Bakery Style Sugar Cookie Recipe: Soft, buttery, and hold their shape! (2024)

FAQs

How do you get sugar cookies to keep their shape? ›

There are many reasons sugar cookies could spread, here are a few and how to prevent them: Bake cookies on parchment paper: Sometimes greasing a baking sheet can cause sugar cookies to spread. Instead, use parchment paper to prevent sticking and help the cookies keep their shape. Don't let the dough get warm.

To help cookies keep their shape, freeze them! I freeze each batch of cut-out cookies for 5 to 10 minutes before baking. They rise just slightly higher and keep their shape better. This really helps when using an intricate cookie cutter, but I do this even when baking circles.

Chef Smith says that Christmas cookies often spread if you don't cook them at the right temperature. This can be especially tricky with an older appliance. As an oven ages, the temperature may be less accurate. Smith recommends purchasing an oven thermometer to make sure you are baking at the correct temperature.

Powdered sugar in cookie dough will give you chewier cookies (if there's egg in the recipe). In shortbread-like cookies it gives you a cookie that's more dense but with a silkier crumb. If you have to substitute powdered for granulated, use 1 and 3/4 cups powdered sugar for every cup of granulated sugar in your recipe.

All you have to do is take the baked cookies from the oven, place a mug (or a glass) over the still warm dough, do a little swirl and voilà, perfectly round cookies.

Chilling is a step called for in many cookie recipes, and it isn't a place to cut corners. “When chilled cookies bake, the butter stays in a solid form longer, slowing the spread,” says Dawn.

Baking cookies on a baking sheet that has been over-greased can flatten the dough as it bakes. Over-greased pans can result from leftover grease from a previous batch of cookies or using too much cooking spray.

Too Much Flour

This may seem counterintuitive—after all, isn't flour a key ingredient in baking? Yes, but if you add too much flour, your cookies won't spread as they bake. Too much flour causes the dough to become dry and crumbly, which prevents it from flattening out during baking.

If you reduce the amount of butter or oil in a recipe, your cookies won't spread as much. If you add too much flour, your cookies won't spread as much. If your cookies have more brown sugar than white sugar, they won't spread as much. It's a careful balance.

Place each portion onto a piece of lightly floured parchment paper or a lightly floured silicone baking mat. With a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough out to about 1/4-inch thickness. Use more flour if the dough seems too sticky. The rolled-out dough can be any shape, as long as it is evenly 1/4-inch thick.

What makes cookies fluffy and not flat? ›

Flour adds fluff and texture to the cookies. Adding too little flour can cause cookies to be flat, greasy, and crispy. Most recipes assume you'll use all-purpose, but if you want a lighter, crumblier cookie texture, choose one with a lower protein content such as cake-and-pastry flour.

Baking powder simply adds carbon dioxide to the equation, providing a more forceful pressure that encourages a dough to spread up and out. Without the well-developed elasticity of a bread dough, the strands of gluten in cookies would sooner snap than stretch, cracking along the surface.

Cream of tartar makes cookies chewy, as it precludes the sugar in the dough from crystalizing, which would lead to crispiness (ie: the opposite of chewiness).

Baking soda is typically used for chewy cookies, while baking powder is generally used for light and airy cookies. Since baking powder is comprised of a number of ingredients (baking soda, cream of tartar, cornstarch, etc.), using it instead of pure baking soda will affect the taste of your cookies.

All levels of powdered sugar grind can be used interchangeably with each other in cookie recipes. But take note: powdered sugar is not to be substituted for granulated sugar or brown sugar, since the added cornstarch in powdered sugar changes cookie chemistry and texture.

Fat content: The fat in cookies, usually butter or oil, melts during baking and spreads out. This creates a thinner and wider cookie. Heat: As the cookies bake, the heat causes the dough to soften and the air pockets within the dough to expand.

If your oven is too hot or too cold, it may influence whether or not your cookies spread properly. If you didn't preheat your oven to the correct temperature before placing your tray of cookies in the oven, it will be too cold and your cookies won't have enough time to spread.

Your sugar cookies might be spreading because your house is really hot. You may start with a butter that is the right temperature, but if your house is really hot...it's going to start melting before it gets to the oven. In this case...you really will need to chill your dough before baking.