Are you taking enough time to chill? ❄️
Attention bakers! We’ve all been known to skip a step or two when baking. It’s hard to be patient when there are delicious baked goods in your future. But trust us on this one: when it comes to chilling your doughs BEFORE they hit the oven, it’s worth the extra step. Keep reading to find out why.
Read It!
-
Have you ever taken your cookies out of the oven to see they’ve spread into an unrecognizable blob? Well, one of the reasons could be the temperature of the cookie dough. Cookies, croissants, and pie crusts are just a few examples of desserts that need to keep their shapes in the oven, and chilling them before baking can help prevent any unwanted shape-shifting. Chilling helps solidify the fat in our doughs and batters, creating a firmer structure and preventing the butter from melting too quickly, allowing everything to bake at the desired pace — and in the desired shape! No more questionable cookie shapes!
-
Do you love a beautiful, glossy brownie that has a crisp edge, and a moist, fudge-y center? Chilling that brownie batter might just be the secret! We know it’s hard to wait when the brownie cravings hit, but trust us on this — adding a bit of chill time can make all the difference. Chill your unbaked batter (in the baking pan) for at least an hour or even overnight to increase the crustiness on the edges and improve the top gloss on those beauties. That chill-time will even help with texture, resulting in a chewier, fudgier, and more delicious center.
-
Our final suggestion is really going to put your patience to the test: Chill your chocolate chip cookie dough for up to 72 hours. Are we CRAZY? Maybe, but we’re also stating facts here. Chilling your cookie dough is going to be a game-changer. There’s lots of science going on behind the scenes — like the carbohydrates breaking down into component sugars, fructose and glucose — but the important thing is this: chilling your cookie dough will give it time for all those flavors to develop and intensify, and the final product will be thicker, chewier, and TASTIER. It’ll also help with a more even bake, and a better texture to the final cookie. If a full 72 hours seems too intense, no worries, because even an hour or two of chill time will have a positive effect on your final product. And if you really can’t wait, you can always bake a few immediately while letting the rest of the batch sit in the fridge.
So there you have it. Three reasons why you should be scheduling in some Chill Time before baking. If you need even more convincing, look at it this way: as a reward for all of your patience, you’ll totally deserve an extra cookie or two… or three… but who’s counting? 😀
____________________
Looking for more?
If you’re looking for more baking tips and tricks, check out our Bake You Happy Live Classes, which deep-dive into all-things-baking with our roster of expert instructors. 👍