Dry Cookie Dough
I used this recipe to make chocolate chip cookies. I’ve made it many times and it usually is a hit! This time, I decided to use brown butter instead of room temperature. The dough turned out very dry, to the point where I had to add egg whites and squish the dough into balls to even get a cookie shape.
I chilled the cookies in the freezer for about 2 hours before baking. As they were baking, the cookies wouldn’t spread. I had to bake them for at least 15 minutes, much longer than normal. The final product tasted good, but they were still dry.
Where did I go wrong?! Any tips to substituting brown butter into chocolate chip cookie recipes? 
Best Answer
I think the problem is that the browned butter lacked water the recipe was relying on. the only sources of liquid in the recipe is the eggs and the butter, so losing one of those sources would make a big difference
Butter ordinarily has some water in it, I've seen numbers like 16-20% water, the rest being fats and milk solids. That water has to be evaporated out to make browned butter - it won't get hot enough to brown until enough water's gone, since evaporating water keeps the heat down.
So I think measuring in browned butter instead of regular butter, meant you ended up with more fats and less liquid that the recipe called for (by that same 16-20%).
I expect you can fix this by just re-adjusting the water ratio, putting in ~80% of the butter called for and making up the rest with water, milk, whatever liquid you want.
This would be pretty much the same adjustment needed to sub butter and oil, for the same reason.
Pictures about "Dry Cookie Dough"
How do you moisten dry cookie dough?
If you find that your cookies are dry and hard to work with because of insufficient moisture, you can add some water to your dough by spritzing a bit of water on your rolled-out cookie dough or giving your dough a splash of cold water before kneading it to incorporate the water.Can you fix dried out cookie dough?
1 \u2013 Add Liquid If your cookie dough recipe already calls for a liquid such as milk, water, eggs or egg whites, start trying to moisten your dough by adding 1 teaspoon of the liquid at a time, mixing the dough briefly afterward.How do you fix dry dough?
Cookie dough is much denser and thicker than cake mix and can be rolled into a ball without sticking or falling apart. If your cookie dough does not roll into a ball or falls apart as soon as you attempt to roll it, then it is probably too dry.22: What if my dough is too dry? - Bake with Jack
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