Cookie Dough Spreading - Solutions Finally!

I have finally baked an entire batch of sugar cookies that didn't spread!



Is this issue solved forever or solved temporarily? Not sure yet. All I know is that this is the first time that I've baked cookies and every single one of them baked up perfectly. Nice, crisp edges and no spreading. I'm so thrilled!

I've written a few posts about this whole spreading thing. Trying to figure out what was going wrong. With each experiment / post, I've gotten closer to a solution.

The first post on this issue was about chilling dough. You can read it here.

Then another here.

Then I put those tips into practice here and ran a whole bunch of experiments.

And last, but not least, I wrote a post about calibrating my oven here.

Finally I put all of that together and I've baked a perfect batch of sugar cookies! With each cookie sheet that I pulled out of the oven, I couldn't believe my eyes. Every cookie sheet, every cookie - no spreading. Wow. Unheard of in this kitchen.



So here's what I did this time to achieve no spreading. . .

I wish I knew for sure exactly what it was that made these cookies turn out this way.
Here's what I didn't worry about with this batch that I thought might cause spreading. . .

• I didn't worry about over-crowding the pans. I baked 6 medium cookies per sheet or 8 smaller cookies. No problems.
• I didn't worry about re-rolling. There was no difference between the cookies that had been re-rolled and the ones that hadn't. Actually there was no difference in the spreading. I did see some raised bumps on a few of the cookies that had been re-rolled. I think that had to do with using flour in the rolling and not kneading it back together fully. The bumps were like a flaky layer that raised during baking. Not a big deal to me. I'll take that over spreading any day.

Did I mention that I'm thrilled beyond belief?
So thrilled that I just HAD to show you each and every cookie in this batch?
Do you have spreading issues? If so, I hope that some of my tips will help you!



Edit: I JUST thought of something else different that I did with this batch. I used fresh dough. Often times I'll freeze my cut out shapes. In fact, lately I've been doing that a lot. I wonder if using frozen/defrosted in the fridge dough makes any difference. Experiment time again? You bet!

And one more thing...I just noticed that Bake at 350's sugar cookie recipe specifically calls for *unbleached* flour.

Oy. So many variables!

2018 Edit:  I've come a long way since these dough posts!   I'm now teaching online, live video classes.  One of them is on this very subject of how to stop dough from spreading.  Join me online for a class or two!

Bakers, Calibrate Your Ovens!

It's not you, it's your oven! Seriously, it really could be! If your baked goods aren't coming out quite right, check your oven's temperature. Your oven could be way off. Mine was.

If you read my experiment post, you'll remember that I was trying to figure out why my cookie dough was spreading so horribly while baking.

I concluded that three things really helped minimize spreading:

• More flour.
• Chilled dough.
• Correct, lower oven temperature.

That last one, the oven temperature, is the most difficult to fix when you have a finicky oven.
Please meet my new BFF. He's the one that clued me in on the fact that my oven was partially to blame for my spreading issues. He's the one that's going to help me solve them. Thanks Harold! Where would I be without you?
If you're having similar oven issues, you can easily find an oven thermometer. I found Harold at Bed, Bath & Beyond for just a few dollars.

I baked my first batch since my experiment and thought I had everything figured out and that I'd achieve perfect cookies this time with Harold's help. Unfortunately that didn't happen. I spent hours raising the temp, waiting for it to get there, lowering the temp, raising it again. It took forever. To make matters worse, the temp lowered a bit each time I opened the door. I wasn't very patient and put pans in when the temperature wasn't where I wanted it to be.

I had spreading issues again.

It wasn't you Harold. It was me.
After that long, un-fun cookie baking session, I decided that I'd have to do one of the following:

• Call a repair man.
• Bake at my parents' house.
• Buy a new oven.

