30 minutes will do the trick if you’re simply looking to avoid your cookies spreading all over the place. If you have the luxury of chilling the dough overnight to develop flavor, go for it.
As a general rule of thumb, you should refrigerate cookie dough for at least 30 minutes and up to 24 hours. More than that and you won’t see a noticeable difference in the final product, says Haught Brown.
Chilling cookie dough before baking solidifies the fat in the cookies. As the cookies bake, the fat in the chilled cookie dough takes longer to melt than room-temperature fat. And the longer the fat remains solid, the less cookies spread.
Frozen or chilled dough will take longer than room temperature dough to bake. Just keep an eye on the cookies as they bake and remove them when they start to color around the edges and lose their raw shine in the middle. Bar Cookies: The bake time will depend on how thick the bars are, so check them often.
Many cookie recipes call for long refrigeration times, but a finicky dough or a little extra chilling time can result in dough that’s as hard as a rock, and nearly impossible to work with. Merrill recommends putting dough near a warm stove, and pounding it with a rolling pin once it starts to soften.
The longer you chill the dough, the more flavor will develop. The flour will also absorb more of the moisture so the thicker and chewier the final texture will be. After 72 hours the dough will begin to dry out and you risk it going bad.
Mistake: When cookies turn out flat, the bad guy is often butter that is too soft or even melted. This makes cookies spread. The other culprit is too little flour—don’t hold back and make sure you master measuring. … If too-little flour was the issue, try adding an additional 1 to 2 tablespoons of flour to the dough.
How long does it take for refrigerated cookie dough to come to room temperature? Once the dough has chilled, let it warm up at room temperature until it’s just pliable (about five to ten minutes); letting it get to be too warm will defeat the purpose of chilling the dough at all.
Typical cookie dough should not be that sticky, although sometimes it can be slightly sticky depending on the work environment you are in.
HEAT oven to 350°F (or 325°F for nonstick cookie sheet). PLACE cookie dough rounds about 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. BAKE 10 to 14 minutes or until light golden brown.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. … Make sure that the cookies are spaced apart to allow for spreading while baking. Place a few extra chocolate chips right on top of each cookie.
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.
Scoop and Drop Dough
Any recipe for scoop and drop cookies like oatmeal raisin cookies or chocolate chip cookies are better if you chill them overnight. It makes a better-textured cookie and the cookies with bake up thicker and chewier. However, if you are hungry and need a cookie now…
Place slightly chilled cookie dough between the two pieces of parchment paper and form the dough into rectangle using your hands. Using a rolling pin, start at the center and begin to roll the dough away from your body, rotating the dough 90 degrees every few rolls to ensure even thickness.
Tough – For rolled cookies, your dough can become “tough” by adding too much flour to your pin or counter before rolling it out. To avoid this, try using as little flour as possible while preparing to roll your dough.