Oatmeal Lace Cookies Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why are my homemade oatmeal cookies hard? ›

Not Enough Moisture: Ensure you're using the right amount of butter in your recipe and that it's at the correct temperature (softened not melted) when you start. Oatmeal cookies require more moisture to stay soft. Consider adding an extra egg yolk or a touch of milk to your dough to enhance moisture content.

Flour adds fluff and texture to the cookies. Adding too little flour can cause cookies to be flat, greasy, and crispy. Most recipes assume you'll use all-purpose, but if you want a lighter, crumblier cookie texture, choose one with a lower protein content such as cake-and-pastry flour.

There are several reasons why the cookies may have become dry and crumbly but the two most likely are that either the cookies were baked for too long or too much flour was added to the dough. The cookie should be baked only until the edges are slightly golden and the top looks a little wrinkled.

OVEN IS TOO HOT

If your cookies consistently come out flat, you may have selected the wrong baking temperature. If you bake cookies using too much heat, the fats in the dough begin to melt before the other ingredients can cook together and form your cookie's rise.

Light corn syrup is another ingredient that you can add to cookie dough that will help it stay softer longer. The corn syrup you buy at the grocery store is not the high-fructose corn syrup that soft drinks are made with; it's a sugar that is liquid at room temperature and helps other sugars say liquid at high heat.

The easiest way to soften cookies with bread is to place the cookies in an airtight container with a slice of bread and leave them for a few hours. The bread will release moisture and help to rehydrate the cookies, making them soft and chewy once again.

Baking soda is typically used for chewy cookies, while baking powder is generally used for light and airy cookies. Since baking powder is comprised of a number of ingredients (baking soda, cream of tartar, cornstarch, etc.), using it instead of pure baking soda will affect the taste of your cookies.

A low proportion of sugar relative to flour reduces spread, keeping the cookies thick. A high proportion of mix-ins helps thicken the dough.

Too much butter makes cookies turn out just as you'd expect: very buttery. This batch of cookies was cakey in the middle, but also airy throughout, with crispy edges. They were yellow and slightly puffy in the middle, and brown and super thin around the perimeter.

Add more fat

This could mean adding more butter, shortening, or oil to the dough. If you're using a recipe that calls for melted butter, you could also try using cold butter and grating it into the dough. Adding more fat should make the dough less crumbly and more moist.

How do you moisten oatmeal cookies? ›

Microwaving them. If you cover your cookies with a wet paper towel and nuke them for a few seconds, they should soften up enough to eat.

Many drop cookie recipes, including oatmeal cookies, specify baking until the edges are golden or light brown; often, the recipe also specifies that centers should appear set (not jiggly and raw).

Old fashioned oats give baked goods more texture but take longer to cook, which is why some recipes call specifically for quick oats. Quick cook oats are processed more, so they don't have to cook as long. In many cases, you can use the two interchangeably.

Quaker® Old Fashioned Oats are whole oats that are rolled to flatten them. