One of the most critical ingredients in cookies is flour. Flour is the base of the entire recipe, whether you’re making a batch of chocolate chip or sugar cookies. But what happens if you add too much? Are your cookies destined for the trash can?
If you accidentally add too much flour to your cookie dough, you can remedy the situation by adding a tablespoon of milk, a type of fat like butter or shortening, or another egg yolk. You can also try kneading the dough a bit more.
Hey! My name’s Michelle, and I am a cookie-baking aficionado. I have enjoyed baking cookies in my home kitchen for the past ten-plus years. Of course, I’ve dealt with many struggles along the way, including too much flour. Luckily, I’ve discovered the simple solutions.
Does your cookie dough need fixin’? Read below to learn how to remedy an excessive flour situation.
Contents
Why Too Much Flour is Bad for Cookie Dough
Before we dive into how to fix cookie dough with too much flour, we need to understand why this is a bad thing.
Too much flour in your cookie dough will negatively impact your cookies in two significant ways.
For one, your cookies will be impossibly dry and crumbly. So much so that you may find it difficult to eat them – or even pick them up off of the cookie sheet.
Secondly, excess flour will produce a very bland and chalky taste. And that’s not the goal when baking a batch of ridiculously sweet and indulgent cookies!
How to Fix Cookie Dough With Too Much Flour
Dry and blank cookies? Ew. That’s definitely something you want to avoid at all costs.
Thankfully, if you add too much flour, you won’t be stuck with an inedible batch of cookies. Here are the top four ways to remedy cookie dough with excess flour.
1. Add More Milk
Adding a bit of liquid is the easiest way to fix cookie dough with too much flour.
I recommend using milk for cookies because it will enhance the overall flavor and texture of your goodies.
However, if you don’t have any milk on hand, you can always resort to water. It won’t harm your cookies, but it won’t add that extra oomph, either.
When adding liquid to your cookie dough, start with a single tablespoon and work it into the dough. If you’re still struggling with dryness, add another tablespoon. You shouldn’t need to add any more liquid after this.
2. Add Some Fat
If you want to make your cookies even more decadent and rich, you can opt to add some fat instead.
But which type of fat works best?
The best thing to do is to follow along with your cookie recipe. For example, add another tablespoon or two if your recipe calls for butter. If your recipe needs shortening, opt for a few tablespoons of shortening.
Like liquid, start with a single tablespoon and go from there. You don’t want to add too much fat, which can lead to issues like cookies spreading down the line.
3. Add Another Egg Yolk
Eggs are essential in all kinds of baking recipes, including cookies. They help provide the structure, flavor, and color for your baked goods.
Did you know that they can enhance the moisture content, too?
If you don’t want to use milk or fat in your cookie dough, you can always plop in another egg yolk (not the entire egg).
The egg yolk will give your cookie dough some much-needed hydration while also upping the richness and divine flavor of your cookies. It’s a win-win situation.
4. Knead a Little Longer
Sometimes, it’s just an issue of not mixing your cookie dough long enough.
If that’s the case, the solution is simple: keep kneading your dough by hand.
Be careful not to overmix, though. You shouldn’t need to knead your cookie dough for longer than approximately five minutes. At this point, the flour should have been incorporated better, leaving you with more pliable cookie dough.
If not, you’ll need to add more milk, fat, or egg yolks.
How to Prevent Cookie Dough With Too Much Flour
The good news is that cookie dough with too much flour can easily be fixed. But what went wrong in the first place? How can you prevent this from happening in the future? Here are my top three tips:
1. Measure, Measure, Measure
After your 100th batch of cookies, you might think you’re good to eyeball your measurements. Please don’t. Measuring cups and spoons exist for many reasons, one of those reasons being to avoid cookie dough with too much flour.
If you want further accuracy, I’d even suggest purchasing a kitchen scale to be 100% confident in your measurements.
2. Sift Your Flour
If you don’t sift your flour before measuring, you’ll come up with an incorrect measurement; it’s just that simple.
Flour can hide tiny lumps that would otherwise go unnoticed. However, you’ll notice when your cookies come out incredibly dry, crumbly, and bland.
Get your sifter and thoroughly sift your flour before placing it into your measuring cup.
3. Follow Your Recipe Correctly
Playing around with recipes can be fun, but it can be a nightmare if you don’t know what you’re doing.
I always recommend following along with your recipe. If your cookie recipe calls for a specific type of flour, use it. Use the specified amount of flour dictated in your recipe.
FAQs
Nobody wants to eat cookies that have been made with too much flour. They’re just not good. But now you know how to fix the problem and achieve cookie greatness. Oh, and in case you want to learn more about this topic, I’ve added a few more FAQs!
If you want firmer cookies, you’ll need to add some extra flour to the cookie dough. Of course, you don’t want to go overboard. Otherwise, you’ll end up with cookie dough that contains too much flour, and you’ll have to remedy that problem, too!
You can successfully reroll cookie dough as needed.
Resting cookie dough is essential before baking. You can rest your cookie dough for as little as 30 minutes. However, many bakers plop their cookie dough into the refrigerator and allow it to rest and chill for up to 48 hours.
Bye-Bye, Overly Floured Cookies!
If you added too much flour to your cookie dough, “doughnut” fret. You can quickly fix this problem by adding moisture with milk, butter, or egg yolk. Sometimes it’s as easy as kneading the cookie dough by hand for a few more minutes.
Do you ever add too much flour to your cookie dough?
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