Nestle Toll House Refrigerated Chocolate chip cookie dough is very simple to make just drop them by the spoonful and bake at 350 for 11 minutes and easy clean up plus the cookies turn out so soft and chewy and gooey. They taste delicious and where so good !
The short answer is, you can expect to bake cookies at 350 degrees F for between 8 to 12 minutes.
Doing a Physical Check. Press the edges with your finger. Open up the oven, pull out the rack a bit, and push the sides of the cookie very lightly with a spatula or your finger. If the edge stays firm and doesn’t fall inwards, then your cookies are done.
How Long to Bake Cookie Dough
| Type of Cookie | Type of Baking Pan | Baking Times |
|---|---|---|
| Drop cookies | baking sheet | 8 – 10 minutes |
| Bar Cookies | 13 x 9 x 2-inch pan | 25 – 30 minutes |
| Bar Cookies | 15 x 10 x 1-inch pan | 20 – 25 minutes |
| Tart Shell or Cheesecake Crust | 9-inch tart or springform pan | 20 – 25 minutes |
Increasing the butter and sugar will cause the cookies to bake up flatter, therefore, crispier! Crispy cookies may be stored in cookie tins or non-airtight containers unless it is very humid or rainy; then store in airtight containers. Do not store with soft and chewy cookies.
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.
For those ooey, gooey chocolate chip cookies, 375 degrees Fahrenheit is your sweet spot. It’s the perfect temperature to ensure super crispy exterior edges, while leaving the center slightly underdone and, thus, doughy and fudgey.
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.
Chocolate chip cookies are done when they have a firm golden edge or bottom and appear slightly set on top. If the edges become dark brown, they are overbaked. If edges aren’t golden and tops are soft and shiny, bake a little longer.
If your cookies won’t hold together well enough to take them off the baking sheet with a spatula, or if parts of them are obviously still very gooey/runny, then they are undercooked. Otherwise, the best way to tell is to sample one (after it has cooled enough to eat).
Do cookies harden as they cool? Yes, but how hard they become depends on where you cool your cookie. For example, a cookie that’s left on the baking pan will remain chewy, while those moved within minutes onto a cooling rack will be on the crispier side.
Doughy cookies may be the result of under baking, which prevents enough moisture from evaporating off. If you find the edges of your cookies are fully cooked but the center is still too doughy, reduce the baking temperature and increase the baking time.
Bake in a 400° oven until cookies are lightly browned and no longer wet in the center (break one open to check), 6 to 8 minutes; if baking more than one pan at a time, switch pan positions halfway through baking. With a wide spatula, transfer cookies to racks to cool.
Not only will this cause the cookies to spread into one another, creating bizarrely shaped cookies, but also Cowan said that “overcrowding a baking sheet will result in flatter cookies as they are sharing the heat with too many [other cookies].”
If you’re baking your cookies at 325 degrees, you’ll need to bake them longer than you would at 350 degrees. This is because, as previously noted, the lower temperature of the oven will result in the cookies baking at a slower pace. Some sources say to bake cookies at 325 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes.
Here’s how you can improve premade cookie dough or dough from a mix.
- Add spice to your dough.
- Punch up the flavor of your cookies by adding extracts.
- Before baking, roll the dough in a garnish of your choice.
- Stir nuts right into the dough for an added crunch.
- Add in your favorite savory snacks, like chips or pretzels.
Yolks, where all of the fat is in an egg, increase richness, tenderness and flavor. Therefore, if you put an extra egg, you will get a chewier cookie. I do it all the time. If you put less, you will get a more crumbly cookie.
9 Tips to Remember
- Use Real Butter and Keep It Cool. The low melting point of butter may be what makes your cookies flat.
- Use Shortening.
- Chill Dough Twice.
- Use Parchment Paper or a Silicone Liner.
- Measure Precisely.
- Use Fresh Baking Soda.
- Use Optional Add-Ins.
- Buy an Oven Thermometer.
