What to Do When Cookie Dough Is Too Sticky (2024)

FAQs

What to Do When Cookie Dough Is Too Sticky? ›

When cookie dough is too sticky, you may have an imbalance of wet and dry ingredients. You can fix this by adding a teaspoon of flour or cornstarch at a time until your dough is just how you want. The added flour or cornstarch will absorb the excess liquid and reduce the dough's overall stickiness.

Soft – Dough that's “soft” or “runny” can be thickened by adding one or two tablespoons of flour to your mix. This will help keep your batch from “Spreading” and coming out of the oven looking like flat, not-so-cookie-like puddles.

Oil does as well and is better suited for keeping the dough from sticking to a bowl or rising container than water is. Water is more readily absorbed. Paul Hollywood shows how using oil instead of flour to knead bread, which helps keep the texture of the dough consistent.

After the first rise, you would normally knead the dough again. However, if you find your dough is too sticky at this point, do not knead it again. Instead, gently press and deflate the dough. You can also use a light coating of flour on your hands and working surface to press and stretch the dough.

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. Cookies made from chilled dough are also much more flavorful.

*If your dough itself is simply too warm (making it sticky or starting to separate), you can refrigerate your dough for up to 20 minutes. When you remove it, knead it by hand to make sure the dough has a consistent temperature and stiffness throughout.

→ 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.

To fix this, you can add 1-2 tablespoons of milk or water to the dough. This will make the dough more moist and prevent the cookies from being too dry³. - You overbeat the butter and sugar together. This will incorporate too much air and result in a cakey texture.

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.