The third wasn't really an option. The first sounded costly. While visiting my parents is always nice, baking there would be rather inconvenient.
I realized there was actually a fourth option. It involved Google and a screwdriver. At least that's what I was thinking. There has to be some knob or screw that calibrates the oven. I can do that, right? So off to Google.
"How to Calibrate Oven". That's what I typed in and there were results. Yay! I can do it myself! But then I quickly realized that most of the results were for calibrating an oven that has a dial to regulate the baking temperature. Mine's digital.
If you happen to have the dial-type oven and need to calibrate, it is super easy. You just pop off the dial, turn two screws, turn another dial, then test it out. Here's a Youtube video that shows you how.
I went back to Googling and found something about digital ovens and checking the user's manual to find out how to calibrate it. Doh! Why didn't I think of that? I guess because I thought they'd tell me that if my warranty had expired that I'd need to call for a repair. How wrong I was. There it was, in black and white - "Oven Temperature Adjustment". All I had to do was press a few buttons on my oven's keypad! I didn't even need a screwdriver.
I have a Maytag Gemini. I can adjust my temperature -35 degrees to +35 degrees. I chose one, waited a while for it to heat, adjusted, waited for a while, and so on. I ended up going +20 degrees. I'll have to wait until my next baking session to see how well that works. I can always adjust again. I may have to go higher.

While Googling the calibrating issue, I ran into a post that talked about using a pizza stone in your oven.



Here they are, working together as one.

Edit: For an update on my cookie dough spreading problem, please see this post.

2018 Edit:  I've come a long way since this post!   I'm now teaching online, live video classes.  One of them is on this very subject.  Join me online for a class or two!

Problems with Sugar Cookie Dough Spreading and How to Stop It!

What's a cookie baker to do when her cookie shapes spread? Go to the experts. That's where I started. I compiled a list of recommendations to help with my spreading issues. You can see that here.

Before I started my experiment - my biggest fear and actually what I believed could very well be my true problem was that my oven is to blame. I think that I can fix anything else. Fixing my oven sounds like a costly solution, one that I'm not willing to do right now.

So here's what I was doing before....
I used to use Sugarbelle's recipe, roll with flour, bake room temperature dough, oven set to 400.

Later, I used the same recipe, rolled without flour - between plastic wrap, baked chilled dough, oven set to 400.

My cookies were nice and lightly colored on the back, not much browning on the edges. I seemed to get inconsistent results on the spreading. In general, they were spreading too much for me. My cookies don't have anywhere near those perfect edges that you see on Sugarbelle's post and on all of those other amazing cookie blogs.

I decided to run some experiments. I decided to use Sugarbelle's recipe, keeping the baking powder at 2 tsp. I wanted my cookies light and fluffy. I wanted them to spread up, not out. I did add a bit more flour than I usually do so that it wasn't sticky at all. Her recipe calls for baking at 400 degrees. To keep the timing consistent, I'll bake all batches for 8 minutes.

The first thing I did was buy an oven thermometer.

Wow. Just plain old wow. The result was shocking.

I set my oven to 400 degrees. I heard the beep 10 minutes later and guess what the thermometer read? 300 stinking degrees. I tried to remain calm. So it takes a little longer to get to 400. No big deal. Everyone says to heat the oven for a long time before baking. I'll give it half an hour.

375 degrees. Worry starts to set in. At 55 minutes my oven finally reached about 390 degrees. Don't panic. Just set the oven to 410 and all will be well. Right? No. The dang oven got to 405 so I switched it back to 400 and decided to just get started.


So here's Batch #1. The raw dough.

I made the dough and let it rest for five minutes.
Rolled between plastic, no flour.
Room temperature dough.
Cut with a 2 1/4" cutter.

The dough was stretchy and difficult to move to the cookie sheet without distorting the shapes. I've never done it this way before. Hated it already.

Many cookiers say that over-crowding the pan leads to more spreading, so I crowded the cookies on the right and left plenty of room around the ones on the left.

The oven read 405. Reset it to 400 and put them in. *sigh*


Here's the result for Batch #1.

Difficult to see, huh?

Major spreeeeaaaaading problems.

