From chocolate chip to oatmeal raisin, no dessert satisfies quite the way that cookies do. They're easy to make, serve a crowd, and there are so many iterations to choose from. Using high-quality ingredients and a reliable recipe are two ways to ensure a delicious cookie—but there's something else you should do to take the dessert to the next level: refrigerate the dough.
Flour contains naturally-occurring enzymes, which break down as the dough chills, leading to increased browning. The sugar in the dough absorbs the moisture from the flour, causing the cookie to brown and caramelize. Refrigerating the dough allows the flour to fully hydrate and helps to make the cookie dough firmer.
Firm dough prevents the cookies from spreading too much, which is why chilling the dough is a crucial step for cut-out and rolled cookies. "The colder and more solid the fat is, the less the cookie will spread," says food stylist and recipe developer Caitlin Haught Brown.
More Flavor
Chilling the dough also improves the way your cookies taste. "In terms of flavor, you'll notice more depth of flavor from the vanilla and the sugar will taste sweeter," says Haught Brown. "In terms of texture, chilled cookie dough produces a more evenly golden-brown cookie with a crisper edge and chewier center."
How Long to Refrigerate Cookie Dough
As a general rule of thumb, you should refrigerate cookie dough for at least 30 minutes and up to 24 hours. More than that, and you won't see a noticeable difference in the final product. Once the dough has chilled, let it warm up at room temperature until it's just pliable (about 5 to 10 minutes). Don't let it get too warm or you'll defeat the purpose of chilling the dough all together.
How to Refrigerate Cookie Dough
To make forming the chilled cookie dough more manageable, pre-portion it by scooping balls of dough into individual cookies, placing them on a sheet pan or in a resealable bag, chilling, and then baking right away.
When Not to Refrigerate Cookie Dough
There are some cases where you should avoid chilling cookie dough. For example, the dough for Alexis's Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies shouldn't be refrigerated, since the goal of this recipe is to create super thin, crispy cookies that spread significantly when baking. Refrigerating the dough would prevent these cookies from spreading the way they're intended to.
"A tuile cookie, where the appeal is based in the thinness or lacy qualities, is another example when you should bake the cookie dough immediately," says baker and food stylist Jason Schreiber. Additionally, if you're making a super soft peanut butter cookie or a cakey snickerdoodle, you may not want to refrigerate the dough before baking.
Popping your dough in the fridge allows the fats to cool. As a result, the cookies will expand more slowly, holding onto their texture. If you skip the chilling step, you're more likely to wind up with flat, sad disks instead of lovely, chewy cookies. Cookies made from chilled dough are also much more flavorful.
Firm dough prevents the cookies from spreading too much, which is why chilling the dough is a crucial step for cut-out and rolled cookies. "The colder and more solid the fat is, the less the cookie will spread," says food stylist and recipe developer Caitlin Haught Brown.
The fridge constantly circulates cool air to keep things cold, but this will also result in drying out your dough. (There are some recipes that call for chilled dough and typically the recipe will have been created to account for this.)
Is it true that your cookie dough can be left out at room temperature for up to 21 days? Yes. Our cookie dough has been tested and approved for a rating of shelf stability by Eurofins, the world's largest and most respected food and pharmaceutical testing company.
As you can imagine, utilizing the freezer is an alternative way to chill your cookie dough if you are in a hurry. As a rule of thumb, aim to chill the dough in the freezer for about a quarter of the time you would typically refrigerate it. So, if you can't do an hour in the refrigerator, do 15 minutes in the freezer.
How Long Should I Chill Cookie Dough? Anywhere from 24 to 72 hours. The longer you chill the dough, the more flavor will develop. The flour will also absorb more of the moisture so the thicker and chewier the final texture will be.
Scooping then chilling your cookie dough for at least.2 hours before baking. As you can see, this primarily affects spread and height, both of which significantly contribute to texture.
Again, it's not really the chilling, but the dough gradually drying out, that's responsible for texture change. The drier the dough, the more concentrated the sugar. And a higher percentage of sugar creates cookies with chewy/crisp (rather than soft/doughy) texture.
If your cookie dough is too dry and crumbly, there are a few things you can do to fix it. First, try adding more liquid (milk, water, or even just a little bit of oil) until the dough is wetter and more pliable.
Take it out of the fridge and let it soften at room temperature for while, perhaps 30 minutes to an hour. If you are in a particular hurry, divide the dough into smaller parts; a small amount of dough will warm more quickly than a large lump. Do not put it in the microwave oven. Do not put it in a conventional oven.
The more liquid absorbed by the sugar, the less spread. If the liquid does not have time to absorb, then that liquid will move around freely in the dough, which causes more spread. This is why when you bake your cookies with room-temperature cookie dough, they tend to spread more.
Most cookie dough can be refrigerated, well-wrapped, for 3-5 days before baking. If you want to make it farther in advance, freeze the dough. You can either freeze the entire brick of dough or divide it into portions for quick baking.
First things first, mold. If you spot any fuzzy stuff surfacing, then it's a no-go; chuck your bad cookie dough away to whip up a fresh batch. Even if it looks mold-free, eyeball the color. Sometimes, the bad dough will start changing its hues, especially around the edges, due to chemical reactions from oxidation.
Even a short shift in the fridge will do, however, long periods of chilling time (such as 3 to 5 days) allows the cookie dough to dry out, Hill adds. This is actually a good thing; it leads to even more concentrated flavor.
Cookie dough freezes well for up to 3 months, so it's a great way to get ahead for the holidays or other busy times. For drop cookies, you don't need to wait for the dough to thaw—bake from frozen. You don't have to bake the whole batch at once—you can bake just 1 or 2 when you're craving a freshly baked, warm cookie.
The colder your dough is before it heads into the oven, the less it will spread during baking, which makes for loftier cookies. The chilling phase also gives the flour in your dough time to hydrate, just like pie dough, which translates into a cookie that's more chewy than cakey.
If you plan to pre-shape your cookie dough, use this method:
Freezer bags: Scoop the cookie dough into small balls (or whatever shape you'd like) and freeze them on a cookie sheet. Once frozen, transfer the cookie dough balls to a freezer bag, and store them in the freezer for up to 3 months.
According to the USDA, homemade cookie dough lasts two to four days in the refrigerator and should be stored in small containers. Frozen cookie dough, however, can last up to two months. There are two ways to freeze cookie dough: shaped into ready-to-bake individual cookies or as a whole undivided batch.
Solidifies the fat in the dough, allowing the liquid to dissolve the sugar and flavorings and the flour to absorb them. This improves the flavor of the cookies. Makes the cookie dough less sticky and easier to handle.
Introduction: My name is Kimberely Baumbach CPA, I am a gorgeous, bright, charming, encouraging, zealous, lively, good person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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