The Great Cookie Experiment: Butter Temperature
Have you ever wondered if butter temperature matters when it comes to making the perfect batch of cookies? If so, check out this post!
Have you ever wondered why cookies sometimes turn out flat? Too puffy? Why they are overly brown on the bottom but still gooey inside? What type of pan or liner you should use? Or am I the only one that obsesses about such things?
In the event that there is at least one of you out there who ponders these deep questions, I decided to undertake The Great Cookie Experiment. First up was testing butter temperatures since this may be one of the most critical pieces of cookie baking. In fact, I posted on The Facebook a week or so ago that I spent the entire morning making a bazillion batches of chocolate chip cookies to test out certain theories and that in the end, they all looked the same!
Well, I am here to report that I need to withdraw that claim because upon closer inspection, I found that butter temperature did, actually, make a pretty significant difference in cookie outcome.
And I’m here to share the results with you. Stay tuned over the next few weeks as I get to the bottom of more scientific and totally important cookie conundrums (feel free to inquire about certain cookie problems in the comments and I’ll add them to my to-test list!).
First of all, for the following scientific report, there are a few givens:
1) We are using a recipe that calls for room temperature or softened butter. Even though some cookie recipes call for melted butter (in fact, my personal favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe calls for melted butter), those recipes are void for these test results because they have been created based on melted butter as the base. My test was run for cookies calling for softened butter, which most do.
2) We are using the scoop and sweep flour method. The way flour is measured can significantly impact results! Read more about that fascinating topic here.
3) We are using a basic chocolate chip cookie recipe that I’ll provide at the end of this post.
4) Throughout this post, I’ll be using very technical terms for the butter temperature as follows:
Cool Room Temperature Butter: means you can push your finger gently into the butter to make an indentation but it’s not so soft that your finger easily slides through the entire stick. Make Sense?
Way Too Soft Butter: means your butter is, um, way too soft. It might even have tiny melty spots if you tried to soften too aggressively in the microwave (ahem, which I never do, right!). Your finger will easily slide through the stick of very mushy butter.
Melted Butter: means your butter is melted. Wow. These are difficult concepts, I know.
You can see in the picture below how the cookie batters already look quite different. This is right after the eggs and vanilla have been added and beaten into the batter. Please forgive the different bowl size. My life has only so many Pyrex bowls.
Now behold a bird’s eye view of the batter after the dry ingredients and chocolate chips have been added. Pretty easy to tell how the batters are different based on the butter, right?
After the cookies are baked, the differences are pretty obvious (even though I failed to recognize them in my hasty FB post of yesterweek).
The first cookie with cool room temperature butter is picture perfect. It baked evenly and held it’s shape, flattening beautifully without overspreading.
The way too soft butter cookie doesn’t look too shabby but if you look closely, you’ll notice that it’s a bit doughier and slightly greasier than the cool room temp butter cookie, although it still held it’s shape pretty well.
The melted butter cookie? Misshapen and just not up to par with the others in looks. In taste it wasn’t too far off, but like the way too soft butter cookie, it was greasier in texture and too underdone in the center even though the edges and bottom were browned (and just so you know, I eat all cookies equally so no cookies were harmed or thrown away due to superficial imperfections).
Here’s an up close and personal look at the melted butter cookie. Hardly round, and while you can’t see it, much flatter than the other cookies.
Oh, and please disregard my chipped mini platter. Totally not worth photoshopping out. It’s kind of a peek into my real life: chipped platters, misshapen cookies and all. Welcome to my world!
The way too soft butter cookie…pretty good except for the underdone middle and slightly greasy taste/texture.
And finally, the star. Cool, room temperature butter produced the prettiest cookie with the very best texture.
So there you have it: the results of the 1st installment of The Great Cookie Experiment! I’ll be bringing you other details soon like what to line the pans with (parchment, silpat or lightly greased) along with a few other good tips. In the meantime, here’s the cookie recipe I used and again, feel free to leave any questions/feedback in the comments!
Happy Cookie Baking!
Basic Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe {For The Great Cookie Experiment}
Ingredients
- 1 cup (227 g) butter, cool room temperature
- 1 cup (212 g) granulated sugar
- 1 cup (212 g) packed light brown sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 3 ½ cups (497 g) flour
- 2 cups (340 g) chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and both sugars together until well mixed.
- Add eggs and mix for 2-3 minutes, until the batter is light in color. Add salt, vanilla, baking soda and mix. Add flour and chocolate chips together and mix until combined.
- Drop cookie batter by rounded tablespoon onto parchment paper or silpat lined baking sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly golden around edges but still soft in the center.
Recipe Source: adapted from this recipe
187 Comments on “The Great Cookie Experiment: Butter Temperature”
Yes, cool room temp is the way for these cookies, thank you. Please tell me- how do you think the butter in biscotti should be? My guess is to follow what you just discovered concerning the cookies. What do you think?
I only make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies because I have never made a decent chocolate chip cookie ……. until now!
I made your soft chocolate chip cookie and it matched your picture to a T! They are perfect, beautiful to look at and delicious per my husband. (I’m allergic to Fructans so I can’t eat them.).
My cookies always come out fluffy in texture. If that makes sense? I follow the directions or at least I think I do. But can never get chewy cookies. Any ideas why this might happen?
Sometimes that can happen if the cookie dough is overmixed. Once you add the dry ingredients, don’t over mix.
My husband just sent me a cookie recipe that called for cold butter cut in like you would pastry dough and you add eggs last, which hurts my brains! Lol. And more looking for your opinion on technique do you think there would be a big difference in using cold butter in the way mentioned above versus the cookie cutter butter cookie type method with just freezing the dough?
You can use cold butter, but you have to mix it for 6-8 minutes or longer at the beginning so it’s smooth and creamy before adding other ingredients. Otherwise the cookie dough doesn’t work out
Have you seen Fleursetsel cookies on Instagram? The cookies look like mini flying saucers. A rim on the edge and puffy in the middle. Any idea how to get that shape and hold during baking? I’ve tried countless bakes to try to get it and nope they flatten. Cold butter, soft butter, refrigerate them, freeze them…you name it, I can’t figure it out! Any ideas? Thanks
The dough is amazing, but I really don’t know about that baking duration. Mines are in the oven for 20 minutes and they’re still white.
Did you ever use a thermometer to test the ideal temperature of cool room temperature butter? An actual temperature would be very useful instead of guessing what cool room temperature means.
