Bakery Style Sugar Cookie Recipe: Soft, buttery, and hold their shape! (2024)

FAQs

How do you get sugar cookies to keep their shape? ›

Sandwich your dough between two sheets of parchment, roll, then freeze; it makes cut-out cookies a breeze! If you plan to store it for only a few hours or days, there's no need to overwrap the baking sheet; for longer storage, wrap the entire baking sheet tightly with plastic wrap before freezing.

To help cookies keep their shape, freeze them! I freeze each batch of cut-out cookies for 5 to 10 minutes before baking. They rise just slightly higher and keep their shape better. This really helps when using an intricate cookie cutter, but I do this even when baking circles.

Putting a slice of fresh white bread in the container with the cookies will help the cookies stay soft: fresh bread is moist, and that slice will give up its moisture for the greater good: keeping the cookies from drying out. We recommend white bread so that no flavor is transferred to the cookies.

Rolled or Molded Cookies

This is a stiff dough that you can hand roll or shape into balls, crescents or other shapes. Shortbread cookie dough is often pressed into carved molds prior to baking.

Freeze your dough for the perfect sugar cookie

According to Taste of Home, the science behind chilling or freezing your sugar cookie dough allows for the butter to solidify. This stops the butter from melting too quickly while you are baking, which leads to spreading and misshapen cookies.

Scoot the Baked Cookies Into a Precise Circle. As soon as the cookies are done baking and you pull them out of the oven, place a round biscuit cutter, cookie cutter, or bowl, cup, or mug turned upside down over a cookie. Whatever you use should be a little larger than the cookie.

“When chilled cookies bake, the butter stays in a solid form longer, slowing the spread,” says Dawn. “30 to 60 minutes in the refrigerator does wonders, and you can bake the cookies right from the fridge.” Not only will chilling help the fats firm up and the flour hydrate, but it also helps the flavors develop.

Baking cookies on a baking sheet that has been over-greased can flatten the dough as it bakes. Over-greased pans can result from leftover grease from a previous batch of cookies or using too much cooking spray.

If you enjoy your cookies soft and chewy, chances are likely the recipe contains a common ingredient that serves a very specific purpose. No, it's not granulated sugar, nor the butter. It's not the egg, all-purpose flour, or even the vanilla extract. The simple, yet oh-so-necessary component is cornstarch.

Cornstarch helps product soft and thick cookies. Using more brown sugar than white sugar results in a moister, softer cookie. An extra egg yolk increases chewiness. Rolling the cookie dough balls to be tall and lumpy instead of wide and smooth gives the cookies a bakery-style textured thickness.

Why do my homemade cookies get hard so fast? ›

Over-baking is perhaps the most obvious - too long in the oven and your cookies will dry out, so make sure you time it right. Overworking your dough is another common problem, causing excess gluten strands to form, and making your cookie hard and tough.

Fat is a very important ingredient in cookies – it tenderizes, crisps and browns, adds color and a wonderful flavor that is impossible to duplicate. Butter, our fat of choice, ensures good baking results and adds the most desirable taste, texture and appearance.

Just like in the laboratory, even the seemingly smallest changes can affect the outcome — oven temperature variations, moisture and even the order in which you add the ingredients are just a few of the factors that can affect texture and taste. And while some may love a soft cookie, others prefer a crispier variation.

Just like a cold oven can affect your cookies, so can an oven that is too hot. If your oven is too cold, then it can cause your cookies to spread too much before the edges set. And if your oven is too hot, it will cause the edges set too quickly before the cookie can spread at all causing for a cookie that spread less.

Fat content: The fat in cookies, usually butter or oil, melts during baking and spreads out. This creates a thinner and wider cookie. Heat: As the cookies bake, the heat causes the dough to soften and the air pockets within the dough to expand.

Too much flour causes the dough to become dry and crumbly, which prevents it from flattening out during baking. As a result, your cookies will stay in their original shape instead of spreading out into nice circles.

Your sugar cookies might be spreading because your house is really hot. You may start with a butter that is the right temperature, but if your house is really hot...it's going to start melting before it gets to the oven. In this case...you really will need to chill your dough before baking.