Melted, Cold, Room-Temperature: Here’s How Butter Temperature Affects Cookies (2024)

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Melted, Cold, Room-Temperature: Here’s How Butter Temperature Affects Cookies? ›

Most cookie recipes call for beating room-temperature butter. At a temperature between 70 and 72 degrees F, butter is soft enough to incorporate air, but not so soft that it will melt immediately in the oven and result in super-thin cookies.

“Room temp butter is able to hold onto air,” Szewczyk says. “You can mechanically shove air into it by creaming. Warm butter is not able to hold onto it, so you're going to get a denser dough.” When using warmer or melted butter, cookies will struggle to lift and lighten, resulting in a cakier texture, like brownies.

If the butter isn't at room temperature, it won't blend smoothly with the sugar and you'll end up with a bunch of butter shards with crystallized sugar instead of a nice creamy whip. In other words, not softening your butter may result in your cookies going splat instead of puffing up.

Butter that is completely melted or warm to the touch won't incorporate enough air into the dough, leading to an improper rise.

Cookies made with melted butter often deflate and become denser when they cool, resulting in a perfectly cooked fudgy center — a similar textural result to brownies that get rapped (aka banged against an oven rack mid-bake to deflate them) or Sarah Kieffer's iconic pan-banging cookies that turn out pleasantly compact.

Also, underbaking them by a minute or 2 will help them retain a dense, chewy bite, explains Jenny McCoy, pastry baking arts chef-instructor at the Institute for Culinary Education in New York. Adding more moisture to your dough in the form of extra butter, egg yolks, or brown sugar will make your cookies even softer.

Cookie temperatures fluctuate, with some recipes as low as 300 degrees Fahrenheit, and a few as high as 425 degrees Fahrenheit, but most recipes land on 375 or 350 to evenly bake the entirety of the cookie.

The Problem: Your Oven Is Too Hot

If your cookies repeatedly turn out flat, no matter the recipe, chances are your oven is too hot.

If the recipe calls for softened butter and you accidentally melted butter instead of softening it, it's best that you set aside the melted butter for future use. Both kinds of butter will yield a very different final result in every baked good.

For best results when using melted butter, let it cool to room temperature before incorporating.

Does it matter if butter is melted or softened? ›

In the case of pie dough, cold butter steams in the oven, creating the air pockets that make for flaky layers; melted butter, on the other hand, creates a tender, more shortbread-like crust—buttery and delicious all the same, but firmer and more compact.

But, if you're in the heat of baking and forget to put the last little knob back in the fridge right away, that's ok—just so long as you don't let it sit out for a few extra hours. “Do not leave butter at room temperature for more than 4 hours,” says Engen.

Most cookie recipes call for beating room-temperature butter. At a temperature between 70 and 72 degrees F, butter is soft enough to incorporate air, but not so soft that it will melt immediately in the oven and result in super-thin cookies.

Flour adds fluff and texture to the cookies. Adding too little flour can cause cookies to be flat, greasy, and crispy. Most recipes assume you'll use all-purpose, but if you want a lighter, crumblier cookie texture, choose one with a lower protein content such as cake-and-pastry flour.

Flat cookies can be the result of a number of issues. Here are some of the main possibilities: OVEN TEMPERATURE: Be sure to have your oven pre-heated and ready to bake. Also be sure that the thermometer is reading correctly.

And, sometimes, melted butter actually produces a more desirable texture. If, for example, the idea of a cakey or fluffy cookie makes you cringe, seek out recipes that call for melted butter, which produces denser, lower-profile results.

The results of the three methods were pretty much the same. They all worked well and there were no issues. So, the conclusion would be that it is ok to add butter right at the beginning of the mix; and it could be softened, cold, or melted.

To prevent flat sugar cookies that spread into little puddles, it's important to make sure your butter is at a COOL room temperature. Your sticks of butter should give slightly when pressed with your finger but still hold their shape. To be precise, your butter should be 67°F.

The microwave will melt your butter rather than soften it, and that affects how the cake will turn out! Remember - you can't cream sugar with melted butter! Creaming butter and sugar together until it's light and fluffy is a basic step in a lot of baking recipes, and it's essential for a good bake!