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10 Reasons Your Cookies Spread Too Much- if you have asked yourself the questions “why are my cookies flat” and can’t figure out why then this is a MUST read!

So as a kid I didn’t realize yet what a nerd I was. And as I got older not just a nerd but a baking nerd. Like I love reading about why my cookies failed and the chemical reactions happening in my cakes. Hi, my name is Heather and I’m a baking nerd. Do they have support groups for people like me? Oh right it’s called blogging.

Now as a kid, I remember thinking how weird it was that one recipe (good old Nestle Tollhouse) could provide such inconsistent results. I mean it was the saaaaaaame recipe. What gives?!

It’s all in knowing the science of cookies and following some simple baking rules.

Here is what I want in a cookie- crispy chewy edges that give way to a soft almost some might argue underbaked molten chocolate chip center. No more. No less. Basically perfect cookies.

Now, if you want big crispy flat cookies, then ignore my advice in this post. However, if it’s NOT what you were going for, then I have some quick tips for you to be sure to pay attention to the next time you are whipping up a batch of warm chocolate chip cookies (or any cookie for that matter).

To Bake Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

Quality Cookies Sheets Like These Ones That Won’t Warp or Burn Your Cookies
Oven Thermometer
Kitchen-Aid Mixer (you can make them by hand, but this stand mixer makes fast work of your dough!)
Kitchen-Aid Mixer
silicon baking mat
Spatula
cooling rack
cookie spatula – this is my new favorite thing, what did I use before? Ugh, those poor cookies.

Before we begin, I need to stress the importance of investing in some quality cookie sheets. Sorry Dollar Store you ain’t going to cut it this time. You want heavy duty cookie sheets that are going to heat evenly.

Here are my favorite cookie sheets- Chicago Metallic Traditional Uncoated Pan and Nordic Ware Aluminum Half Sheet – I also prefer light colored aluminum cookie sheets as opposed to dark colored cookie sheets because I find the dark ones heat too quickly.

These are my 8 reasons why you have flat cookies that spread into a big old cookie puddle (and of course followed up with the “what you should do” to help fix the problem so you end up with perfect cookies every time). Because that’s why you are still reading, amiright?

So let’s begin shall we?

1. You didn’t use room temperature ingredients!

Ugh. I know the cookie craving hits. You want cookies now. NOW. So you go ahead and pull out your butter, eggs, and everything else. Grab your mixing bowl and spatula. Good to go right? Wrong. So wrong, friends. To get those perfect cookies every time you want room temperature ingredients. Do NOT ignore this step.

Why?

Great question. Let’s talk science for a second. When you cream the butter and eggs together you are trapping air inside that cookie dough. That air is a crucial unspoken ingredient in your cookie recipe. Trapped air = light, airy baked treats. Cold butter and eggs means less air is trapped and will result in dense, flat cookies. No good, folks.

Can I use melted butter?

Sure if you want those flatter crispier cookies. Go for it. I’ve done it. One of my favorite cookie recipes uses melted butter. But again if you do not want crispy thin cookies, then use softened butter. Melted butter will not allow for all that trapped air that will expand in your oven.

If you want to read my full post on how butter temperature affects cookies – check that out here!

So what to do if you are on short on time?

Baking hack #1: Cut your butter into your cubes. By cutting your butter into small chunks, you increase the surface area decreasing the time it takes to soften that butter. Cut your butter into small chunks and then wait about 30 minutes or so.

You can also try grating your butter with cheese grater. I also used to soften my butter in the microwave (a little trick I picked when working at a bakery)- just be careful.

Your butter can go from softened to melted pretty quickly. Microwave on 20% power in 30 second intervals until softened. (usually takes about 1 minute 30 seconds for my microwave)

Baking hack #2: Place your eggs in warm water and wait 10 minutes. This will bring your eggs to room temperature in no time. Do NOT use hot water to soften your eggs. You don’t want cooked eggs! Just room temperature.

2. You didn’t measure your ingredients correctly.

Updated: Although I’ll explain how to measure your flour using a measuring cup the right way below. If you want the best cookies, and accuracy every time you must weigh your ingredients.

Using a scale, and weighing your ingredients, especially flour will probably solve 50% of your cookie spreading problem. Flour is the #1 ingredient people measure wrong. Give 3 people a measuring cup and a bag of flour and they will all end up with varying amount of flour.

Measuring is KING when it comes to baking. Or should it be QUEEN? Well, either way- it’s extremely important. So important I wrote a big old nerdy long post on why measuring is important and how to measure ingredients when it comes to baking.

