9 Quick Tips to Say Goodbye to Flat Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Do your chocolate chip cookies look like they should be served with maple syrup, because they are as flat as pancakes? You’ve come to the right place if you want to fix this frustrating issue!

There’s nothing I like better than a warm chocolate chip cookie fresh from the oven.

My mother’s version were delicious mounds of dough mixed with walnuts, dried cranberries, and semisweet chocolate chunks, with moist centers and crisp edges.

Mine, on the other hand, used to look like chocolate chip pancakes every time I would bake them – until I figured out what the problem was!

At times, you’re actually meant to have flat cookies, like with our classic cut-outs or almond wafers.

But with most chocolate chip cookie recipes, you’re looking for perfectly risen, plump, and tasty mounds.

A typical recipe for this classic baked treat involves a basic procedure with simple steps. So where do we go wrong when the perfectly bulbous mounds of dough come out flat?

You may be surprised!

Our handy tips will give you more control over your baking, and greater satisfaction with sweet, successful results.

Grab your oven mitts and let’s get started!

1. Take a Look Outside

Do you remember what the weather was like when you made your last batch of cookies? Did you know that humidity in the air can have an effect on your ingredients?

That’s right! Hot, humid, and rainy weather can lead to a sub-par baking experience.

Dry ingredients like flour and granulated sugar can absorb additional moisture. Incorporating these damp ingredients will then throw off the balance of a carefully calculated ratio of ingredients.

More moisture creates a softer dough – which results in a flatter end result!

As soon as you open a bag of flour or granulated sugar, immediately transfer it to an airtight container for the best storage.

The bags in which these ingredients are sold are not ideal storage vessels once they are opened, since they won’t be able to close and seal completely anymore.

It’s also important to keep your dough as cold as possible prior to baking on a hot day.

The dough will warm and soften at a more rapid pace when the weather is warmer – do your best to ensure the dough stays cold, both before and after portioning.

Colder, stiffer portions of dough will not spread as quickly as they bake – something we’ll explain more thoroughly below in Tip #7, so keep reading!

2. Check Freshness of Leavening Agents

Baking soda and baking powder are two common leavening agents, and both options are commonly used in chocolate chip cookie recipes.

They help the cookies rise by releasing bubbles of carbon dioxide, forming air pockets in the gluten network to create volume and a porous texture.

However, if your leavening agents are old, they might not react successfully with your ingredients, leaving you with flat, dense discs that smell of failure.

Before baking, you can check to see if your baking powder or soda are still fresh with a very simple test!

Combine 1/4 teaspoon baking powder or soda with 1 tablespoon of distilled white vinegar – if the mixture fizzes and bubbles, you’re good to go.

If the mixture is dormant with no activity, you have found your flat-cookie culprit! Replace your baking powder or soda with a fresh box or canister from the store, and be sure to keep an eye on those expiration dates.

And if you don’t bake too often, consider downgrading your leavening agents to the smallest size sold at the store – you won’t need a two-pound bulk container!

Expired baking soda can still be used as a cleaning product, to whiten stained plastic containers, for example.

3. Measure Precisely

Proper measurements are crucial to a good outcome, so be sure to measure carefully, and follow any specific prep instructions as indicated in your recipe for each ingredient.

Well-written recipes are based on how ingredients react chemically to each other in varying proportions in baking. Even a slight shortage in the amount of flour will throw off the recipe, potentially producing a flatter result.

For accurate measurements, weighing each ingredient rather than relying on volume measures will yield the best results.

However, if a kitchen scale is not available to you, or if your recipe does not include weights, make sure you use dry measuring cups for dry ingredients, liquid measuring cups for liquid ingredients, and measuring spoons for smaller portions of ingredients.

Don’t simply add a pinch of this or a dash of that! Baking relies upon accuracy, with less room for casual experimentation compared to other types of cooking.

When measuring all dry ingredients, make sure you level off the ingredients in the measuring cup or spoon with a butter knife or an offset spatula so whatever you’re measuring is flush with the rim.

When measuring flour in particular, don’t pack it down in the cup. Instead, tap the measuring cup against your counter to eliminate air pockets. You may need to fill with a little extra flour after doing this.

Check for hardened clumps in your granulated sugar before measuring. Sift the sugar to separate and remove any large pieces.

Your recipe should indicate whether brown sugar needs to be firmly or gently packed in your measuring cup. It can have hardened clumps as well – check and remove them before measuring.

Keep in mind that standard substitutions won’t always produce the same results that you’re looking for.

If you want to make a vegan or gluten-free batch for the first time, set Grandma’s recipe aside and rely on a tested and trusted resource to find a suitable version.

Rather than handling substitutions on your own, and crossing your fingers during the baking process, you can find many alternative recipes here on Foodal. Our recipe for vegan chocolate chip cookies is a tasty homage to the classic treat made with no animal-based products, and you’ll love our buckwheat cookies for a gluten-free version.