How would chilling the dough for 30 – 60 minutes before baking affect the final results?
melt your butter and age your dough for couple days in the fridge (cut a ball off for instant fix)
you will get a perfect cookie
Hi Mel! Thanks for doing this experiment! I have a question about brown butter cookies, my latest obsession. Since it is melted already, is there any benefit to letting it come back to solid form before using in a cookie recipe? I used it melted and cooled-to-touch brown butter, baked from cold (refrigerated overnight) but found my cookies too flat and greasy and ended up adding a little flour to subsequent batches which helped. But I do wonder about just resolidifying the butter and creaming it in the way I normally make cookies.
Yes, you can definitely let the butter firm up after browning and use it like you would in cookies that call for softened butter (room temperature). I find it best to use it melted in recipes that already call for melted butter. But if a recipe calls for softened butter, I let the brown butter solidify before using.
I always found having the sugar and butter sit in the bowl for 20 mins before beating with mixer makes it dissolve better.
I bake cookies constantly so o consider myself very experienced. Every time I made any chocolate chip cookie recipe with room temperature butter the texture and shape are perfect. Each time I used a recipe w melted butter my cookies are kind of greasy and never achieve the right texture, any idea what I am doing wrong. I was convinced refrigerating the dough overnight would take care of the issue, but I still ended up w cookies that were slightly greasy in texture.
Where did the recipe go from this post? It’s my favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe ever! It used to be at the end of this post.
Hi,
I have been interested in melted vs. creamed butter dough, because the ingredients come together quicker with melted butter. I do not care for cake-like cookies that are the result of over-mixing, so I used melted butter, mixed, then refrigerated the dough a few hours. Came our fairly soft in the middle with crispy edges. Yum.
Love it!
Thank you so much for posting this! I meant to “warm up” my ice cold butter in the microwave and completed meted it. Since it’s all I had in the house I used it anyway but was wondering how badly it would effect the outcome. Very good article.
Oh my gosh 1 cup of butter?! I thought that was bit mych but followed the recipie. Despite having used the butter almost straight out of the fridge the cookie dough ended up super gooey! So gooey that I couldn’t even form the rounded cookie balls to put on the baking sheet. They are in the oven now but they look awful. I honestly give up on baking cookies. I have tried many times and I though the butter component was going to be the problem fixer. Nope. Absolutely awful.
FYI, you are NOT supposed to form these into balls. As it says in the recipe: “DROP cookie batter by rounded tablespoon onto parchment paper or silpat lined baking sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly golden around edges but still soft in the center.” I just use a teaspoon and a knife and scoop out the dough and swipe it onto the cookie sheet. By handling the dough when you tried rolling them into balls, you probably warmed up the butter in the dough too much which then caused them to spread too much when baked. I also never line my baking sheets although it probably makes clean-up much easier. Chocolate chip cookies are “drop cookies”. Peanut butter cookies are an example of “molded cookies” which means you do mold them into ball shapes. Molded cookies have a stiffer dough. Hope this helps you!
I put flour on my hands to round them in balls
If too gooey, did you refrigerate it?
You didn’t even follow the instructions. Good thing the author isn’t selling something you can rate because people like you don’t follow directions then want to rate bad.
This was exactly what I was looking for! Thanks!
Great minds think a like. Years ago my Mom didn’t like how the toll house recipe spread. So she experimented and came up with her own which is very similar to yours. They are amazing! I think the difference in the amounts (yours are about 2/3 – 3/4 of everything else) of everything but the butter makes my Mom’s a little more chewier on the inside. I bet your cookies are every bit as awesome as my Mom’s. I never could figure out what was the best temp for the butter. Thanks for answering that questions.
I’m glad this helped! Your Mom’s cookie recipe sounds awesome.
This was a great experiment for my Science Fair Project. The cookies turned out fantastic, though the only downside was that the recipe that used melted butter made the cookies have a slightly greasy texture. I would highly recommend this experiment for a Science Fair Project!!
I also did this for my science fair project! I used the toll house recipe and they were barely greasy. I also used 1/2 melted butter and that was everyone’s favorite.
I made the Basic Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe today, using the room softened butter. The first thing I noticed is the recipe calls for 1.5 cups more flour than the Nestles Toll House one for the same amount of butter so I wasn’t sure if it was a mis-print. I like my cookies a little bit more chewy with crispy edges and these were more “cakey”. So the next time I make these I’ll try cutting the flour back by 1/2 cup or so. Other than that these turned out very good!
Hi there! My mom taught me that butter would come to the perfect temperature in the mixer. Take it out of the fridge, put in the mixing bowl before any other ingredients, mix with the beater attachment until smooth. Maybe takes a minute. My recipes come out perfect every time! I guess this method turns it into cold-room butter.
Help. I’ve followed this recipe three time now and they aren’t flattening out and they don’t even taste like cookies. Mine are ending up puffy. I don’t have the finest ingredients (store brands) but i’m following each step and using a hand mixer. What do you think is going wrong?
I would suggest cutting down the flour by 1/4 cup or so.
Thank you!!! I loved your analysis, with pictures of the 3 batters and 3 cookies! Brilliant! My cookies never come out right but now- WOW! I’m a fan of the melted butter type so I’m glad to know how to make them come out that way.
P. S. I loved your disclaimer about not harming or throwing away any misshapen cookies!
What was the temperature of the ideal room temperature butter?
Made chocolate chip cookies tonite with melted butter and they came out cakey. Not my favorite texture for a cookie. Thought mb the melted butter did this?
Hi if recipe calls for eggs like this one, should it be room temp or is it ok to use cold eggs?
Thanks.
I usually recommend doing what the recipe says. If it doesn’t specify, cold eggs should be fine.
I think this is where I’ve been messing up my cookies. I thought somewhere I learned to always use room temp eggs for baking, but I think it is making my cookies spread too much. Either that or the fact that I cut butter in to slices before adding in the bowl.
As probably most I found this article because I’ve been having problems with the consistency in my cookies. I mix by hand and use Irish grass fed butter and was wondering if that was a factor.
