Chocolate Peppermint Cookies Recipe - I Heart Naptime (2024)

FAQs

Why refrigerate cookie dough before baking? ›

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.

The #1 Reason Why You Should Chill Your Cookie Dough is simple: it vastly improves your cookies in both taste and texture.

No Chill. The dough doesn't need to be chilled before rolling and cutting out shapes. Perfect for Decorating. These cookies hold crisp edges when baked.

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. Once the dough has chilled, let it warm up at room temperature until it's just pliable (about 5 to 10 minutes).

Chilling the dough creates fluffier cookies with better consistency. Epperson said that, like many foods, cookie dough benefits from resting (in the refrigerator) to let the flavors infuse and basically marinate together. So not only will the cookie's consistency be more even, but the actual taste will be better, too!

Storing Tips to Keep Cookies Soft

Store cool cookies in an airtight container (not a cookie jar with a loose lid) at room temperature. Putting cookies, cakes or breads in the refrigerator will dry them out.

Based on what these results demonstrated for this chocolate chip cookie recipe, for crispier cookies, aim for a 16-hour rest period or longer, and a shorter rest period for chewier cookies. For a good balance of both textures, a rest period of more than 16 hours works well.

Sure, you can skip the chilling step and bake the dough right away, but doing so runs the risk of flat disks with dry edges and a brittle texture; a far cry for the plush, chewy cookies with fudge-like centers we all crave.

Even a short shift in the fridge will do, however, long periods of chilling time (such as 3 to 5 days) allows the cookie dough to dry out, Hill adds. This is actually a good thing; it leads to even more concentrated flavor.

Why are my chocolate chip cookies flat and greasy? ›

WHY ARE MY COOKIES FLAT AND GREASY? Using too much butter in your dough can lead to flat and greasy cookies. As previously noted, baking is a science, and it is essential to closely follow recipe measurements to ensure the best results.

Adjust Salt

Next, if you're swapping unsalted for salted butter, reduce the amount of salt listed in the recipe to adjust for the salt in the butter. Take ¼ teaspoon of salt away for every stick of butter used*. Do the opposite if you're swapping salted for unsalted butter.

350° is the standard temp for a cookie, and it's a great one. Your cookies will bake evenly and the outside will be done at the same time as the inside. Baking at 325° also results in an evenly baked cookie, but the slower cooking will help yield a chewier cookie. The outsides will be a little softer, too.

Generally speaking, you should chill your cookie dough before baking it. But for how long? You want to give it at least 2 hours to chill through.

Overmixing the dough: Overmixing can lead to tough and dense cookies. It's essential to mix the ingredients just until they come together to avoid developing too much gluten.

Chill the dough: Refrigerate the cookie dough for 30 minutes to an hour or until it becomes firmer and easier to handle. Freezing the dough briefly helps, but it might need thawing to roll or scoop. This is especially helpful for doughs made with vegan butter or margarine, which softens easier than dairy butter.

You'll want to fill it to heaping and then sweep the excess off the top with the flat edge of a butter knife. Be careful not to overmix here — you want the dough to stay light and fluffy, and overmixing can result in a tough cookie. Cover and refrigerate about 2 hours or until firm.

He mixed up dough and then baked batches that had been chilled for 12, 24, and 36 hours. He reports: “At 12 hours, the dough had become drier and the baked cookies had a pleasant, if not slightly pale, complexion. The 24-hour mark is where things started getting interesting.