We’re going to focus on the first step of making cookies. This step is crucial to making the best cookies ever—results will vary if this very step is left out.
It’s worth putting in a little extra effort to make sure your cookies turn out well.
What Do You Mix First In Cookies?
Sugar and butter are the first ingredients used at room temperature to mix first in cookies using the creaming method. Mix these two ingredients until it is soft, creamy, and fluffy. This is the most common way to make cookie dough in order to get the cookies soft and tender at the first bite.
Keep in mind that though it is common to cream your cookies first you can also melt your butter. These two ingredients are the main ones that need to be in cookies. The way you decide to mix your ingredients within your cookies is depending on the type of consistency you like with the cookies whether that’s crispy, chewy, or soft.
Here are some more tips for baking cookies: How long to bake them, what temperature oven you should use and mistakes people make when baking to avoid messing up their cookies.
How Long Should You Bake Your Cookies For?
There are various oven times you can choose to bake your cookies for. It’s depending on the type of texture you prefer and how you like your cookies once baked.
Here is a table below showing you the type of cookies you would get depending on the time you decide to leave it in the oven and the temperature you choose to put the oven at. It will vary.
| Cookie Temperature In Oven | Minutes In Oven | Cookie Texture |
| 300F | 35 Minutes | The cookie typically has a dry, tough texture. |
| 350F | 20 Minutes | This cookie has a nice consistency especially if you love a good soft, cakey, chewy cookie. |
| 400F | 12 Minutes | This cookie is super moist it’s almost like the cookie is so soft that it’ll break if you were to lift it up too quickly. Very soft exterior. |
What Is The Correct Order When Making Cookies?
The correct way to make cookies is the following steps:
- Cream your batter with sugar and butter.
- Once creamed, mix thoroughly, add the eggs one at a time.
- Stir to mix eggs with the cream batter.
- Pre-combine dry ingredients and give them a good mix.
- Dry ingredients: Flour, salt, baking powder and soda
- Add dry ingredients slowly to wet
- And mix until it is mixed but don’t overmix
- Add chocolate chips or chocolate bar of your choice
When you mix the ingredients, the sugar and butter should be thoroughly combined until they form a fluffy and creamy mixture. Don’t stop mixing too soon or else your cookies will be doughy and not what you were going for, but don’t over-mix either—you’ll end up with tough chocolate chip cookies!
The same goes for the eggs, add them one at a time slowly and mix at medium to low speed.
Then mix the dry ingredients and pre-combine them first before adding them to the wet batter. Simply hand mix it using a spoon and then you will slowly put it into the wet batter and mix.
Then add the chocolate part. You can mix in chopped-up chocolate bars or use chips instead. Treat it however you like—it’s your cookie dough!
You can either scoop it right from the bowl and then put it on a sheet pan or you can chill the dough and you’ll notice it’ll make all the difference in terms of how soft the cookie gets. But that’s up to you!
What Is The Golden Rule In Baking Cookies?
The golden rule for baking cookies is to have all ingredients at room temperature including eggs and butter. When this is done correctly, the dough will always mix well and produce a higher yield of delicious treats. The addition of brown sugar and the refrigeration of dough can make your cookies chewier and moister.
Room Temperature Ingredients
When everyone thinks about having the ingredients at room temperature they think of butter but it actually includes the eggs. If your egg is super cold and you mix it with the butter it will make it cold and can affect the whole recipe risking lumps in your mixture and we don’t want that.
Brown Sugar
The automatic response is usually to use white sugar because it’s just what everyone has in their house but there’s something about using brown sugar. It improves the flavor and texture, if you prefer you can even use both sugars adding in brown sugar and white sugar depending on what the recipe calls for.
Proportion it in a way where more brown sugar is added. For example, if the recipe called for 1 cup of white sugar you would add 3/4 of a cup of brown sugar and 1/4 cup of white sugar.
Refrigerate Your Cookie Dough
You don’t have to refrigerate your cookie dough (although it will result in a tastier cookie), but you can if you want. The longer the dough is chilled, the better its flavor will be when baked—at least two hours and up to 7 days!
Have your cookies underdone
Don’t overbake your cookies that will cause them to be crispy once done and cooled down. When taking it out of the oven have the cookies underdone. It should look like it’s not done fully. It will bake on the hot sheet pan when you take it out. So don’t worry!
What Not To Do While Baking Cookies?
Here’s what not to do when baking cookies, don’t bake the whole cookie batter at once. Bake small batches of the cookies, changing oven times in order to get a feel for how different textures are achieved.
For example, you can test half the batch of the cookie dough to bake only at 350F for 20 minutes and the other at 400F for 12 minutes.
Don’t just put the cookie right on the sheet pan so you have to scrub it after. Make parchment paper your best friend it’s one of the best ways to avoid having to scrub your baking sheets (yes!). The cookies will slide right off the parchment paper. And if you’re done with it, just throw it away!
Don’t listen to the recipe if it tells you to leave the cookies in the oven until it’s absolutely done. Don’t do that take it out before it’s even done so you can have chewy and soft cookies even after it’s cooled down.
Remember this is your cookie dough! You don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to. You don’t have to use chocolate chips because everyone says to use them. You can cut up some of your favorite chocolates and add to your cookies. To give you an idea I’ve had chocolate cookie versions made with Mars Bars, Snickers, and even tarts. Let your imagination run wild.