How to Rescue Too-Soft Cookie Dough Made with Butter Substitute?
The other day I made a batch of sugar cookies intending to roll them out and cut into shapes. I used the standard Martha Stewart's recipe, but didn't have butter, so I used Smart Balance Lite Margarine. Needless to say the dough didn't get stiff enough to cut or roll, even though its been refrigerated for more than 24 hours. Is there anyway to either use this dough as is OR to add ingredients to the dough to make it more stiff?
Best Answer
I don't believe you will be satisfied with any cookies you roll out and cut from this dough. That said, there are three options that may allow the dough to find a tasty future.
Make a 'Mega Cookie': roll the dough out and fit it onto a pizza tin and bake. This can be decorated as one large cookie/pizza.
Make 'Brownies': work the dough into an 8"x8" or 9"x13" pan and bake.
'Cupcakes': scoop a spoonful of dough into each compartment of muffin tin and bake.
Of course you will have to watch to get them done enough as the standard bake time probably won't apply.
If your recipe doesn't include eggs (or you are not concerned with the risk that raw eggs may pose) adding it to homemade ice cream would be a fourth option.
Good luck.
Pictures about "How to Rescue Too-Soft Cookie Dough Made with Butter Substitute?"
Quick Answer about "How to Rescue Too-Soft Cookie Dough Made with Butter Substitute?"
Finally, cookies will also flatten if placed and baked on hot cookie sheets. Keep it cool to start with. How to Fix it: If too-soft butter was the culprit, try refrigerating cookie dough for 1 to 2 hours before baking. If too-little flour was the issue, try adding an additional 1 to 2 tablespoons of flour to the dough.How do you fix cookies that are too soft?
Preheat the oven to 300\xb0F. Place the cookies on a baking sheet. Put the cookies in the oven and bake them for 10-15 minutes. The heat will remove the moisture from the cookies, making them crispy again.How do you make cookie dough firmer?
If you find yourself with sticky cookie dough, there's another dry ingredient you can add: cornstarch. Go slowly, simply adding a teaspoon at a time and then combining. You don't want to add cornstarch if your dough is extremely sticky, but if it's just a little bit too sticky, it's the perfect remedy.What do I do if my cookie dough is too wet?
If your cookie dough is indeed too runny, try adding a tablespoon of flour at a time and mixing until fully incorporated after each addition. Give the flour some time to soak up the moisture, do not rush. Stop adding as soon as the dough reaches your desired consistency.How do you make dough less soft?
If you're feeling extra hopeless, try adding the flour and then placing the dough in the fridge to harden up. This method works for dough that isn't runny, so it can do wonders for dough that needs a little more help.Every Common Cookie Alteration, Substitution And Mistake (11 Recipes) | Ingredient Swap
More answers regarding how to Rescue Too-Soft Cookie Dough Made with Butter Substitute?
Answer 2
The dough should still make edible cookies; the problem will be with spreading. So instead of cutting out shapes, just drop the dough by spoonfuls on a cookie sheet and bake it, possibly for less time than the recipe calls for. You can still decorate the cookies, or you can keep these for munching and make a new batch (with butter!) for cutting out and decorating.
Answer 3
I had the same problem by using margarine instead of butter, thought it would be ok because it said it was used for baking on the package, but mine was so soft and looked up receipes where you had to refrigerate the dough so I just put in the freezer for a few mins, got a little stiff and was able to make some crooked Christmas trees into fall leaves.. happy baking.
Answer 4
The natural answer would be to add a little more flour. You will probably need to leave the dough out of the fridge a while to soften so you can fold/mix in the flour until the mixture stiffens sufficiently.
Answer 5
The method I use for the “butter shortbread biscuits” could be useful in your case, too:
- I roll the whole dough out on the baking paper,
- And then place it on the baking tray with the paper and there slightly cut into shapes by knife,
- After baking, I cut the shapes again (as it is still warm and kind of soft)
- and let the biscuits to cool before taking them out of the tray.
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Katerina Holmes, Nicole Michalou, Skyler Ewing, Skyler Ewing