If you’re here then I am sure you are finding a way on How to Moisten a Dry Cookie Dough. Well, don’t worry as here we have a detailed guide just made for you guys to help you out.
Did someone say cookie dough? Who does not love a cookie? Nobody, I guess. Children and adults are alike fan of cookie. Cookie dough is an edible blend of cookie ingredients and chocolate chips. This is blend has not been baked in the oven. But many people including me can eat the cookie dough; itself it is very yummy.
Some people made it at home and some buy it premade from the market. But if you are someone that made cookie dough at home then you can agree with me the cookie dough becomes dry. And the cookies don’t come out as good as thought.
It is annoying I know. But do not worry I got the perfect solution for it. Before I tell you the ways to moisten it, let me tell you why your cookie dough becomes dry.
Reason for having dry dough:
There are many reasons for having a dry dough. If you want to prevent your cookie dough from drying then you need to reason behind it.
- Fat:
Usually, the reason behind the crumbled and dry cookie is that you are not using the right kind of fat in the dough. With fats, I mean butter and margarine. If the recipe requires butter and you are using margarine then it can also be the reason for your cookie dough crumble. Because margarine contains more water and fewer fats. It may not be enough to cover the dry ingredients.
The other reason is that adding too little fat in the cookie dough. Sometimes the recipe gets it all wrong and asked for less fat in the dough. Or you measured it all wrong. Fat is a greasing agent; it holds all the ingredients together and makes them pliable.
- Liquid:
Other reason for crumbling cookie dough is not adding enough liquid. If the recipe requires additional water or milk then add it. Otherwise your cookie will be too dry. Even double check about other liquid ingredients such as vanilla essence and egg. Even if you measured less liquid this will also cause the crumbled cookie dough.
- Mixing:
Sometimes mixing is also the cause of dry cookie dough. Flour develops gluten when mixed. More you mix, more gluten will be developed. Gluten causes the cookie dough to get hard and dry. So, treat your marvellous creation gently and do not mix it so much. You can use a batter mixer for mixing.
- Dry ingredients:
Even a little more than mentioned dry ingredient can be the culprit for dryness. If the ingredients are said to be added 1 cup and you add 1 ½ cup then it will cause dryness. Sometimes we read the recipe wrong. Adding two tablespoon of baking powder when required amount was two tea spoon. This also increases the amount of dry ingredient. There will be less fat to cover your ingredients.
If you increase the dry ingredients then you should also increase the fat with it. So, it does not become dry and crumbly.
- Drying it in a fridge:
If you make cookie dough before time or you buy premade cookie dough and you put it in a fridge then it will harden your cookie dough. Fridge as it is a very dry place because it continuously moves air in and out to maintain the cooling. The fridge will dry out any moisture in your cookie dough and it will become crumbly and dry.
Ways On How To Moisten Cookie Dough
Once you know the reason for the dryness of cookie dough, moistening will not be a problem. There are different ways to moisten cookie dough for each reason. So, make sure you know the problem before jumping at the solution. The solutions are as follow:
- More Liquid:
Adding a little liquid in your cookie dough works wonder. Most of the liquids such as egg whites, water, egg, vanilla essence and milk will have a minuscule taste on your dough. So, it really does not matter what you add or how much you add. Start by adding a teaspoon of water or milk and mix it. If the cookie dough seems dry and crumbly then add more water or milk.
The trick is to add a little and mix it to see if it requires more liquid or not. Sometimes either we read the recipe wrong or measured the liquid part wrong. If your recipe requires a half a cup of liquid more then it means the recipe was wrong.
- Fat:
Most of the timeless amount of fats is the reason for having a crumbly and dry cookie dough. Adding fats to your cookie dough might fix the problem. But make sure you are not adding too many fats. Too many fats will grease your cookie dough and change its texture. It will change the shape of your cookie dough. The cookies will turn out to be oily after baking.
So, the trick here is to add a teaspoon of fats of whatever your recipe requires it might be butter, margarine, vegetable oil etc. and mix the batter with your hands. The fats will be mixed well and you will know the exact texture of your cookie dough.
- Using hands:
Over mixing causes the cookie dough to be dry and tough. So, using hands really helps with the mixing. Use your hands to mix the batter after adding liquid or fat. Your hands will be gentler while mixing then a spoon or paddle attached to a mixer.
Moreover, you can constantly feel the texture of your cookie dough. You can tell whether it requires more liquid or fat or not. But before you start mixing with your hands, please make sure your hands are clean. Be on the safe side and wash it before mixing the batter.
- Let it sit at room temperature:
Sometimes the dough gets hard and crumbly due to over mixing. So, the trick here is to let your dough sit at room temperature for about half an hour. The flour forms gluten due to over mixing. Let the cookie dough rest until the gluten becomes soft again. Take the cookie dough cover it and leave it for half an hour at room temperature. After half an hour take the dough and start making a cookie without mixing again.
- Change the recipe:
Sometimes we over measures ingredients. If we add extra dry ingredients then the only way to make it work will be reinventing the whole recipe to adjust the extra dry ingredients that you added. This can be tough and tricky but it is worth saving your cookie dough. You need to calculate exactly how much more other ingredients are required to make this work.
For example, if you added twice amount of the flour that was actually required then make another cookie dough without flour because you already added the flour for two doughs. Blend all the dry ingredients and then mix the two cookie doughs until they seem like one. And now you fixed the dough and got more cookies as well.
Cooking tips
You might not need to use these techniques by following the mentioned cooking tips.
- If you are substituting the ingredients that were mentioned in the list then you might need to use more or less of the one you are using. For example, if you are using margarine instead of butter then use more of that because margarine does not have enough fats.
- Cookie dough gets dry if you put it in the fridge. Fridge tends to suck all the moisture out your dough. So, instead of adding liquid or fats to make it moist; let it sit in room temperature for 30 minutes. After that examine your cookie, if it is soft or not then add liquid or fats if it is not soft.
- Always measure your ingredients. Baking requires precision. More or less of even ¼ of an ingredient can cause a drastic difference. Note down your measurements for afterwards.
- Create your own recipe. You do not need to follow the exact recipe given online what is available online. Be brave enough to experiment and create the perfect that suits you. If you are using different ingredients from the mentioned one then you should find an alternative for any ingredient that is not working well.
Conclusion
This brings us towards the end. I hope you had found this helpful and it might get you through your difficulty on how to moisten cookie dough and next baking adventures. Baking is an art. It is therapeutic for most of some people. So do not worry if you get a crumbly dough.
I have mentioned all the ways you can do to make your cookie dough moist. Sometimes even you follow the right recipe the dough becomes crumbly. And it is not your fault. Maybe the recipe you are following is wrong.
Cross-check the recipe you are following with the one available on the internet or somewhere else. It’s ok if you mess it up a few times because you are still learning. Just do not give up on this.
