I finally listened to that bakery owner about my butter temperature

Had a chat with Amy from Amy's Artisan Breads (local shop downtown) after she caught me buying her sourdough for the third time last week. She asked if I baked and I told her my cookies kept flattening into sad puddles. She said 'your butter is probably too soft, like room temp plus five degrees' and something just clicked. I always thought soft butter meant fluffy cookies but nope - I'd been letting it sit out for like 2 hours instead of 45 minutes. Tried her trick with my last batch of chocolate chip cookies and they actually held their shape and had that chewy center. Has anyone else had a random conversation that fixed a baking issue you'd been fighting for months?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_cora1d ago

Yo that's funny because my whole cookie game changed after some random old lady at the grocery store told me to chill my dough for at least 2 hours. I thought she was crazy but she was loading up on like 6 bags of chocolate chips so I figured she knew what she was talking about. Now I'm that person who plans cookies a whole day ahead just so the dough can sit in the fridge overnight. The texture difference is wild, I can't go back to making cookies the same day anymore. Your butter thing makes total sense too, I bet that extra 45 minutes is the difference between a puddle and a perfect cookie.

shane_perry291d ago

Take it from someone who learned the hard way that butter has a goldilocks zone, not a "leave it out till it's practically grease" zone. @the_cora nailed it too with the chilling trick, I started doing that after my third batch of cookies looked more like pancakes. Now I keep a timer on my phone for exactly 47 minutes when I pull the butter out, and the dough sits in the fridge for at least 90 minutes before I even think about preheating the oven. Funny how some random conversation can fix months of frustration, like a bakery owner just handing you the secret handshake.