I was actually kind of astonished by your results. Cookies falling are due to them not being able to maintain their structure due to poor gluten formation and not being able to trap the gasses while cooling. One would think that coldness of the butter would inhibit the gluten bonds, but maybe it’s actually the fat of the butter. Egg yolks are 90% water, and the yolks 50%, with water being necessary for gluten bonding. Doing a bit of searching I found this: http://www.cookingscienceguy.com/pages/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Explaining-Gluten.pdf
“Fat, oil, emulsifiers, and sugars tenderize dough. Fat and emulsifiers coat proteins reducing hydration and gluten development (like oil coating spaghetti). Shortening shortens gluten strands producing more tender baked goods. Sugar competes for water reducing protein hydration and gluten development.”
I loved it so much. After the project was finished, I munched on some cookies as well.
Great! Loved it. Amazing results. Kid’s loved it! Just fabulous!
Hey Mel! Thanks sooo much for posting this amazing cookie idea!
My kid’s loved it, I loved it. It’s just a fun idea for the whole family. Thank you for making this Science Fair Project idea. We all are amazed how well it worked. SOOO Amazing! 🙂
I think it was a great experiment. It was fun and delicious.
I LOVE CCC! They are my happy place and I found my fav recipe on Pinterest. It’s called the worst CCC ever. It calls for maple syrup and melted butter. I prefer my cookies with melted butter them refrigerated. I have read somewhere that melted butter produces cheesier cookies and that’s how I like mine:) have you ever heard this?
My favorite chocolate chip recipe (or one of them) uses melted butter; I like them that way, too!
did you ever test or think about testing COLD butter? Or just the softened and melted?
Hi Mel!
My mom uses your site ALL the time! We are always having amazing new dinners and desserts!
Anyway, I am doing a science fair project on how the temperature of butter affects my cookies. This experiment of yours is amazing and I will definitely be returning to it for advise. It is just what I need, thanks!
Thanks so much for posting this!!
There’s lots of factors that go into how cookies come out. One recipe I use, by Nigella comes out rather cake like and fluffy despite being melted butter. Maybe that is due to the 1 part butter 2 part flour ratio.
The softness of the butter is an interesting experiment. I am also a ccc perfectionist and am constantly trying to find the best cookie recipe for where I live. The problem that I have is that when I live in an area of about 4500 ft. I make altitude adjustments on the recipes and sometimes the cookies turn out good and other times not as much. What elevation was this recipe created for? Do I need to make any adjustments to the recipe for the altitude and still get a cookie to come out soft, not flat and stay soft for several days afterwards? I would be interested in hearing your experienced opinions on this.
Hi Sheila – this experiment was done at about 2,800 feet. I recommend my readers who live at high elevation to google or search for tips on high altitude baking – I’m not an expert in that area (although I have heard that adding a few tablespoons extra flour to baked goods can help).
Nevermind, kept reading through your posts and I think I found my issue 😛 I’ll start measuring flour properly 😉
I tried baking a simple sugar cookie yesterday. Based on your experiment, my cookies shouldn’t have turned out flat, but they did (like really flat – even though butter was at the correct temperature). I tried rolling the dough and chilling overnight before baking and the cookies turned out nice and thick. Is it also possible that I didn’t have enough flour in my dough?
Hi,
Why would the butter temperature affect why the cookies were undercooked in the middle?
That’s exactly what I was looking for!
All recipes I find uses melted butter, and the results are usually the “melted butter” or sometimes, when I “got lucky”, the “way too soft butter” cookies.
I was trying to figure out what I was doing wrong, because I could see it was something wrong in the early stages of the process.
Gonna try again, now with the tips you provided.
Thank you 🙂
So, my question is: what is the best way to soften butter? Often times I have used a microwave at very short intervals, constantly checking to make sure it didn’t melt too quickly. However, we no longer own a microwave. Sometimes you just can’t wait several hours for butter to soften at room temperature! Any suggestions?
I saw a good tip somewhere the other day to put the wrapped stick of butter in a bowl of warm water. Since butter is a fat – any droplets of water inside should roll right off.
will chilling the cookie dough before baking change anything related to diff temps of butter? i always chill the trays for 10 min bef baking.. so they wont spread too much.
My son is doing a science project about states of butter and how they affect cookies. I am baffled by our results. I totally expected the melted butter to give a flatter cookie, however, the chilled butter (straight from the fridge) yielded the flattest cookie. I have read about the science behind cookies and I can’t figure out why this happened!
Thank you for taking the time to provide this valuable cookie baking information. Now I know why my dough is just not right. I microwaved the butter! I’ve written down the most important parts of your information on a piece of paper and will tape it in my cupboard for future reference.
Thank you so much!! This is very helpful. I’ll spend some time looking for the New York Times article and she’ll love a video to watch. Thank you. I’ll let you know how the science fair goes…
Chris-
I found this video very helpful and approachable when I too was trying to determine “WHY”.
Check it out!:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6wpNhyreDE
Can you or anyone on here explain “WHY” the cookies come out differently? My 9yr old is doing this for her science fair and I’m/we are having a hard time finding out “WHY” they come out differently. We just don’t understand it.
Chris –
There was a New York Times article several years ago detailing the “WHY” of this. (It was a lengthy article, so it may have been in their magazine section.) I remember the article talking about the science of it. Something happens to butter at 86 degrees. It undergoes chemical change of some sort. (Chemical rather than physical because if you get it colder again it’s not the same at the molecular level. And anyone who has done this knows it’s just not the same…)
Also, when working with cookies, the first step is to cream the butter and the sugar. When you do this, the sugar breaks down the butter in a way that leads it to be fluffier when butter is colder. It gives it tiny little “air bubbles” which made your cookie puffier rather than a thin cookie with melted butter.
I’m not a scientist so I hope that all made sense. I would try and look up the NY Times article. It was a fascinating read and would probably answer most of your questions.
would this be it??
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/17/dining/17bake.html
Just real quick
Great effort on this, I just found this while searching what I thought was going to be a fruitless google search
Nice website
I am so glad I came across your website! I was making squares with a shortbread crust & was trying to warm the butter in the oven. I got distracted & the butter melted. I added the other ingredients & it turned into a goopy dough. I googled salvaging a crust & came across your test results with the cookies done with butter 3 ways. I decided to take a chance & go ahead with the “crust” the way it was. I poured it into a pan, refrigerated it, then baked it & the squares turned out just perfectly !
This was amazing. Thank you.
please, the cookie with cool romm butter becomes soft in the middle? i like cookies soft.
Hello~ Mel:
I have been being so curious about this for a long time.
Thx for your experiment.
