too low or they were taken out too soon. When baking always keep an eye on your cookies and take them out when they’re golden.
Using parchment paper to bake cookies can save time and energy. Unbaked cookies are placed directly onto the parchment paper, eliminating the need to grease the cookie sheet. While a batch of cookies is baking, portion out the remaining cookie dough onto sheets of parchment paper.
Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
Chilled cookie dough spreads less because the butter is colder and as a result takes longer to melt and spread in the oven. A cookie made with shortening will spread less than a cookie made with butter because shortening melts at a higher temperature and thus doesn’t begin to spread until later.
Sunken Centers. If your oven is not hot enough, cakes or cookies may fall as they cool. You can disguise a fallen cake with fresh fruit, frosting, or whipped cream. In other cases, the cake or quick bread may be undercooked in the center, resulting in a sunken and wet center.
The Problem: Your Oven Is Too Hot
If your cookies repeatedly turn out flat, no matter the recipe, chances are your oven is too hot. Here’s what’s happening. The butter melts super quickly in a too-hot oven before the other ingredients have firmed up into a cookie structure.
9 Tips to Remember
- Use Real Butter and Keep It Cool. The low melting point of butter may be what makes your cookies flat.
- Use Shortening.
- Chill Dough Twice.
- Use Parchment Paper or a Silicone Liner.
- Measure Precisely.
- Use Fresh Baking Soda.
- Use Optional Add-Ins.
- Buy an Oven Thermometer.
How To Make Thicker Cookies (Using 10 Simple Tips)
- 1 – Refrigerate Your Cookie Dough.
- 2 – Use Room-Temperature Butter.
- 3 – Use the Correct Fat.
- 4 – Focus on Your Mixing Technique.
- 5 – Add Less Granulated Sugar.
- 6 – Add More Flour.
- 7 – Use Bleached Flour.
- 8 – Check Your Rising Agent.
Parchment creates better cookies
Unlike aluminum foil and wax paper, parchment is treated with silicone, giving it a non-stick quality. That translates to a freshly baked batch, without having to peel slivers of silver from the bottom of your baker’s dozen.
Yolks, where all of the fat is in an egg, increase richness, tenderness and flavor. Therefore, if you put an extra egg, you will get a chewier cookie. I do it all the time. If you put less, you will get a more crumbly cookie.
Shortening is 100% fat, containing no water. That means no steam is created during baking which effectively reduces gluten production, so shortening cookies tend to be softer and more tender. Also, shortening has a higher melting point than butter, resulting in taller cookies.
Vinegar is a surprisingly common ingredient in baked goods, considering that it has such a sharp flavor. But as an acid, vinegar is often included in cake and cookie batters to react with baking soda and start the chemical reaction needed to produce carbon dioxide and give those batters a lift as they bake.
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.
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.
Most cookies are still soft when done (they harden as they cool) and will continue to bake on the cookie sheet once removed from the oven. Remove cookies from the cookie sheet as soon as they are firm enough to transfer, using a spatula, to a cooling rack or paper towels to finish cooling.
Keep in mind, though, that many cookies don’t set completely until they’re cooled, and it’s best to slightly undercook cookies if you prefer them soft and chewy, rather than crisp. Allow them to cool completely before you decide they need additional baking.
If you mix (or roll out) cookie dough too much, you’ll add excess air to the dough, causing it to rise and then fall flat in the oven. Overmixing the dough can also lead to excess gluten development, resulting in dense cookies.
I am going out on a limb against popular opinions by saying, YES, it’s okay to place your under baked or underdone cookies back into the oven for a second bake.
For more even baking, position oven rack at the center of the oven and bake one sheet of cookies at a time. If you prefer to bake two sheets, space racks so oven is divided into thirds and switch cookie sheets top to bottom and back to front halfway through baking.
What does P mean on an oven?
Pyrolytic. If you buy a pyrolytic oven, you might see an icon with a P symbol. This allows you to activate the pyrolytic self-cleaning function to deep clean the inside of your oven. This setting heats up the oven to about 400°C-500°C to turn any baked-on grease and grime into ash that you can then just wipe off.
What rack is best for baking?
For most baking and cooking situations, the middle rack will cook and bake food more evenly. But keep in mind, this rule applies only when you’re baking on one rack at a time. For baking on multiple racks, consider… When baking two baking sheets at once, arrange the racks on the top and bottom thirds of the oven.
Chocolate chip cookies are done when they have a firm golden edge or bottom and appear slightly set on top. If the edges become dark brown, they are overbaked. If edges aren’t golden and tops are soft and shiny, bake a little longer.
When added to cake, cookie and shortbread recipes, cornstarch helps create a crumbly and tender dessert-like texture. Commercially, cornstarch is often used as an anti-caking agent.
Whatever you do, always add the brown butter before adding the eggs and dry ingredients — otherwise you risk changing the texture of your cookie.
One reason cookies spread: oven temperature
“For this practically perfect tray, we dropped the temperature to 300°F, and extended the baking time: 22 minutes for chewy, 30 minutes for crisp. “This is a good example of showing temperature as ingredient.”
The temperature you should bake cookies at depends on the texture that you want the cookies to have. However, the standard baking temperature for cookies is 350 degrees Fahrenheit. While 350 degrees F is standard, you can also bake cookies at 325 degrees F.
Prep Instructions. HEAT oven to 350°F (or 325°F for nonstick cookie sheet). PLACE cookie dough rounds about 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. BAKE 10 to 14 minutes or until light golden brown.
Place one baking sheet at a time onto center rack of preheated 350 degree F oven. Bake until cookies are golden around the edges, still have pale tops, and are soft in the center, about 8 to 10 minutes. (Do not overbake! They will firm up more during cooling.)
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.
Rotate Pans During Baking
To make sure they all bake evenly, rotate the baking sheet from front to back halfway through the baking time. If you’re baking two sheets of cookies at once, switch the position of the sheets from top to bottom and then rotate them from front to back.
Bake at 375 degrees F until golden and tender, 12 to 15 minutes. For crispy-cakey cookies: Bake the cookies at 425 degrees F until golden and crunchy on the outside, 8 to 10 minutes.
Keep those cookies crisp by storing them in an airtight container. Some people toss a piece of bread in with the cookies to help absorb any excess moisture. You could also re-crisp them by baking on a wire rack in a 300 degree F oven for a few minutes.
So long as they end up evenly flat, that is; squashing cookies haphazardly under your palm means they may bake and brown unevenly. Still, if you care deeply (or even casually) about the look of your cookies, you can take the flattening step as an opportunity for enhancement. The bottom of a glass works fine, it’s true.
When should you not use parchment paper?
When Not to Use Parchment Paper. Parchment paper is not designed for high heat cooking. Avoid using it in your oven or on the grill if temperature will exceed 400 degrees, says Michelle Weaver, chef at Charleston Grill in South Carolina, as there’s a chance it could catch fire.
Should parchment paper be greased?
Parchment paper is already non-stick, so there’s generally no need to grease your parchment paper. And if you’re baking cookies, greasing the parchment paper will likely cause your cookies to overspread and become greasy, so definitely skip the grease.
Which side of parchment paper goes up?
There is no right or wrong side to parchment paper, so either side can be used. For the best baking results, use a fresh sheet of parchment paper for each pan of cookies.
Bake for 13 – 15 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges.
For those ooey, gooey chocolate chip cookies, 375 degrees Fahrenheit is your sweet spot. It’s the perfect temperature to ensure super crispy exterior edges, while leaving the center slightly underdone and, thus, doughy and fudgey.