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Flat cookies with butter :(


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Used real butter. Made everything exactly as directed. Cooled in fridge for two/three hours.

 

Watched them rise golden, perfect. Then they started this little popping and they all, every last one turned flat as a pancake.

Help?

 

I even had a batch on a baking sheet, refrigerated it, took it to a neighbors and she baked them for me. Flat flat flat. But yummy...

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Quote from NYTimes article on butter

"For mixing and creaming, butter should be about 65 degrees: cold to the touch but warm enough to spread. Just three degrees warmer, at 68 degrees, it begins to melt.

 

“Once butter is melted, it’s gone,” said Jennifer McLagan, author of the new book “Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, With Recipes” (Ten Speed Press).

 

Warm butter can be rechilled and refrozen, but once the butterfat gets warm, the emulsion breaks, never to return.

 

For clean edges on cookies and for even baking, doughs and batters should stay cold — place them in the freezer when the mixing bowl seems to be warming up. And just before baking, cookies should be very well chilled, or even frozen hard."

 

Maybe my setting the butter on the counter to come to room temp is the problem? On a video I saw she put the butter in micro for 10 secs out of the fridge. Still firm but not fridge cold. My butter was squishy soft, room temp here is 72 and yesterday was probably closer to 80.

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When I was in junior high I noticed that my mom's chocolate chip cookies puffed up and were rounded. My grandma's chocolate chip cookies were flat. I found out that my grandma used butter/margarine and my mom used Crisco. Maybe it was a coincidence, but I made the assumption that there was a difference in how butter vs Crisco cookies turned out.

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They'll probably still taste grreat!

 

Some things about butter - pp noted temperature, it does matter, but what matters more is the quality of the butter. Many commercial butters today have too much water in them, so when you're baking, better quality (more expensive) IS better. The best baking butter on the market is the European buttter (Plugera, Kerry Gold, etc.) - but if that's a budget buster, your best US bet is Land-O-Lakes. Store brands and other brands just have too much water in them.

 

Also - don't use whipped butter; do not melt butter before adding to your mix, refrigerate dough before rolling out or making balls to lay on the sheet to bake, and do not make sheet after sheet after sheet of cookies, where they're sitting out (warming up) before going into the oven. Oh, and don't add cookies to a just out of the oven sheet - it should cool well before you add another batch to the sheet to go in the oven!

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I don't think the problem is your butter. I use butter in cookies all the time. As long as your dough isn't actually melting, it's probably not the temp of your dough either, though chilling the dough might help. Next time, add a smidge more flour. Not much, just a smidge, but also add a bit extra of baking soda or baking powder, whichever your recipe calls for.

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Thanks Tigger but what about that butter coming right out of the fridge? I put mine on the counter and it got waaay soft. Think that would do it?

 

I posted the second as something I'd read. I'm still not sure specifically of the answer. Now I'm ready to do my own America's Test Kitchen type experiment. I'd like to solve this crazy mystery once and for all.

 

Yes they taste good but I want beautiful by golly!!!:tongue_smilie:

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Thanks Tigger but what about that butter coming right out of the fridge? I put mine on the counter and it got waaay soft. Think that would do it?

 

I posted the second as something I'd read. I'm still not sure specifically of the answer. Now I'm ready to do my own America's Test Kitchen type experiment. I'd like to solve this crazy mystery once and for all.

 

Yes they taste good but I want beautiful by golly!!!:tongue_smilie:

 

If it got way soft, it was likely too soft --and that's actually okay when you're mixing the butter into your other wet ingredients (which the recipe should have you do - all wet then into the dry, and sugar is considered a wet ingredient). If you work with really soft butter - refrigerate for an hour before prepping it to go in the oven, that's the only thing to do, it firms the butter in the mix back up.

 

It's next to impossible to properly mix in butter straight out of the refrigerator - it needs to be soft enough to "cream" it with the wet ingredients, but firm enough to still look like butter when sitting on a plate, if that makes sense. If it's too hard, the dry ingredients won't mix fully with the wet.

 

It's also possible, as another poster noted, that your fat to flour ratio was just off slightly. Hard to tell, but as suggested adding just a touch more (about a teaspoon) flour to the mix might also help.

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My cookies started coming out flat after years of fluffy cookies....I bought brand new flour amd baking soda and tried that....still flat. I used good butter....still flat! I have a friend who always has soft fluffy cookies, and they are Yummy! I need to find out her secret.

 

I always use the recipe on toll house chocolate chips. I add avlittle flour and baking soda. :(

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Add more flour. I never use anything but butter with my cookies and they are always puffy and round. It sounds like you have more butter than necessary. Here's my chocolate chip recipe. Try it and see if they stay puffy for you:

 

1 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup white sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

3/4 tsp. salt

3/4 tsp. baking soda

3 cups flour

1 bag chocolate chips (I also make the cookies with craisins, white chocolate chips and pecans sometimes. It's a versatile dough.)

 

Cream butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well. Mix in flour, salt and sugar. Mix in chips. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on cookie sheet for a couple of minutes before removing to rack to complete cooling. Enjoy!

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I only use real butter and don't get flat cookies. I also live at high altitude (4500 feet).

 

My cookie procedure:

1. Butter softened on the counter (but don't let it get too warm).

2. Add enough flour to make a stiffish dough (but not a dry or crumbly dough).

3. Cook for less than the recipe time. If the recipe says 10 min., take them out at 7-8 min. They will look undone, but they will finish baking on the sheet after you take them out. Taking them out early keeps them soft and fluffy.

 

Butter cookies won't be as rounded as cookies made with shortening, but they will taste better. :)

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Used real butter. Made everything exactly as directed. Cooled in fridge for two/three hours.

 

Watched them rise golden, perfect. Then they started this little popping and they all, every last one turned flat as a pancake.

Help?

 

I even had a batch on a baking sheet, refrigerated it, took it to a neighbors and she baked them for me. Flat flat flat. But yummy...

 

The problem could also be the leavening. Over-leavened cookies will rise and look great, then they will "pop", as you describe. I have a prized chocolate cake recipe that kept doing the rise high-then-flat thing until I backed off on the baking soda/powder. Now it comes out perfectly every time.

 

Just a thought.

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