But I wanna know more about how they taste！
Thanks :))
The dough will shape itself into a nice cookie without any handling on your part. Just get the lump onto the baking sheet. I hope your experiment turns out better this time. What an experiment!
I just did this with my daughter. Like Taylor all our cookies came out about the same! We just dropped them onto the cookie sheet with a scoop. The doughs did look different in stickiness, but cooked they all held their shapes and looked the same! Very interesting. My daughter was a little bumbed that there wasn’t a difference like we thought, however, they are all very tasty! We made them for our family reunion. I have always wondered if the butter temp really mattered. We might try again, but with a different recipe, or maybe not!
Hi Mel!
I will admit, when I was rolling the cookie dough into balls it wasn’t a quick one second roll. Since I was doing this experiment for a science project, I wanted each of the batches to start off with cookie dough balls the exact same size, so I thought rolling them into perfect balls similar in diameter would help control the variables. I am going to duplicate this experiment but this time I will not roll the dough into balls by hand. Hopefully this time I get some conclusive results. 🙂
It’s the same reason you handle pie dough as little as possible. Mel the Great will know more. I’m sure she’s a scientist when it comes to food, but the more we handle dough with wheat flour, the more the gluten has an effect. I won’t mix cookie dough with a mixer for this reason — I do it by hand. Rolling the dough, even that small amount, affects the wheat and the butter. At least, that’s been my experience. I loved this experiment Mel did with the butter and my practical experience over the years has been the same.
Hi Taylor (and Julie!) – I think Julie might be on to something with the rolling of the dough, although I have to admit that when I spoon out my tablespoon-sized balls of dough with my cookie scoop, I usually give them a quick (as in 1-2 seconds) roll in my hands to make them perfectly round (I did that with this experiment) so I think for the dough to be really affected, you’d have to be scooping it out of the bowl with your hands and rolling it for much longer than I do – all of which will feed some of your body warmth into the cookie dough and like Julie said, that can affect butter temperature, etc. If it’s just a quick roll, I’m not sure it would be the only factor for your results. The only real way to test, though, would be if you made another batch exactly the same but didn’t roll the dough balls by hand (used a cookie scoop of two spoons) and compare the results.
Really? I had no idea that handling the dough by hand could affect a cookies outcome. Knowing this really explains allot. Do you have any idea why this would have such an impact? I am really interested in find out.
It was a mystery until you said you rolled the cookie dough into balls. Any handling of dough affects the dough itself, and this would have had a big effect, overruling any of the subtleties of the butter.
Ohhh, I was also rolling the cookie dough and the cookies came out different than ever before. I’m going to try dropping them on the pan next time like you suggested below. Thanks for the tip! 🙂
Hi Mel!
I agree this sure is strange! It sure has kept my mind busy, trying to think of possibly variables that could have cause each batch to turn out the same. I didn’t microwave my butter, instead I heated it up in a sauce pan (not too sure if this would cause much change). I also didn’t grease, or line my baking sheet with parchment paper. Instead I just rolled my cookie dough into balls by hand, and placed them on the plain baking sheet. In your opinion do you think not greasing or lining your baking sheet would make a significant difference. Or possibly could the reason be that I rolled the cookie dough into balls by hand?
Hi Mel!
I tried this experiment myself for a science project, yet, every batch turned out the same. Every batch came out with cookies that were round, full and had held there shape. I followed your recipe, so I am very curious as to what would have caused these strange results. Did you microwave your butter? & would stirring in ingredients by hand change the outcomes? I am looking forward to hearing back from you:)
Hi Taylor – hmmm, that’s kind of strange! Although the differences are subtle, they should be apparent (like shown in the pictures in this post). I’m not sure if stirring ingredients by hand would make a difference but it very well could, I suppose, since a mixer incorporates at a totally different speed. I did microwave my butter. Did you?
Very helpful post, along with your post about chilling cookie dough! Thanks for sharing 🙂
What about chilled butter?
I know this was posted quite a few months ago and you may have even done it by now, but I’d love to see the differences baking soda makes! I’ve recipes that call for as little as 1/2 tsp baking soda and that’s it & then some that call for more or even baking soda & baking powder together! Thanks!
I am so late to the party but what was the texture of the cookie the next day? All my cookies are great out of the oven but the next day they are rock hard.
Lorraine – these cookies stay soft for 1-2 days (even longer although the texture dries out a bit).
THANK YOU FOR THIS POST! I am in the process of making sugar cookies from scratch for the first time, and the dough is MUCH stickier than in the pictures (stupid Pinterest!). Now I’m thinking it was because I tried to take advantage of my daughters nap time and microwaved my butter on half power. My butter was like your middle option, I thought “I’m sure its fine” but it stuck everywhere! I’m currently waiting for it to chill and hopefully that will bring it back to normal!
This makes me want to do my own experiment, mainly because whenever I make cookies with cold-from-fridge butter and eggs and bake them right away, they -still- look like that melted butter picture. Which makes me wonder what they’d look like if I melted the butter. O.O
(The only way I’ve been able to get cookies that look like the perfectly softened butter cookie is to decrease the butter by half and double the amount of flour. It’s ridiculous.)
First off I just want to say that I absolutely love your website! It’s helped me with meal planning for the hubby and two toddlers for a while now!
I love your cookie experiment posts! My husband refuses to eat any kind of pie or cake or brownie (blasphemy I know, I find myself quite often baking pans of brownies and then eating the whole pan by myself) but he will eat Choc. Chip cookies and so I’ve proceeded to make them at least once a week for about a year now. We really love your “perfect chocolate chip cookie” that uses melted butter because I often struggle with soft butter recipes and those ones turn out every time. But I recently tried a few soft butter cookie recipes that caught my attention and so far none of them have turned out. I’ll admit I’ve made batches and then hid them in kitchen cupboards to eat while no ones around because even though the taste was phenomenal, I just couldn’t let anyone else see how misshapen they were. So my question is how long do you generally cream your butter and sugar for? I know over beating can ruin the cookie dough, but I’ve also read in a few places that they should be beaten together for 5 to 10 minutes in a kitchen aid (which sounds like a long time to me). I know everything I read simply says “beat until light and fluffy” but I’m a bit of a perfectionist so I would love your opinion on a little bit of a more detailed instruction. 🙂
Hi Leah – I only beat my butter and sugar together for probably 1-2 minutes…the real trick, I think, is beating it for a full 3-4 minutes after you add the eggs. The batter will turn a noticeably lighter color. My aunt, who is a cookie master, swears beating it for that long after adding the eggs makes for the best cookies. Good luck!
