Chilling, or refrigerating, cookie dough is an easy way to fix lots of cookie dough issues and also to make for a better cookie.
But how long do you chill cookie dough?
Does it matter?
Is there a general rule?
In this guide on how long to chill cookie dough, we’re going to cover some basic cookie baking tips and help you figure out how long your cookie dough needs to be refrigerated for.
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First things first, most recipes will actually tell you how long to chill your cookie dough for.
Double check the notes of your recipe to make sure that there isn’t any information on there about the chill time before you use our guide.
Another thing to note is that you can’t really go that wrong with chilling dough.
If you’re chilling your dough to make it easier to roll and you find that it isn’t quite there yet, just pop it in for another couple of hours.
If you’re chilling your dough to prevent spreading in your cookies, do a test batch with just one or two balls of dough after you’ve chilled it and see if it has worked.
If it hasn’t, leave them in to chill overnight.
And finally, if you’re really not wanting to worry about different chilling times for cookie dough, know you can always just chill them overnight as a default and you’ll be good to go the next day!
How Long to Chill Cookie Dough to Fix Sticky Dough
Chilling cookie dough is a great way to fix sticky dough, because it will make the butter colder which means that the dough isn’t going to stick to your hands as much when you’re putting it on the baking tray.
Plan to chill cookie dough for about 4 hours if you want to fix sticky dough or make it so you can easily roll your dough.
This is long enough for the dough to chill through and you won’t get too much extra benefit in terms of stickiness if you keep chilling it.
How Long to Chill Cookie Dough to Prevent Spreading
Chilling cookie dough can also prevent spreading and make your cookies puffier because it helps the cookie retain its structure and the butter turns cold, which helps it not melt as fast in the oven.
If you want to prevent spreading, chill your cookie dough in the fridge for 4-6 hours ideally.
If you don’t have that much time, plan on chilling the dough for at least one hour to get an effect.
How Long to Chill Cookie Dough in Other Situations
Often, people prefer to chill their dough for other reasons, just to let the flavors of the ingredients blend together to create a richer flavor or because you don’t have time to bake them right away.
In this case, simply chill your cookie dough overnight, so for about 12-18 hours, and you’ll have delicious cookies when you bake them!
Q: HOW LONG SHOULD I CHILL THE DOUGH? Anywhere from 24 to 72 hours. The longer you chill the dough, the more flavor will develop. The flour will also absorb more of the moisture so the thicker and chewier the final texture will be.
If you can scoop it (some doughs are too hard), go straight to the oven, though you will likely need to give them a minute longer baking time. This is actually beneficial for some doughs that spread a lot and some recipes actually call for a quick refrigeration.
Here's what our Test Kitchen recommends when quickly chilling cookie dough in the freezer: Place the cookie dough in the freezer for one-quarter of the recommended refrigerator time. The dough can be wrapped in plastic, scooped into balls for baking on a cookie sheet, or left in the mixing bowl, covered.
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.
Frozen or chilled dough will take longer than room temperature dough to bake. Just keep an eye on the cookies as they bake and remove them when they start to color around the edges and lose their raw shine in the middle. Bar Cookies: The bake time will depend on how thick the bars are, so check them often.
Let it sit for long enough—the famous Jacques Torres chocolate chip cookie, published in the New York Times, mandates a rest of at least 24 hours and up to 72—and the starches and proteins in the flour begin to break down, leading to more browning and caramelization.
Yes, you can bake dough straight from the refrigerator – it does not need to come to room temperature. The dough has no problems from being baked cold and will bake evenly when baked in a very hot oven. I've baked many loaves straight from the fridge with great results, and haven't noticed any problems.
Before you start adding ingredients to your dough, there's actually another baking hack you can try to fix wet dough: refrigerate it! Chilling or refrigerating your sticky dough can turn the butter cold and means that the dough will stop sticking to your hands.
Most recipes recommend chilling cookie dough for several hours in the refrigerator, but the good news is that you can use your freezer in a pinch. Better Homes and Gardens says that you can freeze cookie dough for one-fourth of the recommended refrigeration time with good results.
Wrap half in a sheet of parchment paper—roll it and twist the ends—and store it in the refrigerator. When you're ready to bake another batch, unwrap the chilled roll of dough and slice off as few or as many cookies as you like. Wrap up any leftover dough and put it back in the fridge for another day of cookie baking.
Preheat the oven to 325º F. Grease a baking sheet or pizza pan. Place the whole bar of dough with score lines or marks down on a prepared baking sheet or pizza pan. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown.
So how long is cookie dough good for in the fridge? You can keep the leftover dough in the fridge for up to five days and in the freezer for three months. However, if they stay in there too long, they're likely to get hard and crumbly when you bake them.
Refers to food that is thoroughly cooled in a refrigerator compartment, but is not frozen. Proper chilling of food is usually accomplished within a temperature range of 33°F to 42°F.
"When your dough is refrigerated, the butter hardens. So when you bake them, they spread less and hold their shape better," adds Epperson. "Which means a better likelihood of a soft, chewy cookie in the center." Chilling the dough creates fluffier cookies with better consistency.
