A dough that spreads too much can lead to burnt cookies that are unsuitable for anyone’s taste buds. Thankfully there are many ways to fix cookies in this condition, saving the delicious cookie batter you worked so hard to create.
To fix cookies that spread too much, refrain from greasing the cookie sheet, never overbeat the butter and sugar, keep your butter warm and dough cold, and watch for measuring mistakes.
If you are doing everything right according to the recipe, but your batter keeps spreading, it might be time to improvise.
How to Fix Cookies that Spread Too Much (The Easiest Solutions Out There)
You don’t have to be a master baker to whip up a batch of delicious chocolate chip, peanut butter, or oatmeal cookies. Having the right tools and tips is all you need to make flat cookies thicken up.
Stop Greasing Your Cookie Sheets
People tend to grease their cookie sheets to keep the dough from sticking to the metal. Unfortunately, this can backfire, lubricating the pan and allowing the cookies to spread quickly.
Cookie batter already has plenty of ingredients that melt and travel on a cookie pan, so there is little room for any extra spread-inducing factors.
How to fix cookies that spread too much caused by greased pans: Avoid greasing your cookie sheets and use parchment paper instead. Parchment paper gives the dough a rough surface to hold onto and is easy to remove after the baking process is complete.
Keep Your Dough Cold
Warm cookie dough spreads much quicker when placed in the oven. The rapid spreading has much to do with the butter and sugar quickly melting. To keep this from happening, you should always use cold dough.
Cold dough melts much slower in the oven, allowing your cookies to keep their shape.
How to fix cookies that spread too much caused by warm dough: After mixing your ingredients, place your cookie dough in the refrigerator for about two hours to harden it up.
Watch Your Ingredients (Sometimes You Have to Change the Measurements)
Most of the time, following a homemade cookie recipe to a T will bring you an amazing, delicious, and soft cookie. However, there are also moments when you must adjust as you see fit. Maybe you are using a different brand, live in a different climate, or your oven isn’t entirely on par.
Whatever the reason you’re ending up with a flat cookie, swapping the amount of each ingredient you use can make a world of difference and give you the chewy cookies you’re looking for.
How to fix cookies that spread too much caused by ingredient failure: To stop cookies from spreading, try increasing the amount of flour in the cookie recipe or slightly reducing the amount of sugar or butter.
Warm Up the Butter
We don’t want you to melt the butter or make it overly soft. However, you shouldn’t use cold butter, either. Cold butter can cause your cookies to spread due to the amount of mixing it takes to incorporate that thick butter into the dough. Too much mixing is never good.
To fix cookies that spread too much caused by cold butter: To ensure your softened butter is the best temperature for your cookie batter, leave it to sit out until it reaches room temperature. If the butter gets too warm, it can cause even more problems, so ensure it is just soft enough to leave an impression when pushing a spoon into the middle.
Use Proper Mixing Skills (Mainly When Adding the Sugar and Butter to the Batter)
When combining all your ingredients, it is crucial to be careful when mixing the butter and sugar. Stirring too much can lead to a soft, airy texture. Mixing it too little can cause the butter and sugar to clump so that it quickly melts and pools once heated up.
How to fix cookies that spread too much caused by improper mixing: Mix the batter enough to combine all the dry ingredients thoroughly and incorporate the sugar and butter separately.
Why Did My Cookies Bake Together?
If your cookies are baking together, it might be because you are placing the clumps of dough too close on the cookie sheet. Most cookie batter will spread once warmed up due to the ingredients melting down, forming the iconic round shape we know and love.
If you are giving the dough balls plenty of space, try using one of the fixes we’ve outlined to stop your cookies from coming together.
Summing Things Up
Cookies tend to spread when there is too much grease or liquid mixture in the batter. However, this is not always the case. Consider all the options above to decide which is the most likely reason for your cookies to travel across the pan.