Let it sit for long enough—the famous Jacques Torres chocolate chip cookie, published in the New York Times, mandates a rest of at least 24 hours and up to 72—and the starches and proteins in the flour begin to break down, leading to more browning and caramelization.
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.
Chilling cookie dough
- Chilling cookie dough for just 30 minutes makes a big difference. The cookies pictured above are the same size, weight-wise.
- The longer you chill cookie dough, the smaller the changes become.
- Over time, chilling cookie dough produces cookies with darker color and more pronounced flavor.
Because the higher temperature causes the cookies to firm faster (aka set faster) and this prevents spreading. Cookies baked at 375 degrees F will have a thicker, chewier bottom.
“When you bake at a lower temperature, you will get that perfect cookie with a soft center and crisp exterior,” she adds. Just make sure you increase baking time by a couple of minutes or you will end up with gooey underbaked cookies.
Issues with cracking usually derive from the sugar coating, not enough or expired baking powder or baking soda, or the oven temperature isn’t hot enough. Solution: Granulated sugar is more effective at drying the surface than powdered sugar.
Bake at 375 degrees F until golden and crunchy on the outside, and chewy on the inside, 10 to 12 minutes. For super-chewy cookies: Substitute cake flour for all-purpose flour.
Cookies should (almost) always be baked on the middle rack of the oven. The middle rack offers the most even heat and air circulation which helps cookies bake consistently.
If you absolutely need to bake more than one batch at a time for an event, holiday baking, etc– rotate the baking sheets from the top rack to bottom rack once halfway through the baking process.
They go from soft to hard because they start to dry out, and it begins as soon as you pull them from the oven. (Yikes.) Whatever moisture is left in the cookies is always in a state of evaporation. At the same time, the sugars and starches are solidifying.
Here are a few tips for keeping your next batch as pillowy as possible:
- Use brown sugar instead of white sugar.
- Use cake flour.
- Bake at a low temperature.
- Don’t overbake them.
- Eat them the day they’re baked.
- Store them in an airtight container.
- Store them with a piece of white bread.
- Steam them in the microwave.
You can even rebake cookies long after they’re cool to restore crispness or freshness. Here’s our best tips. Turns out the cookies weren’t quite done when you took them from the oven and they’re soft and mushy. Pop them back in the oven for an extra minute or two until they’re golden brown.
It’s not easy to resist the temptation to taste that raw cookie dough. But that’s not a safe thing to do. Raw cookie dough contains uncooked flour and eggs. These have the potential to cause food poisoning and bacterial infections like salmonella.
Cookies made with more perishable ingredients, like ricotta cookies, jam cookies, or meringue cookies, will need cooler temperatures within a few hours of baking. Look to the fridge (or freezer) if they’ll be around longer.
Curious how long cookies last at room temperature? Most homemade cookies will maintain their taste and texture for up to 3 days. If you leave them out for too long, the cookies begin to harden or dry out. To prevent cookies from becoming stale, cover them with plastic wrap or keep in an airtight container.
Bakery or homemade cookies can be stored at room temperature two to three weeks or two months in the refrigerator. Cookies retain their quality when stored in the freezer for eight to 12 months. Moist bars, such as cheesecake and lemon bars, can be refrigerated for seven days.
Too much butter causes cookies to spread a lot and ultimately crisp out on the outside being able to completely cook. Extremely chewy cookies (when the recipe isn’t meant to make chewy cookies). This is because of the liquid content in the butter. Moisture helps develop gluten and gluten helps make chewy cookies.
A lot of cookie recipes use 350°F as the preferred temperature, but if you lower it to 325°F, your cookies will cook a little slower and retain more moisture. Shorten Your Baking Time Another way to keep your cookies chewy and tender is to try baking them for less time.
Bake the cookies at 450 degrees for about 6 to 8 minutes — watch carefully. Pull them when they are just starting to brown. If you’re not having luck with 450, try doing the same thing at 400. If you have a convection oven, try baking at 375 for 8 to 10 minutes.