4. Know How to Handle Butter

The low melting point of butter may be what is causing your cookies to flatten.

Butter is a saturated animal fat, and it’s very temperamental! Butter that melts prematurely is responsible for many a flat cookie, especially if your recipe relies on the creaming method of mixing ingredients together.

For the best creaming results, the butter should be soft, but it shouldn’t be liquidy or completely melted.

Many bakers make the mistake of hastily microwaving the butter to soften it, but they often heat it far more than is necessary. Softened butter should still maintain its structure, and it shouldn’t be swimming in a pool of its own fat!

Ideally, take your butter out of the fridge to soften at room temperature for 30 minutes to one hour before you start baking.

Check the softness of the butter at the 30-minute mark by gently pressing your finger or a utensil onto the top of the butter.

If the butter is still cold and solid, without any indention left by your finger, allow it to soften for an additional 30 minutes. If your finger leaves an indentation on the surface, the butter is ready. Get started as soon as it’s workable!

If the butter looks like it is already melting and losing its structure, you’ve gone too far! Place it back in the refrigerator for 10 to 30 minutes to let it reharden slightly.

These softening techniques also apply to vegan butters, which are designed to mimic the texture of butter made from animal fat.

5. Try Shortening

Alternatively, you can avoid the fickle butter sticks altogether and opt for an equal amount of shortening.

This product made from hydrogenated vegetable fat has a higher melting point, so it doesn’t make cookies spread out like butter can.

However, because shortening is 100% fat, it doesn’t contain water or other flavor compounds like butter does.

While it will help your cookie maintain its structure, shortening’s total lack of water will inhibit gluten formation, creating a softer, more tender product that won’t have a chocolate chip cookie’s characteristic chewy bite and crispy edges. And it also won’t contribute to the classic buttery flavor of a traditional recipe.

A common solution to shortening’s setbacks is to use half butter and half shortening when you make your recipe. That way, you’ll minimize the risk of spreading while still taking advantage of butter’s rich texture, tasty flavor, and tantalizing aroma. Butter-flavored shortening is also available.

It’s your call, but we recommend that you consider utilizing all of the other tips in this article before jumping on the shortening bandwagon! There are still other ways to prevent flat cookies without sacrificing flavor if your recipe does not call for shortening to begin with.

There’s nothing better than butter, after all!

6. Use Optional Add-Ins

Maybe your recipe is like the one I always use, and it suggests an optional cup of an additional item like nuts, oats, raisins, peanut butter chips, or the like.

Did you ever wonder why a recipe can take or leave an entire cup of an ingredient without affecting its outcome? Well, the fact is, the outcome is affected!

Without these solid, chunky additions mixed into the dough, a cookie tends to be flatter.

If you don’t use the optional cup of add-ins, you should add an extra tablespoon or two of flour to firm up your dough.

You can even add another cup of chocolate morsels for more bulk – this is a tasty solution for the obsessed chocolate lover in the family!

7. Chill the Dough Twice

Remember that butter has a low melting point. That means it has a tendency to start melting while we are still making the dough, even before it hits the oven!

By keeping the dough chilled in multiple stages, melting is delayed until the dough begins to rise and bake in the oven, resulting in a well-structured final product.

After mixing, put the bowl of dough in the fridge for 10 to 15 minutes. This initial chilling period will help to slightly stiffen the dough, without it becoming too hard and unworkable.

A colder, but still malleable, dough will help you portion it more easily, since it will be able to maintain its shape better than it would if you were working with a softer, wetter, freshly made dough.

Place the portioned mounds on one or more platters that will be able to fit in your refrigerator if your baking sheets won’t fit.

Chill for 20 to 30 minutes before transferring the mounds to your baking sheets and baking them to perfection!

8. Prepare Your Baking Sheets Correctly

Instead of greasing your baking sheets, line them with parchment paper or silicone nonstick liners.

There’s enough fat in the dough already, and we want to inhibit spreading – introducing additional grease may cause your sweets to spread even more.

You should also change the sheets or liners between batches – grease from the melted butter in the cookies will remain on them.

The temperature of your baking sheets matters, as well!

Let the baking sheets cool completely between batches. Placing dough on warm sheets will cause the butter to begin to melt. If you skip this step, the cookies will start to spread prematurely before they have a chance to rise.

All the structure you worked so hard to maintain with carefully measuring the ingredients, creaming the butter, and chilling the dough will potentially be ruined by a warm pan!

With an oven thermometer, you can accurately determine what the interior temperature of your oven is, and adjust the temperature setting accordingly.

If you’re shopping for a new one, you’ll like the CDN Multi-Mount Oven Thermometer, available now from Sur La Table.