I’ll be the first to admit that patience has never been a strength of mine. So whenever I bake cookies and the recipe says to refrigerate the dough before baking, I’m always tempted to skip that step!
But the only thing equal to my impatience is my curiosity, so I began to wonder what exactly resting the dough achieves. So I decided to look into it, and I found out that this step is more important than I ever thought!
So today I thought I’d pass on what I’ve learned to you, so we all have a better understanding of why this step is important. Looks like patience really is a virtue, especially when it comes to homemade cookies! 🙂
3 Things That Happen When You Rest Cookie Dough Before Baking
1. Better structure
When you put your cookie dough in the fridge to rest, it’s not just the temperature that affects it! While it rests, the moisture from the wet ingredients will continue to saturate the dry ingredients. This effect improves the overall texture of the dough.
This textural difference helps the cookie dough bake better and brown more evenly. It also helps ensure that your cookies will be delicious on the inside and crispy on the outside!
2. Better flavor
In addition to improving the texture of your cookies, resting the dough can also make them taste better! Resting the dough is key to achieving a rich, somewhat butterscotch-y “cookie flavor.”
The flavor changes as a result of the way the ingredients begin to break down during the resting phase. This process contributes to browning and caramelization, both of which can significantly affect flavor!
3. Spread less
Ever wonder why so many baking recipes call for cold butter? That’s because the way the butter melts has a huge impact on the look, taste and texture of the final product!
If the butter melts too early, the dough will spread too much and you’ll end up with flat, crispy, and possibly oily cookies. By taking the time to rest the dough in the fridge you can avoid most of these problems.
How long should I rest the cookie dough?
Many cookie recipes provide instructions on how long to rest the dough before baking, but those guidelines don’t have to be followed exactly. Chilling the dough for just 30 minutes is enough to make a noticeable difference, but you can leave it longer if you like.
You can even leave your dough in the fridge for a day or more! (For more on that, check out This blog post from King Arthur Floor (which describes a single batch of dough developed over a period of 10 days in the fridge.)
Which cookie dough should I rest?
Most varieties of cookie dough, including molded and drop cookies, will benefit from resting before baking. Especially with doughs that are sticky (such as dough for My favorite sour cream cookies), resting is important because it makes the dough easier to handle.
On the other hand, if the cookie mixture is more like batter than dough, it can usually be baked right away. This includes cake mix cookies and anything that requires piping onto a tray.
(bonus_tips)Bonus tip: Scoop before resting
- Resting cookie dough in the fridge can make it difficult to roll out into individual portions.
- To combat this, scoop and roll your cookie dough Before By putting it in the fridge.
- Scooping freshly mixed dough is super easy, and you’ll still get the benefits of resting the dough!
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What is your favorite cookie recipe?
