Cookie Mess

Baking By Bouse Updated 22 Dec 2010 , 1:32pm by indydebi

Bouse Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
Bouse Posted 21 Dec 2010 , 10:27am
post #1 of 11

I tried to make drop cookies for the first time. They spread out really thin when they were in the oven and joined together on the tray. It was a chocolate chip cookie that I was making so what do you think went wrong?

10 replies
Ambar2 Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
Ambar2 Posted 21 Dec 2010 , 11:44am
post #2 of 11

When I make drop cookies, I put the dough in the freezer until its very firm but just enough to be able to scoop, or maybe too much butter, did you use unsalted? that margarine stuff sucks... maybe over greased the pan, what about your baking sheets, where they warm?

-K8memphis Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
-K8memphis Posted 21 Dec 2010 , 1:07pm
post #3 of 11

What is your recipe? Did you melt the butter?

letsgetcaking Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
letsgetcaking Posted 21 Dec 2010 , 1:29pm
post #4 of 11

I agree that using margarine as a substitute for butter will cause major spreading. Stick with the real butter. I never grease the pans when I bake cookies (there's enough grease in the cookie). I often use parchment paper (not wax paper) under the cookies. This keeps the cookies from spreading too much as well. Here's my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe.

Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter (no margarine)
1 Tbsp. vanilla
2 eggs, slightly beaten
3 cups flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine sugars. Add in butter and cream together with the sugar. Add vanilla and eggs. Mix together. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to the creamed mixture. Mix well (the dough will be stiff). Add the chocolate chips. Line the cookie sheets with parchment paper. (IMPORTANT! This keeps the bottoms from burning and the edges of the cookies from spreading. Just try it!) Drop dough by rounded tablespoon onto the cookie sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on wire racks. Enjoy!

-K8memphis Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
-K8memphis Posted 21 Dec 2010 , 1:42pm
post #5 of 11

My experience is that margarine works fine. But the 'spreads' --all those other substances that have been marketed. Those have greater amounts of water or something in there that does not make good cookies.

But I always had great results with margarine--but when the 'spreads' came out--no not at all.

But you can't melt it to make your cookies unless the recipe specifically says to melt it. In other words, softened is not the same as melted because it does affect the outcome.

JRAE33 Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
JRAE33 Posted 21 Dec 2010 , 2:20pm
post #6 of 11

I always use margarine in cookies. Imperial works well. I did find that Blue Bonnet is not so good in cookies, they did spread when I used that.

-K8memphis Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
-K8memphis Posted 21 Dec 2010 , 2:41pm
post #7 of 11

The other problem is that some vegetable concoctions/spreads come in margarine packaging-that's the mistake I made with my cookies years ago when they started messing around with it.

Bouse Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
Bouse Posted 22 Dec 2010 , 10:47am
post #8 of 11

I used unsalted butter and didn't grease the baking sheets because there was nothing in the instructions for that. They tasted fab, they just didn't look real pretty though. It's a great excuse to have another try.

indydebi Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
indydebi Posted 22 Dec 2010 , 11:20am
post #9 of 11
Quote:
Originally Posted by JRAE33

I always use margarine in cookies. Imperial works well. I did find that Blue Bonnet is not so good in cookies, they did spread when I used that.


same here. I've always used margaine in my cookies, and specifically Imperial ONLY. They don't spread and they bake up nice and "puffy/fluffy soft" which is how we like 'em! thumbs_up.gif

As a matter of fact, Monday was our cookie baking day ... me, my daughter and a neighbor of hers. We divvied up the ingredients and the friend brought some blue bonnet and I had to explain to her that it has a higher water content which will make cookies spread more. So we used that in the peanut butter cookies, which we didnt' care if it spread or not, and used my Imperial in the other cookies..

I'm also a "until it looks right cook". If the batter looks too thin then add more flour. Following a recipe "to a T" is no guarantee. It gives me a little chuckle when I read folks who swear they followed it to a T and it didn't work. ok.... then fix it! thumbs_up.gif Becaues obviously the recipe isn't working for the baker's humidity, altitude, oven performance or baking style.

And it was a good thing I'm a "until it looks right cook" today. The friend was ready to scoop out the dough and i told her it was too thin, she needed more flour. She pulled the "but I measured it like the recipe said". I picked up the measuring cup she'd used and she had used a 3/4 cup measuring cup instead of a 1-cup measuring cup. She was short over a cup of flour!

The RI icing recipe I used calls for 6T of warm water. I always have to use anyhwere from 9 to 12 T's of water to make it the right consistency.

Greasing baking pans for cookies? Oh man that is gross to me! Perfect cookies come from using cookie scoops and parchment paper! Being out of parchment paper is just like being out of eggs to me .... can't make cookies without them. thumbs_up.gif

But no matter what they looked like, they probably tasted great! I made some snickerdoodles to take in to one of my history classes on presentation day. I used a larger scoop and omg those suckers spread until I had a big 16x24 cookie! I knew this recipe made big cookies and I neglected to leave extra room between the cookie dough balls to allow for the regular spreading. I had to use a pizza cutter on them! icon_lol.gificon_lol.gif But while they looked like funny square cookies, they still got rave reviews and a big laugh when I told the story on why they looked funny! icon_biggrin.gif

mpetty Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
mpetty Posted 22 Dec 2010 , 1:18pm
post #10 of 11

Indydebi, a beginner's question on the parchment paper - do you use the same paper throughout the baking process, or do you change the paper with each batch of cookies?

indydebi Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
indydebi Posted 22 Dec 2010 , 1:32pm
post #11 of 11

Depends on the cookie. A messy cookie, I use the parchment once. I do flip them over and use the backside, so you can use them at least twice. When we did our baking yesterday (and we pumped out about 800 cookies), we used the sheets on some of the pans for 3-4 batches, some more, some less.

Quote by @%username% on %date%

%body%