One key ingredient I always aim to measure correctly is my flour. Too much flour and you will get cakey cookies. Not enough and it may not have enough structure to hold up in the oven, aka flat crispy cookies.

Measuring your flour is so important I also wrote a big old long nerdy post on that too that you can read.. If you don’t feel like reading that let me sum that up for you…

Spoon and Level.

Dip a spoon into your flour and fill your measuring cup a spoonful at a time.

Do not pack the flour down.

Do not tap the sides of your cup. Just keep spooning the flour into your cup until it’s heaping at the top. Then with a knife or metal spatula run it across the top of the cup to level it off.

What about those eggs? Be sure they are large eggs. Using the wrong size egg could also add extra liquid which may result in too much spreading as well.

Baking is a science. So measure accurately to ensure your cookies come out 100% awesome. Every. Dang. Time.

3. You didn’t pre-heat your oven properly.

Ugh, it’s that whole patience in the kitchen thing. Not my virtue either. I hear you. But throwing cookies in a cold oven, or one that is not up to the proper temperature can drastically affect your cookies in the end. Now if you were baking a casserole or something, this step may not matter as much. Just keep that dish in the oven a tad longer. Easy peasy. However, baked goods are a whole other matter.

So pre-heat your oven as your first step when baking. Let your oven pre-heat while you prepare your cookie dough. If your cookie dough needs to be chilled, then hold off and wait until your dough is ready. We will discuss this step later. But whatever you do, be sure you are not putting your cookies in an oven that is not at the specified recipe’s temperature.

Just like a cold oven can affect your cookies, so can an oven that is too hot. Too hot and that butter in your dough can melt too quickly causing the cookies to spread too much before your flour mixture has a chance to harden. So be sure your oven temperature is correct. Always preheat.

Are your cookies still spreading? Then it’s time to….

Double check your oven temperature is correct.

Now what if your oven doesn’t tell you when it’s ready? Buy an oven thermometer. So cheap. So easy. No more guessing games.

Even if your oven does inform you by beeping incessantly to let you know it’s ready, I still highly recommend an oven thermometer. An oven thermometer is the only way to be accurate that when your oven says its 350 degrees its actually at 350 degrees. This way if your oven runs hot or cold you can adjust the temperature accordingly. For more Oven 101, read this post!

4. Your baking powder and baking soda are old.

So if you don’t bake all the time like oh me for instance. I got problems. I know. Moving on. And when you go to bake cookies and go digging out your baking powder and baking soda from the back of the cupboard and dust off the tops of your baking powder and soda, then they may be too old to use. Baking powder and baking soda are what we call leavening agents. They help make your baked goods rise. If they are too old, they may have become inactive. Inactive = they won’t do squat for your cookies!

How To Check If Your Baking Soda and Powder Are Still Active?

To Check Your Baking Soda: Measure out a 1/2 cup of hot tap water. Add 1/4 teaspoon of vinegar (baking soda needs an acid to react with). Add 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda. It should bubble up violently immediately. If not, throw it out.

To Check Your Baking Powder: Measure out a 1/2 cup of hot tap water. Add in a 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder. It should bubble immediately. If not, throw it out.

5. You didn’t chill the dough.

Maybe this should be reason #1. I truly believe the best cookie it has to have the dough chilled first. A colder dough = less spreading.

Why?

By chilling the dough, it solidifies the fat in the cookie dough. And the longer the fat stays a solid in your hot oven, the less spreading your cookies will do.

I like to chill my dough for 24 hours.

When you mix up your cookie dough, simply scoop your cookie dough onto a cookie sheet and then chill for 24 hours. I can’t stress enough scooping then chilling. I’ve tried it the other way around. And now unless you are The Hulk, or are in need of a ridiculous arm workout then remember to SCOOP THEN CHILL.

6. Use Quality Baking Sheets.

I mentioned this above with the tools I use but it’s worth mentioning again.

I need to stress the importance of investing in some quality cookie sheets. Sorry Dollar Store you ain’t going to cut it this time. You want heavy duty cookie sheets that are going to heat evenly.

7. Line your pans properly.

Are you sensing a theme here for the perfect chocolate chip cookies? Preparation is key.

Same goes for your pans. First, use light colored, aluminum quality cookie sheets. Oh wait we talked about that already so you got those now right? 🙂

Second, use either parchment paper or a silicon baking mat. Do not grease your baking pans. Using parchment paper or a silicon baking mat, allows for easy transfer of your cookies from the baking sheet to a cooling rack. I

f you bake up a second batch, be sure to allow the cookie sheet to cool off completely before putting more cookie dough on them. Heat is your #1 enemy here.

