Help. My cookies seem to be spreading. I'm using the nfsc recipe. Should I add more flour?

yes.

also: Butter will cause cookies to spread more than shortening. Not sure how margarine affects spreading compared to butter. (anyone?)


note: I'm a "until it looks right" cook, so I use a recipe as a guideline. Dough too thin? Add more flour. Dough too thick? Add more fat or more liquid. You know ... "until it looks right"

I use NFSC recipe with real butter - but I pop them after they're cut and on the pan into the freezer for a minute or two, then put them in the oven. Works like a charm - they won't spread at all!

Yes, what indydebi says is true.

BUTTER has a low melt point and will begin to spread quickly. An all shortening recipe, or one with a mix will hold up better for decorated cookies.

You can try cut your cookies out and puting them in the fridge for a few minutes (10 or so) and then baking, which might help.

Then try some shortening based recipes for the future.

For me, a really HOT oven (plenty of pre-heating time) and COLD cookies (I cut them out and then put the cookie sheet in the freezer for 5-10 min. before baking) seem to be the best combination. Mine have never spread when I do this and I use the NFSC recipe. HTH

Thanks everyone. I've added more flour and I'm going to try the freezer technique as well as a HOT oven. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks again!

I agree about the freezer. I use real butter for my cookies since I don't always decorate them and want them to have a good flavor. And I pop them into the freezer on a parchment lined cookie sheet for 15 minutes or so. Then they go into a pre-heated oven. If they spread at all, it is not very noticable.

I had this same problem with the NFSC recipe and I played around with different things! I found that I cut the baking powder to 1 1/2 tsp and that fixed the problem!

I tried the more flour, hotter oven and freezer technique and the spreading is at a minimum amount now. However, on my next batch I am going to use less baking powder.

I'm on cookie 35 of a batch of 200 corporate cookies!

Thanks for everyone's input!

hi,

i leave mine in the fridge for 30 minutes before cooking. i avoid the freezer because sometimes this leads to less cooked centers.

i also suggest a recipe without baking soda at all. it really is not needed for a good sugar cookie. i am not sure if i can mention the name of the book in the forum, but there are several good ones out there.

the suggestion i would add is not to overcream your butter and sugar. many folks start the creaming and walk away and this could be very bad for cookies as creaming is the non-chemical leavening and too much of it is a bad thing when you are trying to avoid spread and have nice flat cookies for decorating. i usually do not cream for more than a minute or so and it is more than sufficient and helps control spread.

happy baking!
diane