They measure 2 5/8". Horrible! The scallops around the edges melded together quite a bit.

No difference between the over-crowded and not crowded cookies.

Batch #2.

I rolled out just-made, room temperature dough. No flour. Plastic wrap.
Chilled 20 minues.
The shapes were a dream to handle. No stretching.

My oven was now reading 390 stinkin degrees. Changed to 410 and popped those babies in. *sigh again*





Here's the result of Batch #2.

They may be the tiniest bit smaller than batch #1.
They measure 2 1/2".

No difference between crowded and not crowded.

Not good, but better.



A close up of the ones placed close together from batch #2.

Notice the bottom, left cookie, left edge. The scallops almost entirely disappeared. That side of the cookie isn't crowded at all.

Could it be my oven? Notice that it's brown on that edge. Hot spots in my oven?

Depression is setting in.







The backs of batch #2

Depression is seriously setting in.

The backs have never looked like this before.

Well of course they haven't. I've had my oven set at 400, not 410. I've been baking below 400 degrees. Who knows how much lower. It could have been a lot, especially if I started baking soon after (so-called) preheating.

Batch #3.

Room temperature dough from batch #1 but I re-rolled it using flour, between plastic.

I was hoping to firm it up a bit but still wanted to see what it did at room temp.

It was easier to handle this way than back at batch #1. Not as easy to handle as batch #2. Slightly stretchy dough.

(Is anyone following this? Ha!)

Changed my oven temp back to 410. Thermometer read 375. Uggggghhhh.


When I took them out of the oven, the thermometer read 390.

Crowded/not crowded were the same.

Brown edges.

These were measuring 2 1/2".

Better than batch #1. About the same as batch #2.

Very, very interesting.

Batch #4.

This is the rest of the dough from batch #3.

Rolled with flour between plastic but this time I chilled it.

Nice, firm dough. no stretching.



Batch #4 baked.

I had to do something about the browning. A lot of cookiers use the NFSC recipe. It calls for baking at 350 so I decided to try lowering my temp.

Oven set to 360. Actual oven temp 350 or slightly below.

Cookies measure 2 1/2".
More defined. Nicer scallops.
Things are looking better.







The backs of batch #4.

Much, much better.







Batch #5.

This is the same dough from batch #2.

Rolled with no flour, between plastic.

Chilled.

But I wanted to try it at the lower baking temperature.




Batch #5 baked.

Oven set to 360, actual oven temp is 350.

Nice and light in color.

Scallops aren't horrible.








Backs of batch #5.

Good.






It's looking like #4 and #5 came out the best. I wanted to compare them up close.

Batch #4 is on the top row. Batch #5 on the bottom row.

Very close. Look at that beauty on the top right. It's smaller than the rest and awesome!

The one on the bottom right is smaller than the rest of that row. I'm guessing that means that the right side of my oven is cooler and caused those to spread less.

Well I'm certainly not going to be using only one side of my oven, so I need to come up with a general conclusion here.

And that is....that Batch #4 is the winner. (The top row above.) The scallops are slightly more defined. The cookies may be the slightest bit smaller.

I must say that I'm surprised. Rolling with flour helps prevent spreading???? In all of my research on the topic (and that's rather extensive), I don't think that I've ever read to roll with flour to reduce spreading. Could it be?

Or could it be that I didn't have enough flour in my dough? I weigh my flour but I used a bit more this time.

Granted, there isn't a whole lot of difference between #4 and #5 but there is a difference.

I gotta say that I'm pretty shocked. I'm also pleased that I seem to be getting somewhere.

But I have to do just two more batches.

Many cookiers say that there seems to be more spread, the more you re-roll the scraps. So I took all of the scraps, let them come to room temperature, kneaded them together a bit, rolled between plastic, with flour.

Flour - my new secret weapon?

The oven had been on for a long time now and had gotten up to 360 so I reset to 355.

I opened the door and put the cookies in when it reached 350. Baked for 8 minutes, took them out and.....



Batch #6.