Oh, I see now. Sorry, I guess I didn’t understand. Yes, it is very important to follow recipes! Especially the butter part of recipes.
I think this is a fun experiment and it’s fun to see the results but it’s a flawed experiment. If this original recipe calls for softened butter then of course that is how it is going to turn out best. Using a different temperature of butter isn’t going to come out quite right. My favorite recipe uses melted butter but they never come out flat because that is what the recipe calls for. I love using melted butter because it makes the cookies so chewy! But regardless, I love your blog and think experiments are always fun!
Hey Becky – I get what you are saying (my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe starts with melted butter, too) but my point in running this experiment was largely to show that butter temperature does make a difference and that the recipe instructions should be heeded – as in, if a recipe calls for softened butter, melted butter won’t yield the same results. Surprisingly, and I hear this a lot from readers, many people disregard the “softened butter” part or don’t know exactly how soft to get the butter and just go ahead and melt it. So that’s basically why I wanted to show how a cookie that is supposed to be made with softened butter will look different with the varying butter temps. 🙂
Mel,
I tried this cookie recipe along with others and for unknown reasons to me my cookies seem to turn into cookie puffs, I’ve tried different methods/cookie dough size although they taste right yet they always turn puffy and not so cookie like. Any suggestions or how do you make such beauties?
Hi Roxy – have you looked at my post on measuring flour (scoop and sweep method)? That will make a huge difference in cookie outcome. If you are using that method, you might try adding even slightly less flour. Sounds like a bit too much flour is causing your cookies to stay puffed.
What a great experiment! After getting into the Joanne Fluke Cookie Jar mystery series, and noticing her recipes called for melted butter the majority of the time and having great success with her recipes, I started using melted butter the majority of the time in my baking too. I’ve found that as long as you chill the dough about an hour prior to baking, melting the butter results in cookies that are just as uniform, thick and chewy as those made with softened butter. This was a revelation to me because I live in the foothills in a very hard-to-heat home that is mostly way to cold to obtain properly softened butter in the winter and this has made it possible for me to whip up a batch of delectable, comforting cookies any time I want. Thanks for taking this on and sharing it with us!
Aimee, hmmm, I don’t melt the butter in those cookies! My guess is you might need to use a bit less flour. Even a 1/4 cup difference and I bet it will help. Just a thought!
Ok…..so I may be on to something that has bothered me forever. Everytime I make your peanut butter choc chip cookies (I think they are in your best recipes) they never flatten out like normal cookies or like your photo of them. Do you melt your butter in that recipe or make it super duper soft? Just curious. They are still amazingly delicious but are not in the presentation category if you know what I mean. They stay almost in the shape of my cookie scooper. Drives me bonkers!
Thank you for this! I am a cookie-holic, although usually not organized enough to get my butter out early enough to soften, so I try to soften it in the microwave. More often than not it gets that melty spot in the middle. I am going to be more aware of my butter temperature from now on!
Hi Mel, I made these this morning to share with a generous group of volunteers who came over to help paint our house! They all loved them! 🙂 You don’t by any chance have a weight measurement for the flour in this, do you? Especially with 3 1/2 cups, there’s quite a bit of room for variation in the amount. My cookies came out a little flatter than yours look like, even though I followed the recipe exactly, and I’m wondering if it’s because mine had a tad less flour.
Michelle – have you seen my post on measuring flour? I use the scoop and sweep method but each cup of flour should weigh between five and 5 1/4 ounces.
I know I am the 86th commenter, but my question is LIFE OR DEATH. Are there ANY techniques that would make a CCC made without brown sugar successful? I can NOT for the life of me find brown sugar in Mexico. Whave piloncillo , which is not the same. Also, I cant find molasses to make my own brown sugar.
So, thoughts? Pllllllease help me, I miss CCC soooo badly.
Hi Tricia – I don’t know of any other good subs for brown sugar other than the ol’ molasses trick. All white sugar will definitely make the cookies less chewy – have you tried googling any other substitutions for brown sugar?
Thank you! You just answered one of my life’s great baking mystery questions!
When you test pans, try a baking stone. It’s my personal favorite way to bake cookies. Not too brown on the bottom, which makes for a softer cookie.
I always follow nancy silverton´s advice for room temp butter: soft but not greasy. There really IS a big difference in the cookies. And I can just imagine your kitchen…and your happy kids who had a ton of batches to `taste´. It´s a good thing you have them to eat all that sweet stuff!
Years ago I learned that making cookies with room temperature butter made a huge difference so seeing your experiment was quite validating to me. A long time ago, quite by accident, while trying to stay busy and listen to someone on the telephone who needed to talk, I made my chocolate chip cookies by hand. Completely by hand — just a wooden spoon. What a difference! I often share my cookie recipe but people complain that theirs never taste the same as mine. I ask if they used a mixer and they always say, “of course,” as though skipping that part of my recipe was optional. I’d be interested if you test this out…
You need to read this recipe from the New York Times about the perfect temperature for butter. Apparently, the perfect temp for butter is 65 degrees. Who knew? It also goes into different types of butter. (Did you know that European butter is 82% fat?) I read this YEARS ago, and I still remembered it so well, I had to google it after reading your post.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/17/dining/17bake.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
OK, I sound like a nerd, but that’s OK. 🙂
Do you chill your dough before baking or do you immediately start baking the cookies after mixing all the ingredients?
Michelle – I don’t chill my dough because I usually want cookies right.this.very.minute and haven’t planned ahead but I’ve added to my list of things to experiment with.
This is such a great experiment. I’ve always wondered if it really makes a difference. I guess it really does.
Have you noticed the same difference with your whole wheat chocolate chip cookie recipe?
Emily – yes, for the most part. I always use cool room temp butter for those cookies or else, because of the oats in the recipe, I find they spread too much.
Okay, I know I am a crazy cookie lady when I realize that yes I read the entire post and loved it and now need to conduct my own experiment. Thank you
Mel, This is very interesting! I’m glad you posted. And I’m also glad to see we are CCC Soul Sisters by going the America’s Test Kitchen Perfect CCC route. That’s my tried and true cookie and anyone who has eaten them agrees they are THE BEST! I mean, really, is there a better cookie out there? I think not!
is it possible to overmix the butter when creaming it with the sugars?
