5 Mistakes to Avoid When Making Sugar Cookies (2024)

Kelli Foster

Kelli FosterSenior Contributing Food Editor

Kelli is a Senior Contributing Food Editor for Kitchn. She's a graduate of the French Culinary Institute and author of the cookbooks, Plant-Based Buddha Bowls, The Probiotic Kitchen, Buddha Bowls, and Everyday Freekeh Meals. She lives in New Jersey.

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updated Oct 29, 2020

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Whether you make beautiful cut-outs, dust them with colored sugar, or sandwich them with buttercream or Nutella, sugar cookies are a holiday staple!

Before you whip up your next batch of sugar cookies, be sure you’re not making one of these five common mistakes.

  • Get a recipe: 18 Cookie Recipes for Your Holiday Cookie Exchange

1. Using butter that’s too soft.

We’ve all been there — wanting to make cookies yet forgetting to take the butter out of the refrigerator to soften. Whatever you do, fight the urge to heat it in the microwave for a few seconds. This will very likely make the butter too soft.

Cookies won’t hold their shape as well and are likely to turn out greasy when made with butter that’s too soft.

→ Follow this tip: Let the butter stand at room temperature for about an hour, until it’s soft and gives to gentle pressure. If you’re really pressed for time, you can speed the process along by cutting the butter into small cubes, or even grating it.


  • Why You Should Grate Your Butter the Next Time You Bake

2. Working the dough too much.

When making cookies, I used to have a (very!) bad habit of mixing in the dry ingredients until they were completely incorporated. And then mixing the dough even more, for no good reason. Thankfully I was eventually steered in the right direction.

Over-working the dough yields a tough cookie, which is not at all what you want. The very best sugar cookies are soft and tender.

→ Follow this tip: One of the keys to great sugar cookies is mixing the dry ingredients only until they’re just incorporated, and not a second longer. Once the dry ingredients are added, less mixing equals more tender cookies.

3. Not chilling the dough.

Chilling the dough is a key step in making sugar cookies, especially when you’re making cut-outs. Even if you’re tight on time, make sure to get the dough in the fridge, or even the freezer, even if it’s only for a little while. Skip this step, and the dough will be sticky, and much harder to work with.

→ Follow this tip: Chill sugar cookie dough in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, or in the freezer for 15 minutes. The dough will be so much easier to work with! It will roll out nicely, and if you’re making cut-outs, chilled dough will help you get clean, sharp edges. Chilled dough also holds its shape better in the oven.

  • Why I Roll Out Sugar Cookie Dough Before Chilling It

4. Rolling out the dough too thick or too thin.

When you’re making cut-out cookies, it can be tricky to roll the dough just right. Roll it too thin, and the dough will be really fragile and may easily tear or break. Roll it too thick, and you run the risk of the cookies not baking evenly or cooking all the way through.

→ Follow this tip: For super soft, tender sugar cookies, roll the dough to 1/4-inch thick. The dough will be easy to work with, without breaking or tearing, and it will bake up nicely.

  • How to Make Cut-Out Sugar Cookies

5. Over-baking the cookies.

We often tell you to bake cookies until they’re golden brown. This isn’t the case with sugar cookies, though. Once the edges develop a golden hue, you’ve gone too far. While overcooked sugar cookies are certainly still palatable, they’ll be hard and crunchy, instead of soft and chewy.

→ Follow this tip: Pull the cookie sheet from the oven as soon as they’ve set and gained some color, but not too much. They should also look slightly crackled across the center.

What are your best tips for making sugar cookies?

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5 Mistakes to Avoid When Making Sugar Cookies (2024)

FAQs

5 Mistakes to Avoid When Making Sugar Cookies? ›

Overmixing is exactly what it sounds like: the process by which a dough or batter gets mixed too much, typically yielding dense, tough, or deflated baked goods. Overmixed doughs and batters may have an unappealing look or feel, which remain just as unappealing when they're baked.

What are 4 tips to keep in mind while making cookies? ›

Now, follow these more detailed tips for tasty treats every time.
  1. 01 of 08. Don't Grease the Pan. ...
  2. 02 of 08. Use Light-Colored Pans. ...
  3. 03 of 08. Measure the Flour Correctly. ...
  4. 04 of 08. Let Your Butter Sit at Room Temperature for 15 Minutes. ...
  5. 05 of 08. Use High-Quality Butter. ...
  6. 06 of 08. Handle the Dough Gently. ...
  7. 07 of 08. ...
  8. 08 of 08.
Sep 7, 2023

What happens when you overmix sugar cookies? ›

Overmixing is exactly what it sounds like: the process by which a dough or batter gets mixed too much, typically yielding dense, tough, or deflated baked goods. Overmixed doughs and batters may have an unappealing look or feel, which remain just as unappealing when they're baked.

