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
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! 🙂