Why biscuits not crispy

First, we didn't add enough flour; then, we added too much flour; with the rest of the dough, we added a couple extra eggs. But before I go too far down that road, let me share the recipe. As the recipe requires, we mixed the dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately, then combined them and added about one cup of semisweet chocolate chips. We baked on the second rack from the top at degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes for all of the cookies. Before we even put the cookies on the sheet, we could tell what was wrong.

It's all in the mixer. That's right, just by looking at the way your dough sticks to the mixer you can tell whether you have too much flour, not enough flour, or too many eggs. In this case you can counter the imbalance straight away, adding more wet ingredients or more flour until you get the consistency you want.

Even transferring the dough to the cookie sheet made the errors visible; dough with not enough flour was sticky and hard to transfer; dough that had too many eggs was runny and spread out on the pan; dough with too much flour was like glue — we were able to roll into a ball and it stayed in exactly the same shape throughout its time in the oven.

As much as it pained us to move forward, we went ahead and baked the "problem cookies" to show what they look like when they come out of the oven. If your cookies are flat, brown and crispy, that means you need to add flour to your dough for the next batch. Our cookies were brittle and greasy and cooked much faster than the other dough balls on the sheet.

Though the culprit is usually a flour deficit, butter could also be to blame for this problem. Adding too soft or slightly melted butter to the dough can also result in flat cookies. Many bakers — my mom and myself included — heat the butter to soften it.

Warming the butter too long can cause it to start melting, so if you notice a little puddle around your sticks of butter, it's best to wait for it to cool off a bit. Scooping dough onto a warm pan can also cause the cookies to spread more; so for the second batch and beyond, my mom and I usually stick the dough in the fridge until it's time to load up the next cookie sheet. The easy fix here is to add more flour to the dough, little by little, until it sticks well to the mixer.

If your cookies come out looking more like biscuits, you've likely added too much flour. Our cookies didn't expand much from the rolled-up balls we put on the baking sheet. They also didn't brown as well as the other cookies. The cookies tasted good but were dry and definitely crumbly. If your cookies come out flat on top, with a cake-like texture, you've added too many eggs. In this case, my mom and I added two extra eggs. Adding extra eggs is not a common issue, but we were curious.

The results looked presentable, though the chocolate chips were lost a bit in the dough. Biting into the cookie, however, we could tell a big difference. They were gummy and lost much of their sweetness. Saving cookies from too many eggs isn't as straightforward as saving it from too much or too little flour.

It takes a little finagling. Add some flour and maybe a little bit more sugar. What my mom and I ended up doing was going with the egg-induced texture to create something entirely different — we added more flour, more sugar, chopped nuts and baked in a greased 9x12 pan.

I wouldn't dare presume to define the perfect cookie. It's different for every person. Insight How it works Tips and skills. Wedding Gifting DIY. Common cookie problems and how to avoid them They say baking is an art, but what it really is, is a science. With art you can learn a certain amount of skill but what you really need is talent. Identify the problem, tweak the recipe and try again.

To help you in your baking endeavours here are some common cookie problems and how best to avoid them. Problem 2: Dry and stiff cookies Did your biscuits not spread out as desired and taste dry and crumbly? Problem 6: No problem at all This cookie is slightly chewy, full of butter and chocolate flavour and beautifully golden brown.

Tips for perfect cookie baking Leaving your cookie dough in the fridge overnight will make for more delicious cookies, plus the dough will be easier to work with the next day. Watch your cookies very carefully while they are baking — you want to take them out at exactly the right moment, when they are golden but not hard. If you like thinner, crisper cookies, reduce the amount of flour you use slightly. Back to Recipes Chicken curry Pasta See more.

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