New to baking, need some help!

[roannefinn]

Hey guys!

I'm new to this community as well as baking an I have a technical question regarding my cookie results:

I'm using a receipe from foodnetwork.com for chocolate chip hazelnut cookies (listed at bottom) and each time I've made them (twice thus far) they have spread out immensely on the baking sheet. They have become utterly flat, super good but flat and melted together, not keeping their shape ata ll. I was wondering if there is some secret that established bakers are familiar with (and wouldn't mind sharing!) so that this doesn't happen again and I can have seperate cookies instead of cookie cake!

Might it be due to that fact that I haven't chilled my dough prior to baking the cookies, or does that not have such an effect?


RECIPE
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 ounces English toffee candy (recommended: Heath or Skor bar), finely chopped
1 cup hazelnuts, toasted, husked, and chopped
1 (12-ounce) bag semisweet chocolate chips

*I used walnuts instead of hazelnuts because I couldn't find them in my grocery store*


Thanks everybody!

 

[Andy M.]

It's the butter. Butter melts at a low temperature. As a result, the butter melts before the dough has a chance to set in the oven and the cookies spread out.

Try this:

After mixing the dough, chill it in the fridge for an hour.
Chill the cookie sheets before putting the dough onto them.
Keep the dough chilled between batches
Chill the cookie sheets between batches (slide them into the freezer for a couple of minutes).

You will end up with nice thick cookies.

 

[suziquzie]

*I used walnuts instead of hazelnuts because I couldn't find them in my grocery store*


They are also called filberts, and are usually labeled as such in the store instead of hazelnuts.

 

[Dave Hutchins]

chill chill and chill some more you will do just fine

 

[Corey123]

It's the butter. Butter melts at a low temperature. As a result, the butter melts before the dough has a chance to set in the oven and the cookies spread out.

Try this:

After mixing the dough, chill it in the fridge for an hour.
Chill the cookie sheets before putting the dough onto them.
Keep the dough chilled between batches
Chill the cookie sheets between batches (slide them into the freezer for a couple of minutes).

You will end up with nice thick cookies.

I've just had that problem with the sugar cookies I just made, and next time, I WILL use cold butter and chill the dough overnight first before baking them.

Yeah, I forgot that chilling it seems to help set up the dough so that it behaves better. Because once butter gets cold again, it becomes hard again.

I should have waited until tomorrow to bake them after chilling the dough.

 

[Bilby]

Welcome to DC!

 

[roannefinn]

I chilled the second half of my dough over night and will be baking them today, thank you for the solution to my problem!!

 

[pdswife]

People around here are wonderfully helpful!
Enjoy your cookies!!!

 

[Corey123]

Thank you!

For years and years, I've baked mainly breads, rolls and cakes. I used to sell them when neighbors would ask me to make them cakes for Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, anniverseries, gatherings and cookouts in the summer.

I've always jumped at the chance because everyone knew that I love to cook and bake! Even the kids in the neighborhood wanted to get into the act and ask me to make a birthday cake for them, and I gladly did it. Even went to a baking school as part of the culinary arts program that I attended.

Now, I feel like I'm entering what seems like a new era of baking because I was never much into making my own cookies! It's almost like I'm learning how to bake again. But it's a challenge and I like to be apart of it!!

 

[abjcooking]

Also try replacing some of the butter with butter flavored Crisco. I have done this with good results. The crisco doesn't melt like butter.
I also put my dough and sheet in the frige before putting in the oven.

 

[Corey123]

I had some of that at one time, but it got stale and rancid from stitting around too long and hardly being used, so I had no choice but to throw it all away. I'll get some more when I go shopping again later this month.

Yeah, guess I forgot about that, also. It's also availible in stick form like butter and margerine is

 

[suziquzie]

Today I am putting my hot baking sheets outside to cool fast. Very windy it helps....
Except if I don't watch it I'll have to hunt thru the cornfield nextdoor for them....

 

[RusticCajun]

When a recipe calls for butter, I do my best to not microwave it to liquid. Ideally, I like to have the butter at room temperature when making the recipes. Otherwise, I microwave it and take it out just as I see it starting to melt. Bottom line, I like the butter just soft enough that it will blend.

Good luck!

 

[Corey123]

Butter-flavored Crisco might be good for making cookies, but there's nothing like getting that real down-home buttery taste in freshly-baked cookies. Like no other.

Buttter is also astronomically exspensive, so you are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

The same thing can also be said for vanilla or any other extract! Pure extract is ten times better over fake, but pure vanilla extract is also ridiculously expensive! Butter and vanilla go hand in hand when it comes to baking. Their fake look-alikes tend to "wear off" and you're left with no-flavor cakes and cookies.

To me, it's probably better to spend the extra bucks and get pure quality,
rather than putting all that time into baking and have inferior quality. There is just no comparison!

 

[suziquzie]

Bleack!!! (YUK)
Crisco bad!!!!
Fake Vanilla bad!
I'm broke but that's 2 places I won't ever save my pennies!!

 

[Corey123]

Yeah, when I bake, I don't skimp back!

You'd want the true flavor of your freshly baked goodies to come through. Even young children know the difference in taste.

The thirteen-year-old who I know who lives in the neigborhood, I saw him in the store one day. He wanted a slice of pound cake, but wouldn't get it. I asked him why and I was socked! His reply was; "There's no butter and vanilla in it."

For a 4-oz bottle of vanilla extract, the largest bottle in the supermarkets, it costs $9.00.

A pound of butter costs about $4.00. But I'm not going to settle for the fake stuff. No way!

 

[suziquzie]

Wow I don't miss the east coast!
$2 or 2.50 for butter, Sam's club has a big vanilla for $12

 

[abjcooking]

I should probably claify that I when I mentioned using Crisco you only put a touch of it in with your real butter. It usually isn't enough to affect the flavor. My mother tried it once and they flew off the table at the church banquet, I'm not sure anybody noticed it at all. However, if you don't like the idea, don't use it, keeping the dough and sheet chilled should work fine.

 

[Corey123]

I kind of tend to stay away from it because it has hydrogenated vegetable oil - a form of transfat. Which health officials are saying is very unhealthy. But I guess it wouldn't hurt to use it now and then. I'm just too afraid that it might end up going rancid again before I get the chance to use it all up.

Suziquzie, I once did that. I was visiting my youngest brother in Fort Myers one year and I went with him to Sam's Clud and bought that big bottle of vanilla extract and a big container of baking powder.

Took a long time to use it. So much so, that it began losing its pleasant aroma. But I used it all. I was $8.00 back then. Still have the baking powder, and it's still good.

But I always try to keep the two most important extracts on hand - vanilla and lemon. When either bottle is half-empty, I get more.