My first thought was, "Holy crap, those are beautiful cookies!" This is the best batch yet.

Gorgeous. Exquisite. Things of beauty. I think I'll frame them and hang them on the wall. There aren't enough adjectives in the English language to convey my feelings for these cookies. I think I want to marry them.

And they measure...2 3/8"!!!! Less than 2 1/2"! Just a tad larger than 2 1/4"! I know that you know what 2 3/8" means, I just can't believe it.





A beauty close up to show off their amazing curves.

Time for reflection. Why are these even better? They've had more flour kneaded in. They've been re-rolled once with flour. They've been chilled. They've been baked at a lower temperature.








There's just one more thing that I need to do. I'm going back to 400 degrees. I'm perfectly, completely pleased with the last batch. I'm just curious about decreasing the baking time at 400. I'm using the exact same dough as the last batch. 400 degrees for 6 minutes.



Batch #7.

Not bad. Not bad at all. They measure 2 1/2" just like many of the above batches but these scallops are much more defined.

Not as well defined or as small as Batch #6, but pretty good.

Shew. Has anyone read this entire thing? If so, you deserve a cookie. My head is swimming. If anyone else actually read this far, I wonder if it makes any sense at all.



One last picture. The gorgeous cookie on the bottom is from Batch #6. The one on the top is from one of the earliest batches. Quite a difference!

So let's wrap this up. The very best batch was rolled (actually re-rolled) using flour AND chilled. Baked at 350 for 8 minutes.

If you're experiencing spreading, I hope that this can somehow help you as it's helped me. Our recipes, our ovens, the way we do things are all different so I'm sure you'll have to run your own experiments but just maybe you'll find that lowering your oven temperature, using more flour, and chilling the dough will help you too. I hope so!

I'm quite unhappy that my oven isn't performing properly but I am quite thrilled that I may be able to get around it.

This whole oven temperature thing has rocked my world. I had no idea that my oven was performing this way. Who am I? What does this mean for all of my other baking? Whenever a time range is given for a baking recipe, I always end up baking for the longest time given. I thought that was normal. That's why they give a range, right?

I think I'm undergoing a baker's identity crisis right now. Am I babbling? Do I need to adjust the oven temp now for everything or continue on in the state of ignorant bliss that I was before? Everything (except my sugar cookies) was coming out just fine.

I'll have to do some baker's self-analysis on all of that.

In the meantime I think I'll just bask in the fabulousness of getting closer to non-spreading cookies. I can't wait to bake my next batch.

I had no real plans for these cookies, other than using them for scientific experimentation. I think I'll frost them with chocolate royal icing. Yum!

Edit: For an update on my cookie dough spreading problem, please see this post.

2018 Edit:  I've come a long way since this post!   I'm now teaching online, live video classes.  One of them is on this very subject.  Join me online for a class or two!

Chilling Sugar Cookie Dough

To chill or not to chill sugar cookie dough. That is the question.



Some people do. Some don't. I tried chilling a few times but it didn't seem to help with cutting the shapes, transferring the shapes to a cookie sheet, or having the shapes bake with less spreading.

I was experimenting with chilling the other day and realized that it was WHEN I was chilling that didn't help. But there is a time to chill the dough that DOES help. Woo hoo!

When I chilled the dough before, I just divided it in two, wrapped those lumps in plastic wrap and put them in the refrigerator for an hour or so.

The only noticeable difference was that the dough was hard to roll out. By the time I was done with rolling and cutting, it was limp. Sometimes I'd skew my shapes a bit as I lifted them up and transferred them to the baking sheet, just as I sometimes do without chilling. My first thought, was forget it. Why bother chilling?

Then it came to me. Make the dough. Roll it out immediately. Chill. Then cut. Shazam! I could hold one of those shapes dangling in the air between two fingers and it wouldn't lose its shape. Well, almost. Close enough for me!

So exciting, huh?