8. Bake your cookies on the middle rack.

This one is simple. Bake your cookies on the middle rack of your oven.

You want even heat on top and bottom for them to spread evenly.

That’s it. Middle rack. Done.

9. Cool your cookies properly.

You left them on the cookie sheet too long. I allow my cookies to cool for 3 to 5 minutes. No more. No less. Any less and you risk them falling apart on you when you try to move them. Any longer and the residual heat from the cookie sheet could continue to bake your cookies resulting in extra spreading and over baked bottoms.

Place them on a cookie cooling rack, do no stack them up, and allow them to cool properly.

10. Make Taller Cookies.

Yup taller cookies will spread less. So Instead of round balls, try making taller scoops. This should help cut down on the spreading.

Fix Your Flat Cookies

Another fun trick, is to when the cookies come out of the oven use a spoon and gently push the cookie edges back in a little bit. Like so…

What Can I Use Flat Cookies For?

If your cookies spread out too much, don’t throw them away! Here are a few ideas to turn ugly ducklings into swans:

Eat them anyway. I mean ok, maybe they won’t win any beauty contests. And maybe they don’t have the exact texture you were going for, but I find that if the dough was tasty the cookies will be too.
Crumble them. Make them into a whole new dessert. Like a trifle. Layer those cookie crumbles with some pudding. No one will be the wiser.
Layer them into an icebox cake. Flat crispy cookies are ideal for an icebox cake. No one has to know you were going for perfect chocolate chip cookies and ended up with big old cookie puddles.
Top A Sundae! I mean cookies crumbled into ice-cream with some Easy Hot Fudge Sauce. Yes please!

How To Bake Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

Now that we have covered why your batch of cookies may have failed you and spread out flat in the oven. Let me show you step by step how to make perfect chocolate chip cookies:

Step 1: Measure Your Dry Ingredients

If you can use a weighing scale for best accuracy. Otherwise make sure to read my tips on measuring flour.

You want to whisk together your flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Step 2: Cream Butter and Brown Sugar

Then you want to cream your butter and sugar together for about 3 minutes until light and fluffy. Proper creaming with properly softened butter is what helps to aerate the mixture.

The sugar basically punches holes into the butter creating air pockets, which then will fill with the gasses created with the leavening agents which can help create some lift in the cookies.

Step 3: Add Your Eggs

Once the mixture has properly creamed together, then add in your room temperature eggs, and vanilla extract. Make sure they are thoroughly mixed in. You want to make sure your eggs are room temperature so they don’t seize up the butter mixture.

Pro tip: You can place the eggs in a bowl of warm water for 10 minutes before using them to bring them to room temperature quickly.

Step 4: Add Your Dry Ingredients

Now add your dry ingredients. You want to make sure to not overmix. I like to stop the mixer right before it’s all mixed in, and then finish mixing with a spatula.

Overmixing will result in dense, tough cookies because it will create too much gluten (protein in flour that make it chewy and tough).

Step 5: Add Your Chocolate Chips

Again, I love a combo. Miniature. Regular. And chunks. The difference in sizes results in chocolate in every bite.

Step 6: Scoop The Cookies

You can make them regular sized using a 1-inch cookie scoop. Or make them large! Up to you 🙂

You can then stir in the chocolate chips at this point. Again just stir enough to mix them in and then stop mixing.

Next you need to scoop the cookies. You can make them small or big. I vote big. But that’s your call. And then comes the tough part. Chilling the dough for 24 hours. I know. You have to wait a whole day for the best cookies ever but it will be worth it.

More Cookie Troubleshooting

Sometimes cookies spreading may not be your only problem. I get it! So here are some more cookie problems and how to solve them.

Why did my cookies stick to the pan?

Make sure to line your pans with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

My cookies baked unevenly.

Your oven has hot spots. So try rotating your pans halfway through baking.

My cookies didn’t make the correct yield.

Be sure to use a cookie scoop for even scooping and correct size. This could also vary if you measure by volume and not weight.

The bottom of my cookies are dark (and/or burnt.)

Make sure to use a light colored cookie sheet and bake in the center of your oven.

My cookies are tough.

You may have overmixed the dough once you added the flour. Try mixing less. You may have added too much flour. Be sure to spoon your flour into your cup. You may have added not enough sugar or fat. Try adding a ¼ cup more to help make them tender.

My cookies are hard and dry.

You may have overbaked them. Watch that time or take them out a few minutes earlier.
You added too much flour. Be sure to spoon your flour in the cup.
You stored them improperly. Be sure to put into an airtight container.

My cookies are soft and pale in color.

