Should you refrigerate cookie dough before baking?

Chilling cookie dough before baking solidifies the fat in the cookies. As the cookies bake, the fat in the chilled cookie dough takes longer to melt than room-temperature fat. And the longer the fat remains solid, the less cookies spread.

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, says Haught Brown.

“When your cookie dough is not refrigerated, the butter is at room temperature. … So chilling the dough before baking means fluffier cookies with better consistency. Plus, if you have a bowl of dough ready in the refrigerator, it’s much easier to scoop while chilled than at room temperature.

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As a general rule, any cookie dough left on the counter at room temperature will be good for 2-4 hours but then may risk going bad, especially if it is already past its “best by” date. The cool, dark, air-free container in your fridge or freezer will be the best place to maximize the lifespan of your cookie dough.

It comes down to personal preference—if you prefer crispier edges and soft interior, plus deep vanilla and caramel notes, we recommend using refrigerated cookie dough that’s been chilled at least overnight. However, the first no-chill batch had a nice, soft texture and was rich with flavor.

Chilling cookie dough before baking solidifies the fat in the cookies. As the cookies bake, the fat in the chilled cookie dough takes longer to melt than room-temperature fat. And the longer the fat remains solid, the less cookies spread.

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.

1 Answer. From the Fridge: If you can scoop it (some doughs are too hard), go straight to the oven, though you will likely need to give them a minute longer baking time. … most cookie doughs have egg in them and it’s best practice to not leave that out for any length of time.

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How to Soften Chilled Cookie Dough

  1. Merrill recommends putting dough near a warm stove, and pounding it with a rolling pin once it starts to soften.
  2. Trena cuts the dough into smaller pieces using a pastry cutter, figuring that they will come to room temperature faster.

28.12.2013

After you add all the ingredients into the bowl and start blending the cookie dough, the flour will instantly begin to develop gluten. If you allow the dough to mix, and mix and mix…it will get tougher and harder as the gluten in the flour develops more and more. This can make for hard, dry dough.

If it is going to be cooked and eaten, it’s fine. Bacteria in the raw cookie dough will not multiply, but can remain for some time. However, it is not safe to eat RAW cookie dough at any time, whether it has been left out or not. For decades we knew about the small risk from raw egg in the dough.

Baking cake, cookie or bread dough kills any bacteria present. … To stay safe in the kitchen, refrain from eating raw dough and practice safe cooking techniques.

But if you use your microwave, you could easily warm it up too much – making the dough hard to handle and you might have to cool it again. … The safest method is to take the too-firm dough out of the refrigerator and simply wait until it’s soft enough. If you want to speed the process up a bit, choose a warm spot.

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It is best to chill dough in the refrigerator for the entire recommended amount of time. However, if you are in a hurry, placing the dough in the freezer for one-fourth of the recommended refrigerator time will work, too.

Freezing cookie dough is easy. … Place the solid and cold cookie dough balls into a labeled zipped-top bag– large or small depending on how much dough you have. Label the bag with the month and the baking temperature and place the bag in the freezer. Freeze cookie dough for up to 3 months.

You can even refrigerate or freeze these pre-scooped cookies. I’d personally refrigerate the dough, in part to limit spread so that I didn’t have to wait as long for the sheet pan to cool down between batches.

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