Here are some ways that recipes tell you to know if your cookies are done:
- Time (i.e. they’ll bake in 10-13 minutes)
- They’ve lost their “glossy sheen”
- They’ll be “cracked” or “golden brown” around the edges.
If you mix (or roll out) cookie dough too much, you’ll add excess air to the dough, causing it to rise and then fall flat in the oven. Overmixing the dough can also lead to excess gluten development, resulting in dense cookies.
While brown sugar keeps your cookies moist and soft, white sugar and corn syrup will help your cookies spread and crisp in the oven. Using more white sugar in your cookies will result in a crispier end product. To achieve a crispy cookie, skip the rest in the fridge.
Place one baking sheet at a time onto center rack of preheated 350 degree F oven. Bake until cookies are golden around the edges, still have pale tops, and are soft in the center, about 8 to 10 minutes. (Do not overbake! They will firm up more during cooling.)
Oven Temperature
Generally, cookies are baked in a moderate oven — 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) — for 8 to 12 minutes, depending on the size of the cookie. For chewy cookies, allow them to cool on the baking sheet for 3 to 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
For softer, chewier cookies, you will want to add much less granulated sugar, slightly more brown sugar, and a fair bit less butter. For cakey cookies, you will often be including even less butter and sugar.
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.
Q: Why are my cookies so puffy and cakey? Whipping too much air into the dough. That fluffy texture you want in a cake results from beating a lot of air into the room temperature butter and sugar, and it does the same for cookies. So don’t overdo it when you’re creaming together the butter and sugar.
The most common cause is using a different flour than usual, such as cake flour, and measuring flour with too heavy a hand. Using larger eggs than called for can make cookies cakey, as will the addition of milk or more milk or other liquids than specified.
Cookies made with only butter may not rise as much and may spread a bit more, but the edges will be crispier and will have a rich buttery taste. Cookies made with only shortening will result in a cookie that bakes higher and holds its shape better during baking.
While butter contains air pockets that help it retain its shape, oil is more compact. You can’t really alter it from its original state. Not to mention, using a flavorful oil such as olive oil in a cookie might give you a baked product that’s just a little on the funkier side. Naturally, you can expect a softer dough.
Adding eggs, one at a time
They should be added one at a time, each one thoroughly beaten in before the next is added, to allow the creamed butter/sugar mixture to most effectively retain its trapped air. Be sure to scrape the sides of the bowl so all of the butter/sugar mixture is incorporated.
Baking powder will give you a puffier cookie. Binding agents are the liquid in the recipe that hold the cookie together. Examples of binding agents are eggs, milk, honey, and fruit juice. Cookies with more eggs will rise more and spread less.
Water vapor escaping from the dough in combination with the carbon dioxide released by our baking soda is ultimately what makes our cookies light and airy.
Carbon dioxide gas and water vapor form the bubbles which make cookies rise. Rising doesn’t just make cookies taller. It also opens up space to keep the cookie from becoming too dense. Salt slows down the decomposition of baking soda, so the bubbles don’t get too big.
Why do you rest dough in the fridge?
Most pie dough/pastry benefits from a rest in the refrigerator as it allows the glutens in the flour to relax – this should help to give a more tender pie crust with less shrinkage. It can also give time for the liquids in the dough to be absorbed, giving slightly less dry spots in the pastry.
Resting cookie dough in the fridge can make it harder to scoop out into individual portions. To counter this, scoop and roll your cookie dough before putting it in the fridge. Scooping freshly mixed dough is so much easier, and you’ll still get the benefits of resting the dough!
Why Are My Cookies Flat? Mistake: When cookies turn out flat, the bad guy is often butter that is too soft or even melted. This makes cookies spread. The other culprit is too little flour—don’t hold back and make sure you master measuring.
How do you speed up chilling dough?
If you start a cookie recipe only to realize you have to chill the dough for a longer amount of time than you have, you can freeze it for a bit to speed things up. Here’s what our Test Kitchen recommends: Place the cookie dough in the freezer for one-quarter of the recommended refrigerator time.