My daughter did this experiment with butter temperature and measured cookie diameter for her 6th grade science project – she got the same results !!
Great post
I like the middle one. First one is a little too thick and puffy and last one is too flat.
Love this post. I’ve got to say though, the cookie that looks the best to me is the melted butter version. So this is helpful to me since now I know I should always melt the butter to get the type of cookie I like.
Thank you so much for doing this. I have seriously wanted to ask you how you always get your cookies so beautiful and puffy. Mine are always flat. Can’t wait to see the results of your other experiments. Thanks again.
LOVE this concept!! I am most interested in seeing the test of the temperature of the dough AFTER it is all mixed. ex: make the cookie dough, all with the perfectly softened butter, and then bake one batch right away, refridge one batch for an hour and then maybe one for longer or something like that. I really wish I was one of your neighbors or local friends….. they must be getting lots of cookies right now :o)
I use the crisco sticks – they stay in the cupboard, so are always room temp ;-). I also use room temp eggs (or warm them up in warm water if I don’t remember to take them out earlier). More brown sugar than white (1 1/2 c. brown, 1/2 c white) and extra vanilla (2 tsp). Also, just a *bit* more flour than called for. Makes a great cookie 🙂
FABULOUS idea, mel! these results are not surprising, but sadly, i learned that the hard way rather than finding out via wonderfully-written blog post. 🙂
A few years ago, I read a NYT article about a cookie shop in NY that refrigerates their cookie dough for 72 hrs after mixing, and before baking. They said this allowed the flavors to meld properly, and significantly changed the resulting texture of the cookie. I would assume that no matter what sort of butter you use, what what mixing stye, refrigeration can save almost any cookie dough and also firm up too soft butter in the dough.
I always chill my dough for at least a day before baking, but I have never done side by side tests to see if it really makes a difference. I also use 100% brown sugar and 100% whole wheat flour (soft white wheat) which results is a darker cookie, but a still delicious, soft-in-all-the-right-places cookie. Another cookie-making tip I have learned is to shape all the dough into balls (the silicone cookie scoops sold at the registers at Bed Bath and Beyond are fabulous), freeze any extra balls on a cookie sheet, then keep them stored in a ziploc bag in the freezer until you want to bake them. Then those who love raw cookie dough can have their fix any time, and when you need a quick dessert requiring no prep work, dishes or forethought, viola. No need to thaw them, you just add about 2-3 minutes to the baking time. They will bake much taller straight out of the freezer.
Wow, cookies are important!
This is very interesting! Adding 2 Tsp of cornstarch to the dough makes for nice soft cookies (never, ever, crispy). It might be fun to experiment with that as well.
I don’t have a stand mixer and so I’ve always wondered if that makes a difference. My cookies always look like #3 and I’ve heard over mixing can make them greasy, but is there a way to mix it all well without a mixer and have them not turn out flat?
Mel, I’m wondering if you ever bake your cookies on stoneware? I sell Pampered Chef and I often get asked the question if cookies turn out flatter on stoneware. I only use my stoneware for cookies. I’ve never had a cookie experiment, but maybe I should do that:) The butter thing was super helpful! Thanks!
I love this post and I’m sending it to all the bakers and cookie lovers I know! Thank you for breaking this all down for us. I look forward to many more experiments (and cookies!) in the future! : )
I made your Perfect Chocolate Chip cookies tonight for the first time. Just as I finished making the dough exactly according to your instructions, my husband wanted me to go for a run with him. So the cookie dough set on my counter for 75 minutes until I got back from a run. I then baked them in the toaster oven because today’s temperature was 90 degrees. They turned out wonderful and were delicious. I’m looking forward to reading your continuing posts concerning cookie making. I continually refer to your bread making advice and tutorials. They have helped me tremendously in bread making. Your French Bread rolls are now a family favorite in this household.
I appreciate all the cookie baking instructions (right down to the scoop & sweep method!) I’ve always had problems with my cookies. I just bought some silicone baking mats to try. I NEED to make a perfect cookie… It can’t be that difficult, can it? Also, I am curious to know that when removing cookies from the oven, how long should they sit in the pan before removing them to the cooling rack? Thanks Mel, we’re missing you in these parts!
This is a great post! I’ve always been curious about the effect of using the different temp butters and then refrigerating the dough. As in, if you made cookies with melted butter, but then refrigerated the dough for several hours, would they taste the same as batter than had been prepared with cool, room temp butter and also refrigerated?
This is so interesting! I’ve always used room temperature butter when making cookies, so I like seeing the actual difference. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for making this small experiment. I am confused in a kitchen from time to time and butter’s temperature used to confuse me as well 🙂
Here’s a test I’d love to see:
I don’t like to mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Here’s what I always do:
After creaming the butter/sugars and mixing in eggs/vanilla, I mix the salt/baking soda/powder into the creamed mixture. After it’s thoroughly mixed, I add the flour. This always works for me, but I’ve always wondered if they would turn out better adding the dry ingredients the “traditional” way. Never wondered enough to make me want to dirty an extra bowl though. Like I said, I’m lazy.
Is it wrong that I thought about dipping that last cookie into the melted butter?
I have been eyeing this recipe for awhile, wondering about all her tips, particularly the cornstarch. What do you think? http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2013/05/13/chewy-chocolate-chunk-cookies/
Ok, I have several responses to some of your questions. For those wondering about future tests (different flours, sugar ratios, baking pans, resting/chilling time, etc.), I’ve added those to my experiment list. Here’s to 500 more batches of chocolate chip cookies in my near future! For those of you asking questions related to this post, here you go:
Several asked about shortening and without sounding like a snob, except for a few really, really old recipes on my site and the classic snickerdoodle, I don’t use shortening in chocolate chip cookies (and most others) because a) the pure, beautiful taste of butter just can’t be beat, b) I don’t like the greasy texture shortening imparts and c) I’ve never had trouble making a chocolate chip cookie that doesn’t spread with butter which is often why people turn to shortening.
Now, on to the cool room temperature butter. Many of you asked how long to get it perfectly that way. As you can understand that completely depends on the temperature of your kitchen but generally on a day when my kitchen is around 70 degrees (not 85 degrees like it is now – eek!), I leave the butter out for 45 minutes to an hour and it’s just about perfect.
