Rant: Learned why my cookies kept spreading after a bakery guy called me out

I was at a farmers market last weekend in Portland and this baker from a stall nearby saw me buying baking sheets. He asked what I was making and I told him chocolate chip cookies that always turn into flat discs. He straight up said 'your butter is too warm when you start.' I was so mad at first because I thought I followed the recipe exactly. But then I got home and tested it. I creamed my butter when it was still a little cool and the cookies held their shape way better. He also said most recipes assume your kitchen is 68 degrees which mine definitely is not. Now I check my butter temp with a thermometer before I even start mixing. Has anyone else found a trick that sounds dumb simple but actually fixed a huge baking fail? Not just cookies either, I'm curious about bread or cakes too.

2 comments

2 Comments

harper_murphy1mo ago

Blew my mind when I learned the same thing about butter temperature. I used to leave mine out on the counter for hours thinking I was doing it right, but my kitchen gets warm in the summer and the butter was basically melted sludge before I even started. Another thing that helped me was chilling the dough for at least 30 minutes after mixing, not just the butter. For cakes, I found out the hard way that letting your eggs and milk sit out to room temperature makes a huge difference in how light and fluffy the crumb turns out. It feels so dumb and simple but it totally changed my baking game.

danielh811mo ago

Have you tried putting the butter in the microwave for just 5 seconds at a time to soften it faster?