You underbaked them. So bake them a few minutes longer next time. Your oven temperature was too low, so increase your temperature by 25 degrees. Try adding more sugar or a higher ratio of brown sugar. Sugar helps with browning.

My cookies are crusty (crispy, crunchy).

Your cookie dough contained too much sugar. Try reducing the sugar amount next time by ¼ cup. Or use more brown sugar than white sugar. You overbaked the cookies. Take them out a few minutes earlier next time. You used a dark cookie sheet. Be sure to use a light colored heavy duty aluminum cookie sheet.

My cookies didn’t spread enough.

Your oven temperature was too high. Try lowering the temperature 25 degrees (Fahrenheit). Use all butter. Do not chill the dough, or try letting the dough sit at room temperature for a few minutes before baking.

My cookies are crumbly.

You used too much flour. Be sure to measure your flour accurately by spooning the flour in to the cup. Or try reducing the flour by a ¼ cup. You need to add more fat to your recipe next time. Try adding a few more tablespoons next time. You didn’t let the cookies cool long enough. Cool the cookies a few minutes longer

So thank you for letting me baking nerd out on you today. Here is the list of essential cookie making tools that I love and use. These are affiliate links, and I do receive a small commission but that little bit extra that I receive costs you nothing and helps to grow this blog so thank you in advance!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes To Try

Here is my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe to try now that you’ve learned your biggest mistakes!

Comments

Donna Campbell says
December 23, 2020 at 5:50 pm

You are wonderful! I made the chocolate chip cookies exactly as the recipe says. I weighed the flours and sugars and even weighed my dough balls after I scooped it out and did one sheet at a time. In between I put the bowl back in the fridge. I can’t attach a picture or I would. I’m soooo happy with my NON-FLAT cookies!
- Heather says
  December 24, 2020 at 2:33 pm
  Aw I’m so glad the tips worked out for you Donna!!
Jules McCoy says
September 25, 2020 at 6:24 pm
Been baking my mom’s oatmeal cookie recipe for years and recently they’ve been so flat! So today after making sure I had all the measurements exactly right and with a little help from my daughter (I have my right arm in a cast) put one pan in. They IMMEDIATELY spread.
Although when beating the shortening & sugars my daughter had added the water and eggs too soon, (impatient kid!) I had a feeling it wasn’t just that. So I checked my baking soda and found it was old! Oh, and I’d also stuck them in the oven without chilling them.
But since there’s still some dough left. So we’ll see if the extra chill time will help this batch (even slightly).
Better luck next time!
- [email protected] says
  September 26, 2020 at 10:07 am
  I’m so glad you find the post helpful Jules! And yes with cookies it can take practice and hopefully chilling your cookies worked out 🙂
Steve says
June 18, 2020 at 7:52 pm
Thank You for the great tips! My cookies all of a sudden were flat? I couldn’t understand what I might be doing wrong, Because I use the same brand and careful in my measurements. You gave me the solution!!! Thank You!
Kathleen says
June 12, 2020 at 6:16 pm
I don’t have room in my fridge for 3-4 sheets of scooped cookie dough. If I’m in need of a ridiculous arm workout, will I get the same effect if I chill & then scoop?
- Heather says
  June 12, 2020 at 9:54 pm
  Totally get it! Just let the dough soften for 20-30 minutes before scooping!
Laken says
April 10, 2020 at 8:31 pm
My big old cookie puddles will be perfect next time. Thanks for the informative and funny blog post!
- Heather says
  April 12, 2020 at 3:13 pm
  Hi Laken! I’m so glad you liked the post and found it useful 🙂
David says
July 15, 2019 at 5:46 pm
Been baking chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies almost exclusively on and off for awhile now, both are coming out quite okay; that said however, your scientific sounding ‘fixes’ and tips will very likely add that extra something to my limited variety of baked cookies at present as well as to a more expanded repertoire sometime in the future (should I get that itch). Thanks.
- [email protected] says
  July 23, 2019 at 7:37 pm
  Aw thank you David! I love seeing comments like this 🙂
Cher says
May 2, 2019 at 12:53 pm
OMG, you are fricken AMAZING!! I love (and very much needed) the detail and understanding you explained here. Thank you soooo much!! Now my kids can look less disappointed when they walk into the kitchen!!
- Heather says
  May 5, 2019 at 1:33 pm
  Awwww thank you Cher!! This means so much to hear. I’m so glad you found this post helpful…and your kids will love the cookies that come out of your kitchen!
Kelly says
August 7, 2016 at 7:09 am
Love these tips!! So helpful!
- Heather says
  August 10, 2016 at 1:48 pm
  Thanks Kelly 🙂