But it gets better. I also wanted to do my rolling without flour. Before, I was rolling on floured waxed paper or a floured fondant sheet. Too messy. Too much risk of tough cookies. Too much of a pain to knead the scraps back together when they've been floured.

Sooooo . . .My new fabulous method of rolling, chilling, cutting . . .

Place the dough on top of a piece of plastic wrap. Lay another piece of plastic wrap on top. Pat the dough down a bit to get started.

Roll. Lift up the top piece of plastic wrap every now and again and lay it back down. It gets a tight hold on the dough and needs to let go a bit.

No sticking!

Slide the dough onto the back of a cookie sheet. I've been doing this so I don't distort the dough by lifting it. I don't really think it's necessary though. You could lift the dough (along with both pieces of plastic wrap) and put it on the right side of a cookie sheet. That way you could stack them easier in the refrigerator if you're working with a lot of dough.

Refrigerate for about 30 minutes or freeze for 15.

Cut your shapes and be amazed at how they peel off the plastic wrap. Ah. The little things in life.

Bake those puppies.

Gather the scraps on the plastic wrap. Cover with the other sheet. Smoosh them together. Flatten with your fingers. Roll. Back in the fridge.

Now you can get the other one out of the refrigerator and get to cutting it.

I'm thrilled to bits with every step of this new method. The cut shapes are perfect and no flour! Perfection for me!

Edit: They may have cut perfectly but I was having spreading issues. Read about my "scientific" experiment here on how to prevent spreading. Chilling the dough is just part of it.

And an update here.

Swirled Roses - Royal Icing - Again

I attempted making a few more swirled roses with royal icing. So pretty!

I used a super stiff royal icing. That worked better than my previous attempt.

The larger ones are 1 1/2 inches across. The smaller ones are about 1/2 inch.

They were so pretty that I thought I'd attempt adding them straight to some cookies . . .

FAIL! Ha! Ha! Horrible, huh?
Please ignore the grey outlines. I had other plans for these cookies before I decided to try piping flowers onto them.

These are 2 inch rounds.

The one on the left was totally off center. The one on the top right became an oval. I was closer with the bottom one, but look at the petals. They're tight on one side and loose on the other. I think that it would take some practice to be able to pipe them directly onto cookies.

But I wonder if that's too much royal icing for cookies. I haven't tasted one yet. I'll find out soon.

Have you ever used that much royal icing on a cookie?

Edit: It's been 24 hours since making the cookies with the roses. I just had a taste and think I broke a tooth. Just kidding but yeah, pretty difficult to bite through the thick rose!

So the big royal icing roses on cookies is a no-go. That's disappointing. I wonder if using a royal icing with corn syrup would make it hard enough to stack yet still soft enough to enjoy. Maybe I'll try that sometime.

Royal Icing Experiment

So as a newly obsessed cookie-decorator-wannabee, I've been struggling with lumpy flood icing. Sometimes it's smooth, but more often it's a mess. It's never as flawless as the cookies I've admired.

Each batch of cookies I've made so far has been an experimentation, trying to learn about royal icing consistencies mostly.

Some decorators outline with a thicker consistency and flood with thinner.

Some people outline and flood with the same medium consistency.

Sometimes they'll outline and flood with a thicker consistency.

They seem to have found what they prefer and go to for certain things. I know that besides getting my icing smooth, I have to find what works for me.

I realized that trying these one at a time will take me forever. I want improvement now. Instant gratification and all that. I don't want batches and batches of stinky cookies until I find my groove.

So it came to me. Whip up some cookies. Random shapes. Whip up some royal icing. No coloring. Just different consistencies of icing. Then play. Test. Write down what's what. So that's just what I did and I learned a whole lot in just one batch of cookies.

I made three consistencies of icing. One straight from the mixer. One was just over twenty-seconds. The last was just over ten-seconds.

For my timing, I "cut" the icing with a butter knife and counted until the icing came back together.

What I'm calling 20-second icing is much thinner than Sweet Sugarbelle's 20-second. She used a small spatula to cut and count. I think that she uses hers to outline and fill small areas. I'll have to remember that.