So yes, resting your cookie dough makes better cookies. If you can't swing an overnight rest, we recommend chilling your cookie dough in the fridge for at least 1-2 hours before scooping and baking. If you really don't want to wait, shape your dough into balls and freeze them for 15 minutes, then pop them in the oven.
The colder your dough is before it heads into the oven, the less it will spread during baking, which makes for loftier cookies. The chilling phase also gives the flour in your dough time to hydrate, just like pie dough, which translates into a cookie that's more chewy than cakey.
The short answer is: Yes. Resting your dough in the refrigerator will almost always yield better results. But why? Chilling your cookie dough in the refrigerator after mixing it allows the flour to hydrate and gives the other ingredients time to blend, resulting in a richer, more well-rounded flavor profile.
As King Arthur Baking explains, resting cookie dough can help your cookies taste better, as the resting process helps the flavor become more concentrated. As the dough chills in the fridge, it loses excess moisture: this, in turn, concentrates the remaining ingredients, yielding a more flavorful end product.
They go from soft to hard because they start to dry out, and it begins as soon as you pull them from the oven. (Yikes.) Whatever moisture is left in the cookies is always in a state of evaporation. At the same time, the sugars and starches are solidifying.
After a cold bulk fermentation, allow your dough to regain some warmth on the counter for 40 to 60 minutes and become slightly puffy before shaping it. You can help the process along by stretching and folding the dough.
When you're going to use the refrigerated dough, take it out of the fridge at least 1 hour before you're planning to bake pizza, to let it come to room temperature.
Never leave your kneaded dough uncovered or in out of the refrigerator for long hours, especially during summers. This can result in growth of bacteria that may cause food poisoning.
If the dough was kept in the refrigerator, yeast will not able to respire, as yeast needs a proper temperature to respire and grow. Also, the dough will not rise and it will not produce any type of sour smell.
If you store it in your fridge, you can usually expect this cookie dough to last about 1 to 2 weeks past the “best by” date.In your freezer, frozen raw cookie dough can actually last 9 to 12 months, giving you plenty of time to use it before it goes bad.
There's no need to thaw frozen drop cookie dough in order to bake your cookies — in fact, we don't recommend it. Start by preheating the oven slightly lower than the temperature called for in your recipe — about 15 degrees F lower.
You don't need to adjust the bake time or temperature for thawed cookie dough. Baking Frozen Cookie Dough Straight From The Freezer. If you prefer to bake frozen cookie dough straight from the freezer, you'll reduce the baking temperature by 20-25 degrees or so and add 2-3 minutes to the bake time.
→ 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.
After chilling, let your cookie dough sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes (or more, depending how long the dough has chilled) before rolling into balls and baking. Sometimes after refrigeration, cookie dough can be too hard to roll/handle. If a recipe calls for chilling the cookie dough, don't skip that step.
For those ooey, gooey chocolate chip cookies, 375 degrees Fahrenheit is your sweet spot. It's the perfect temperature to ensure super crispy exterior edges, while leaving the center slightly underdone and, thus, doughy and fudgey. If you're feeling particularly bold, give 400 degrees Fahrenheit a go.
"My golden rule for baking is make it cold and bake it hot," she said. The food and lifestyle maven said that using frozen butter over a box grater creates perfect size pieces. "You'll have no problem with it making the most beautiful flakiness -- in biscuits, scones, pie crusts and other laminated doughs."
Baking at 375 degrees F as opposed to a lower temperature will help cookies stay soft: they'll bake faster which means they aren't in the hot, drying air of the oven too long.
The biggest source of heat in a fridge is the warm air that rushes in every time you open the door. Cold air sinks, so it collects at the bottom and, in a fridge freezer, the bottom shelves will be coldest.
How long can I keep cookie dough in the refrigerator before baking? Most cookie dough can be refrigerated, well-wrapped, for three to five days before baking. If you want to make it farther in advance, freeze the dough.
"When your cookie dough is not refrigerated, the butter is at room temperature. Therefore the heat from the oven reacts with the butter quickly, making it spread thinner," says Epperson. And while some people prefer a crunchy, thin cookie, there are arguably many more people who like soft, thick cookies.
Most recipes recommend chilling cookie dough for several hours in the refrigerator, but the good news is that you can use your freezer in a pinch. Better Homes and Gardens says that you can freeze cookie dough for one-fourth of the recommended refrigeration time with good results.
We recommend storing your cookie dough in a small airtight container in your fridge or freezer, depending on when you want to bake it. As a general rule, any cookie dough left on the counter at room temperature will be good for 2-4 hours but then may risk going bad, especially if it is already past its “best by” date.
The taste will remain, but the cookies will not spread as large. If you want the spread to be the same, we recommend thawing the dough for 24 hours in the fridge. Some cookie doughs just don't freeze well. These are doughs that rely on egg whites rather than butter for volume and texture in the cookie.
Introduction: My name is Arielle Torp, I am a comfortable, kind, zealous, lovely, jolly, colorful, adventurous person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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