How to Thicken Cookie Dough: 6 Ways to Prevent Cookie Spread

Cookie dough is a mixture of dry and wet ingredients that results in a thick batter or dough. A basic cookie recipe has room-temperature unsalted butter, white sugar or brown sugar (or both), large eggs, all-purpose flour, salt, and baking powder or baking soda (or both). You can always add in other ingredients, such as peanut butter, chocolate chips, nuts, or candies, to create a variety of cookie flavors. Traditional cookie dough has raw ingredients, like eggs and flour, so you should avoid eating it raw to limit the associated health risks. However, there are recipes for cookie doughs that substitute toasted flour and use egg substitutes so that you can consume it in dough form.

You might have a personal preference for thicker cookies, which requires a thicker cookie dough. Beyond this, however, there are a few additional reasons you might want to consider thickening your cookie dough.

1. 1. Easier rolling: A thick cookie dough is much easier to work with, whether you plan to roll out your dough with a rolling pin and cut it into shapes or roll it into cookie dough balls. Traditionally, chocolate chip cookie doughs and peanut butter cookie doughs are thick enough to roll into balls but not thick enough to roll out with a rolling pin. However, you might want to thicken either of these doughs if you plan to use them for a thicker dessert, such as a chocolate chip cookie “cake.”
2. 2. Even cooking: A thick cookie dough ensures the cookie holds its shape during the baking process. Cookie batter that is too thin will spread as it cooks or can result in parts of the cookie baking before others, leaving areas underbaked, overbaked, or even burnt.
3. 3. Tender cookies: A thick cookie dough results in soft, chewy cookies. On the other hand, a thin cookie dough can lead to puddles in the oven, resulting in flat cookies that are crispy and crumbly.

Cookie baking is a science and getting the ingredients and the ingredient amounts right is paramount. Here are a few tips for preventing runny cookie dough:

1. 1. Properly beat the butter and sugar. Most cookie recipes that use room-temperature butter, as opposed to melted butter, call for beating the butter and sugar until they become light and fluffy. This is the first step in creating volume and structure in the baked cookies, so be mindful to actually whip the butter and sugars, usually granulated sugar and light brown sugar.
2. 2. Read the recipe thoroughly. It’s crucial to read the entire recipe before you start cooking, otherwise you might end up adding all of the large eggs in one step before you realize that one egg is for another step later in the recipe. An error like this might result in a runny cookie dough.
3. 3. Use room-temperature ingredients. Butter, eggs, milk, and any other normally chilled ingredients should go into a cookie dough recipe at room temperature. This will ensure that the ingredients mix well together and don’t separate, which could result in a thin cookie dough. If you have softened the butter in the microwave and accidentally melted some of it, you can just wait until it returns to room temperature before you start the mixing process.

Here are a few techniques for thickening runny cookie dough before you begin baking:

• Balance the ingredients. If you incorporate too much milk, eggs, or another liquid, you can add a proportionate amount of the dry ingredients to the cookie dough to account for the excess liquid.
• Chill the dough. If the butter became too soft during the mixing process, it can sometimes result in a thin cookie dough. Bakers should always use room-temperature butter, but a stand mixer creates friction, causing the cookie dough to heat up slightly. If that happens, just pop the cookie dough in the refrigerator to chill for about an hour before you scoop it onto parchment paper or a silicone baking mat lined with a baking sheet.
• Incorporate more flour. The simplest and most advisable way to thicken cookie dough is to add a couple tablespoons of cake flour to a runny cookie dough. Mix it gently to prevent overmixing, which will result in a tough cookie dough. For roll-out cookie dough, knead the extra flour in by hand.

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