So here's what I found in my experimenting....

The icing straight out of the mixer was awful. I couldn't control it at all. I doubt that I could have used it anywhere with anything, so that icing was out of the rest of my experimentation. (I read that some decorators do use it that way. Theirs must be much thinner than mine!)

Then I started outlining and flooding. My first cookies looked fine while wet but as they dried, they were lumpy. Yes, lumpy, again. 20-second was lumpy. 10-second was lumpy. Well, that answered my question as to whether or not the consistency was the culprit.

Exhibit A......

So what else could it be? The way I applied the icing? I flooded it, not excessively and used the tip or a toothpick to move it around to spread it out. I've seen decorators use a spatula to smooth the icing and I've seen them use a toothpick.

Maybe not enough icing? BINGO!

Exhibit B......

Smooth as a baby's bottom. With these, I flooded round and round very tightly. I got my tip down in there and moved the icing a bit as I went. When I say that I flooded the cookies, I FLOODED the cookies. But carefully. Maybe a shake here and a quick toothpick there at the end. That was it.

Doh. I guess they used an offset spatula and not a toothpick for a reason!

So besides learning how to flood correctly, I learned a few other things....

For outlining and flooding together, the 20-second icing held its shape much better. The 10-second works but does spread a bit. I prefer the 20-second.

For outlining with a thicker piping consistency first, then I'd prefer 10-second or less for the flooding.

Then I started playing with piping dots, letters, and lines with 10-second and 20-second using #2 tips and #1.5 tips.

The 10-second was bad. Way too loose for any detail work.

The 20-second wasn't good with the #2 tip. It was okay with the #1.5. That's what I used for the flower petals above. They're not bad. I think I'd prefer a thicker consistency for details though.

I now wish that I had made a few piping consistencies for this super-jam packed lesson. But I learned something about that anyway. Before, I was careful, trying to get it just the right thickness where if I scooped it up with my spatula, it would fall off in just a few seconds but would still be flowy. (Does that make any sense?) Now I realize that since the 20-second icing worked okay for outlining and it's a long way off from what I was using before - anything in between will work just fine.

Woo hoo! I feel like I've just taken an abbreviated, royal icing course in just one class.

Snowflake Cookies

So here's my second attempt... Notice that there's no red to be seen.The cookies above were my "test" cookies.

For cookies 1, 2 and 4 I was using probably close to a 20-second Royal Icing for the flooding. I was hoping for a nice, puffy look. 1 and 2 were outlined and flooded together. 4 was iced using a spatula. Eh. I just wanted to see what would happen with that one.

I didn't like any of the results. The icing wasn't evening out enough. Too thick. Maybe I needed more icing. I'm not sure but I was worried that I'd run out of icing if I used more on each so decided to thin it out for the rest of the backgrounds.

The flooding for 3 was outlined with a thinner icing and then left to dry for a while before flooding. I decided against this for 5, 6 and the rest of them. Instead I piped and flooded together.

I piped the snowflakes on 1 and 2 but the icing was way too thin so I thickened it up for the rest.

On 5 and 6, I tried to see how it would look if I added a few more spokes to the snowflake. I didn't like what it did to the centers. If I had some silver dragees or something, that would have fixed it right up. Bummer. A smaller tip would have helped too.

Soooo....experimenting over, here's what I came up with. A thinner icing for the background, maybe 10 seconds, piped and flooded together. A thicker icing for the piping, maybe 15 seconds. #2 tip. Next time thicker piping icing and smaller tip.

Anyway, I love how they came out... The largest snowflakes are actually from a flower cookie cutter. The other is a snowflake cutter but I lost some of the detail on the shape. I never chill my dough before baking. I think that I'm going to do that next time to see what happens. Maybe the shapes will be more defined.

I placed a big ol' order from Karen's Cookies. Food coloring, small bottles, a 1.5 tip, some cutters...Can't wait!

Dotty