11 baking mistakes you're making that are ruining your cookies

Making cookies is common but isn't always easy.Some home chefs forget to chill the dough. Others grease their baking sheets with butter.Making cookies is often many peoples first foray into baking, and although they can be the easiest tool in someones baking arsenal, home chefs constantly make the same common cookie mistakes in the kitchen. INSIDER talked to Courtney Cowan, founder of Milk Jar Cookies, about some of the more common cookie mistakes that amateur bakers make (not chilling the dough, not properly greasing your baking sheets, etc) and how you can start making better cookies.MISTAKE: Not chilling the dough.Professional bakers always stress the need to chill your cookie dough before baking, and yet so many home chefs tend to skip this step.Cookie dough likes to rest a bit so all the ingredients have time to mingle, so letting it chill in the fridge for up to 24 hours before baking allows for this to happen, Cowan explained. Be sure to saran wrap it tightly to keep the dough from drying out. Not only is chilling the dough a necessary step in the cooking baking routine, Cowan says this step is how you create crunchy cookies with gooey insides. Putting cold dough in the hot oven creates that crisp outer layer that makes biting into the cookie so delightful! she added. MISTAKE: Overcrowding the pan.Its important not to overcrowd the pan with cookie dough or place the dough balls too close together. Not only will this cause the cookies to spread into one another, creating bizarrely shaped cookies, but Cowan says that overcrowding a baking sheet will result in flatter cookies as they are sharing the heat with too many [other cookies].Invest in a second baking sheet if youre guilty of cramming two dozen cookies onto a single sheet. MISTAKE: Working with the wrong temperature butter.Common baking knowledge seems to dictates that you should always cook with room temperature butter, but Cowan says theres no wrong butter temperature. Different temperatures of butter just produce different types of cookies, she told us. There are a lot of recipes out there that specifically call for melted butter and other recipes want the butter to be room temperature.The only rule here is to pay attention to whatever butter temperature your specific recipe calls for. For example, the original Nestle recipe for chocolate chip cookies calls for softened butter which can be achieved by bringing the butter to room temperature or according to Better Homes and Gardens, popping a cold stick of butter in the microwave for 15 seconds on 30% power. See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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