How to tell if sugar cookies are bad? ›

Cookies are identified by their gooey, soft texture. But when they become stale, they become hard and have a crumbly texture. They also become dry and aren't half as good as fresh cookies.

What makes a bad cookie? ›

Adding too little flour can cause cookies to be flat, greasy, and crispy. Most recipes assume you'll use all-purpose, but if you want a lighter, crumblier cookie texture, choose one with a lower protein content such as cake-and-pastry flour. Baking soda helps cookies spread outward and upward while cooking.

What are 5 common baking mistakes that people often make and how can you fix them or avoid them? ›

Common Baking Mistakes (And How to Fix Them)
  1. Baking at the wrong temperature. ...
  2. Not measuring ingredients. ...
  3. Checking on your items too frequently. ...
  4. Your ingredients are at the wrong temperature. ...
  5. Your dough isn't rising. ...
  6. Nothing is baking evenly. ...
  7. Your dough or batter is too tough. ...
  8. Wrap Up.

What is the secret to good cookies? ›

The key is to always use top-quality ingredients as they'll result in a better cookie; it really is that simple.
  • Always use butter.
  • Choose the right sugar.
  • Choose the right flour.
  • Check your flour is in date.
  • Choose the right kind of chocolate.
  • Cream the butter and sugar.
  • Beat in the eggs.
  • Fold in the flour.

How do you make cookies soft and chewy? ›

Baking cookies quickly in a hot oven – at 375 degrees F as opposed to a lower temperature – will make for soft results. They'll bake fast instead of sitting and drying out in the oven's hot air. Ever so slightly underbaking your cookies will give you softer results than cooking them the full amount the recipe says.

What makes cookies chewy and not hard? ›

The science is simple: According to the flour authorities over at Bob's Red Mill, cornstarch can help “soften the rigid proteins of the flour, resulting in a light and chewy dessert.” “The cornstarch complements the flour in absorbing the liquids, but won't develop gluten structure like the flour will,” stresses ...

What happens if you over cream, butter, and sugar in cookies? ›

Over-creamed butter and sugar adds in too much air and alters the final texture – typically to be more gummy and dense. Sometimes over-creaming can produce cakes, cupcakes, or cookies that collapse upon baking or while cooling if the mixture is well and truly over-creamed (where it looks like curdled milk).

What is the best thickness for sugar cookies? ›

Place each portion onto a piece of lightly floured parchment paper or a lightly floured silicone baking mat. With a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough out to about 1/4-inch thickness. Use more flour if the dough seems too sticky. The rolled-out dough can be any shape, as long as it is evenly 1/4-inch thick.

What happens if you put too much baking powder in sugar cookies? ›

Too much baking powder can cause the batter to be bitter tasting. It can also cause the batter to rise rapidly and then collapse. (i.e. The air bubbles in the batter grow too large and break causing the batter to fall.) Cakes will have a coarse, fragile crumb with a fallen center.

Why poke holes in sugar cookies? ›

The holes trick

There's also a new technique going around when preventing craters in a second layer of icing: poke holes in the base flood (under the area you'll cover with a second layer of icing). You can even do this when the first layer flood has completely dried!

How to improve sugar cookies? ›

There are a few things you can add to your ready - to - bake sugar cookies to give them more flavor . One option is to mix in some vanilla extract or almond extract to enhance the overall taste . You can also add in some cinnamon , nutmeg , or other spices to give the cookies a warm and cozy flavor .

Is it OK to leave sugar cookies out overnight? ›

Room Temperature:

Decorate the cookies within 48 hours of being baked, as they will start to become stale if left at room temperature for too long.

What can go wrong making dough? ›

Bad dough is usually the result of a dough recipe not followed, the introduction of too much cold, heat or water during preparation or problematic mixing. To avoid such issues, get the ratio of dry ingredients to wet ingredients correct.

What are some of the common faults in the preparation of cookies? ›

1. The cookies spread too much on the sheet pan.
  • The oven temperature was too low. Cookies are supposed to be baked at high temperatures for relatively short periods of time. ...
  • Too much of the leavening agent was used. ...
  • Too much sugar will encourage spreading. ...
  • The sheet pan was too heavily greased.
Jan 2, 2021

What is unsafe in cookie dough? ›

Eggs in Raw Cookie Dough

Eggshells can also become contaminated with salmonella bacteria when they're laid. Eggs that contain salmonella look just like normal eggs.

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