Katherine – remember that this post is dedicated to cookies that start out with softened butter. My perfect cookie recipe was tested and tried (by America’s Test Kitchen) using melted butter so it doesn’t apply at all to this post. Melted butter in that recipe will be completely different than using melted butter in the recipe in this post (you can see how the amounts of both recipes differ based on how they were developed). So the melted butter Perfect Chocolate Chip cookies are still my faves but because so many other cookie recipes call for softened butter, I wanted to experiment.
As for brand of butter, I’m not exclusive, but usually buy Sam’s Club brand, Land O’ Lakes or Crystal Farms but I’ve been known to grab the generic too. And although it will make many of you faint, I never use unsalted butter. It just doesn’t make enough difference to me in taste/texture/whatever to keep it on hand.
Is that it? If I missed something, let me know!
Awesome insights…..thank you for taking the time to do this!
Love this idea! What about different ratios of brown vs. white sugar??
Very interesting. I’m also curious to see what difference using cold butter makes. Sometimes I’m lazy and just put cubed up cold butter into the mixer and beat it until it’s smooth and then continue on with the recipe.
Question. I usually use room temp butter which to me would run between cool room temp and way to soft butter. I know it would depend on the day but how long do you leave butter out to justify cool room temp?
When I saw this post, I couldn’t wait to read it because my ccc always turn out different every time. I am pretty sure you have just solved my problem. I am always changing how much I warm up my butter each time. In all honesty though I would have to say that I don’t care for ccc unless they are the super flat ones. On the other hand, my husband likes them fluffy. So, I will forever melt the butter all the way so I can have the cookies all to myself.
This means I’m going to have to be more patient and not microwave my butter. My son always said he could tell when I was in a hurry to make the cookies. I guess he wasn’t just saying that.
What is your experience with baking stones? I use those exclusively in all of my baking (cookies, brownies, bread, etc.) and rarely have a problem. In your opinion, how do they compare to lined baking sheets?
What about cold (I’m too lazy even to microwave–straight-from-the-fridge) butter?
You are not alone in your obsession! I, too, wonder about how to get the best results when cooking/baking, and how different ingredients and techniques affect the outcome. I had just heard about softening butter for only about a half hour and then baking and was trying it out, but didn’t have a comparison since I only made one batch. Yeah, I’m that girl that would think it’s a great idea to make cookies and then change my mind, leaving the butter out overnight…or, going to make cookies and then realizing that I forgot to take the butter out to soften. It’s one or the other scenario, every. single. time. There’s even times when it’s a combination: forget to take it out, take it out, then don’t feel like it anymore and it sits out over night. I think it’s awesome that you took the time to do this experiment and have a visual! Love your site, recipes…and your sense of humor! 🙂
I do not like this study because you have now made all of my high altitude excuses for flat cookies useless! That has been my go to for years…’Well, I live at altitude.’
It does make sense after seeing these results that one of my favorite recipes that calls for melted butter is refrigerated overnight before they are baked.
I think I must test this theory too in our altitude. Not because I’m really so curious…I just want an excuse to eat a whole bunch of cookies!
How long did you leave the butter out to become cool room temp…usually my cookies look like melted butter because i soften under the oven vent while it’s pre-heating…lol
Also agree with egg temp and flour type…does it matter? You rock for doing these experiments!
I was horrible at making chocolate chip cookies. I stopped making them for about a decade. They always tasted good, but they looked horrible and after having a roommate in college that consistently made the perfect looking chocolate chip cookies, I decided that I should just stick to other cookies that turned out fine and looked good. That is until my I was talking to my sister and lamenting my lack of chocolate chip cookie cooking skills and she mentioned http://theperfectchocolatechipcookie.com/instruct.php. It troubleshoots looks of cookies, with great pictures of the perfect cookie compared to various problem cookies. My stint of avoiding chocolate chip cookies is gone and my husband will be forever grateful. Check it out, it was super helpful.
Great post! Looking forward to the future posts, in particular about what you line your pans with. I always use my cooking stones for cookies, I notice you don’t use your stone for baking cookies and wondered why you don’t. Thanks!
I had no idea the butter temp could matter! Thanks for sharing. Although I think the melted butter looks the best!
Thanks for posting this! The last time I made chocolate chip cookies, I accidently melted the butter halfway. Now I know why my cookies always turn out different. Thanks again!!
This is so handy! Great info! Thanks for doing this experiment! I’m sure your family enjoy it too! 😉
Your favorite cookie recipe is also my favorite 🙂 however, I do chill my dough afterwards and I think that affects the way the melted butter cookies bake. They’re not as greasy that way and bake up chewy. I also weigh my ingredients instead of using standard measuring cups and spoons.
Thank you for doing this! It will give me motivation to be patient and let the butter come up to the right temp, instead of microwaving it!
Great post! This may have just answered many of my cookie baking dilemnas. and I LOVE the chipped dish! That means you’re an honest person that we can trust. I like brand new, perfect, matching everything as much as the next gal, but let’s face it, that just ain’t real!! 🙂
Thank you for this experiment! I am looking forward to all of your responses to all of these great questions! I have a different question. What do you know about the insolated cookie sheets? My cookies seem to turn out flat and run together on the pan. I often use the unsalted margarine or unsalted butter. Do these pans require long baking time or a different oven temperature or is it the butter or margarine that is making them turn out flat like your melted butter cookies. Oh, I also chill the dough overnight so it is firm when I make the cookie balls. I look forward to anyones’s advice! Thanks!
This is awesome! Thanks, Mel!! I’ve definitely used butter that was too soft before because some of my cookies haven’t turned out…now I know what to blame it on!
I know it can be time consuming, but chilling the dough definitely helps a cookie hold it’s shape, even if it’s made with melted butter. Have you tried any recipes with cornstarch? I’m also interested to see if you do any experiments with different types of flour and how the results will vary. One of my favorite CCC recipes calls for bread flour and cornstarch, I love the texture it gives the cookie!
Happy experimenting!
I have strong feelings about butter used in baking, lol. I always always use unsalted organic. The flavor is unbelievable, so much stronger, sweeter than regular (nonorganic) butter. It is an absolute must for butter or shortbread cookies. I even use it in muffins, either melted to replace oil or just softened and then creamed with sugar/wet ingredients.
I also love King Arthur (organic also). Once I tried it, I haven’t used anything else.
