20 Min.
#27 How Do I Keep My Sugar Cookies from Spreading? The Power of a Cookie
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- Essen
Episode #27 How Do I Keep My Sugar Cookies from Spreading?
Supplies That Help Keep My Sugar Cookies from Spreading:
(contains affiliate links)
Food Scale- I don't see the exact food scale I have. I bought it a few years back and I'm sure the design has changed, but I did find one at Walmart and one on Amazon that looks a lot like mine. They'd work great for weighing your baking supplies. The one at Walmart is under $20 and the one on Amazon is under $30. Like I said in the podcast, I don't want you to use these links to buy them unless you want to. I wanted to use the links so you'll have an idea of what I use. My suggestion is to find a food scale that's affordable, measures in grams, kilograms, ounces, and pounds and looks like it would be easy to clean because we all know how flour and powder sugar can make your kitchen surfaces look as if it snowed indoors.
Food Scale at Walmart- This looks almost identical to the food scale I use except the top piece of glass on this one is round and mine is square. Food Scale at Amazon
Flexible Cutting Mats
Fondant Smoother
Oven Thermometer
FAQ
Do you have questions about sugar cookies spreading? Let me see if I can help a little.
There's nothing worse than making cookie dough, cutting out your cute little shapes, placing them on a cookie sheet and sticking them in the oven only to remove a baking sheet full of cookies that have spread so much you can’t tell what shapes you baked in the first place. It’s like your heart kind of sinks and melts like those cookies did while they were in the oven.
I have a few tips that might help you prevent that from happening. Here are some questions I get asked a lot.
How do I keep my sugar cookies from spreading when they bake?
Good question! There are several things that can cause your cookies to spread and we’ll cover as many as we can today.
When I first started baking I had an issue with baking powder. It made my cookies spread to almost twice the size of the cutter that was used. Remember when I said I’m a heavy-handed scooper of flour? I guess I have an issue with teaspoons as well. I decided to cut the amount in my recipe in half and it worked. Sometimes I don’t use baking powder at all and that works as well. If you need a recipe you might want to try my Sugar Cookie Recipe. It only calls for 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder because I already cut the amount in half for you. See if that helps keep you cookies stay closer to the size of the cookie cutter you used to cut them out.
Don’t over mix your cookie dough when you make it. Cream the butter and sugar for a couple of minutes and then add the rest of the ingredients. Over mixing the dough will add air into it and cause the dough to collapse and get air bubbles when it bakes. Just mix the dough as long as you need to get the ingredients mixed.
The amount of flour you add to your cookie dough when you’re making it will determine how your cookies turn out. It's easy to add too much flour if you’re a heavy-handed scooper like me. A great way to handle this is by using a food scale because it will help you use the correct amount of flour and sugar. We’ll talk more about this later because this is one tool I truly need as a baker. I measure my flour, sugar, and powdered sugar and it really helps me get the results I’m looking for!
If you sprinkle a lot of flour on the surface where you roll out your cookie dough, the dough will pick up that flour and it can cause your cookies to become dry and crumbly. That’s why I love using the Flexible Plastic Cutting Board Mats because they don’t require a lot of flour.
Is your oven temperature correct?
Episode #27 How Do I Keep My Sugar Cookies from Spreading?
Supplies That Help Keep My Sugar Cookies from Spreading:
(contains affiliate links)
Food Scale- I don't see the exact food scale I have. I bought it a few years back and I'm sure the design has changed, but I did find one at Walmart and one on Amazon that looks a lot like mine. They'd work great for weighing your baking supplies. The one at Walmart is under $20 and the one on Amazon is under $30. Like I said in the podcast, I don't want you to use these links to buy them unless you want to. I wanted to use the links so you'll have an idea of what I use. My suggestion is to find a food scale that's affordable, measures in grams, kilograms, ounces, and pounds and looks like it would be easy to clean because we all know how flour and powder sugar can make your kitchen surfaces look as if it snowed indoors.
Food Scale at Walmart- This looks almost identical to the food scale I use except the top piece of glass on this one is round and mine is square. Food Scale at Amazon
Flexible Cutting Mats
Fondant Smoother
Oven Thermometer
FAQ
Do you have questions about sugar cookies spreading? Let me see if I can help a little.
There's nothing worse than making cookie dough, cutting out your cute little shapes, placing them on a cookie sheet and sticking them in the oven only to remove a baking sheet full of cookies that have spread so much you can’t tell what shapes you baked in the first place. It’s like your heart kind of sinks and melts like those cookies did while they were in the oven.
I have a few tips that might help you prevent that from happening. Here are some questions I get asked a lot.
How do I keep my sugar cookies from spreading when they bake?
Good question! There are several things that can cause your cookies to spread and we’ll cover as many as we can today.
When I first started baking I had an issue with baking powder. It made my cookies spread to almost twice the size of the cutter that was used. Remember when I said I’m a heavy-handed scooper of flour? I guess I have an issue with teaspoons as well. I decided to cut the amount in my recipe in half and it worked. Sometimes I don’t use baking powder at all and that works as well. If you need a recipe you might want to try my Sugar Cookie Recipe. It only calls for 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder because I already cut the amount in half for you. See if that helps keep you cookies stay closer to the size of the cookie cutter you used to cut them out.
Don’t over mix your cookie dough when you make it. Cream the butter and sugar for a couple of minutes and then add the rest of the ingredients. Over mixing the dough will add air into it and cause the dough to collapse and get air bubbles when it bakes. Just mix the dough as long as you need to get the ingredients mixed.
The amount of flour you add to your cookie dough when you’re making it will determine how your cookies turn out. It's easy to add too much flour if you’re a heavy-handed scooper like me. A great way to handle this is by using a food scale because it will help you use the correct amount of flour and sugar. We’ll talk more about this later because this is one tool I truly need as a baker. I measure my flour, sugar, and powdered sugar and it really helps me get the results I’m looking for!
If you sprinkle a lot of flour on the surface where you roll out your cookie dough, the dough will pick up that flour and it can cause your cookies to become dry and crumbly. That’s why I love using the Flexible Plastic Cutting Board Mats because they don’t require a lot of flour.
Is your oven temperature correct?
20 Min.