When I lived in Denver I almost quit making cookies because for some reason I couldn’t get them right at high altitude even though I could bake cakes and bread successfully. I wonder if Laurel’s problem is the altitude. It’s amazing how many things effect the outcome of cookies! Thanks for all the research!
Love this! What about brands of flour? I’ve heard that King Arthur flour is the best for baking but I usually just have store brand on hand. Also, I go back and forth between real vanilla and imitation. I can’t really tell a difference, but I don’t make them close together either to really be able to judge.
Love this! What about brands of flour? I’ve heard that King Arthur flour is the best for baking but I usually just have at
But I love my cookies to be a little underdone in the middle 🙂
This is great!
I second cold vs room temp cookie dough.
Also, butter vs margarine vs shortening. I know a lot of people who replace the butter with shortening or who do half/half. (Butter flavored shortening). It would be great to see the comparison there!
So happy youre doing this!! I’ve also heard some to do about cookies tasting better with batter that was made 2 days prior. Something about the dry and liquid ingred completely combining I think??? Maybe try testing a batch and make a few cookies right away, at 24 hours and 48 hours. Thanks for all your work!!
I had always wondered if there was a big difference whether you used a mixer or just by hand with a big spoon. Does that affect the texture at all?
This is fantastic! I was going to email you about your opinion on the matter of a perfect ccc. I have a conundrum with butter too. What brand did you use? Using the recipe from “the best ccc” My mother produces gorgeous, delicious, perfect ccc. She uses costcos Kirkland butter and lives at a lower altitude. I use Kroger butter and live at a much much higher altitude. They’re terrible. I went and tried a “real, named brand expensive land o lakes” butter. Still terrible. I finally went to visit my mom and stocked up on lots and lots of Kirkland butter. My cookies are fantastic now too. Only, if I don’t have Kirkland butter I can’t make great cookies. What can I do? As much as I love going on vaca to visit the homestead it would be nice to just run to the local store and have butter on hand for cookies. Thank you so much! Your fantastic. My family would be a lot less happy without your blog. I cook from you daily. My husband always asks “is it a Mel dinner tonight” he loves your recipes!
I recently started making your Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe from the best recipe section and I have deemed it the absolute best that I have ever made. Now I am quite confused by the outcome of this test. I think I will continue to make them with the melted butter mainly because it is so convenient not to have to plan ahead and easier to make in a pinch, but also I adore the taste and texture of the cookies following your recipe. Hmmmm.
LOVE this post. Humorous voice behind the writing. Informative, too. And yes, I’ve had some of the same ponderings as you about making cookies. I really really love the pic of the state of the butter above each cookie; the visual helps me understand the effect. You are awesome, Mel!
I pop the sheet with cookie dough spoonsfuls in the freezer for a couple of minutes before putting them into the oven. They turn out nicely, especially on a hot summer day.
Oh man, would I have loved to be on the taste testing end of this experiment! Such interesting results!
Great post. I always wonder if the eggs have to be at room temperature and the importance of mixing the ingredients in a specific order.
It is always fun experimenting with ccc’s and being able to enjoy three batches after is the icing in the cake!
PS – I bought 2 of those microwave bowls your hubby mentioned as gift ideas…such a hit! Tell him thank you 🙂
Thanks Mel for this post! I too am always wondering these things. I love how you are not afraid to show your chipped dish – it shows you are not afraid to show us your “real life.” I’m looking forward to seeing your post on what pan to use and what liners to use. I LOVE cookies that don’t brown on the bottom (especially sugar cookies) and have found the Silpat liner to give me that result with my air bake cookie sheets. Looking forward to other options that you think work great! Thanks for your wonderful blog!
“and just so you know, I eat all cookies equally so no cookies were harmed or thrown away due to superficial imperfections…” Brilliant 😉 I bought a butter crock based on your recommendation – that would fall under the “room temp butter” rather than “too soft butter” right? Anyway, love this post – thank you for taking the time to share your results!
Love this post! It’s causing me to actually think about why my cookies can sometimes turn out different as opposed to just saying “huh, weird” and moving on. I have a recipe that uses shortening and it’s actually so delicious. Other than creating a slightly different flavor, what do you think about shortening vs. butter? Have you ever used shortening in choc chip cookies?
This is awesome, Mel! My favorite cookie recipe also uses melted chocolate, and I love it, but the cookie with the room temperature butter is one perfect, gorgeous cookie! I am always looking for “the perfect” recipe, so I am so excited for your future suggestions for baking the perfect cookie!
Awesome post! I love knowing the science behind baking and how certain things will affect my baking! Thank you!
This is so cool! I hardly EVER wait for butter to soften at room temp and always end up with #2 or #3. Honestly, I love all cookies equally, no matter how the butter is softened but this is so neat to look at these results!!
Mel,
I can’t tell you how much I love posts like this! It’s so America’s test kitchen 🙂 speaking of…have you ever tried their recipe for ccc that calls for part melted browned butter and part room temp butter? I’ve had delicious results with that one too, but it is a little finicky for most people’s preferences.
Thanks!
Michelle Jones
I just love this post! Can’t wait to read the one about how to line the pans! Then i’ll be making the most perfect chocolate chip cookie in Portugal! Love your blog and recipes!
What about using butter right out of the frig? Sometimes I don’t have time to let it warm to room temperature….
Also, do eggs need to be room temperature or can they be used right out of the frig too?
Apparently I lack patience:)
Thanks – looking forward to the rest of your cookie tests!
I, too, am picky about ccc. They must be soft and chewy, I also use way more brown sugar at least a 2:1 ratio to white sugar. Dark brown organic sugar makes for a wonderfully brown cookie. Sooooo gooooood.
I’ve also noticed the butter structure changing the texture, but when you make cookies smaller size, the different in the texture is negligible. So if butter is too soft, I reduce cookie size and watch baking time. Yummy everytime. Not a fan of melted butter cookie products, though.
What a great cause! How about cold dough vs room temp dough? I love this idea!
Personally I am very glad to see you doing these experiments with cookies. I am very picky about my cookies. I have often wondered how to actually get what I call the perfect cookie. I despise cake like cookies or too crunchy cookies. I like the slightly crispy outside with the soft chewy inside. I don’t use white sugar. I use raw sugar or some other alternative. And that will obviously affect the texture of the cookie. So if you ever consider experimenting with different sugars i would love to see what you find.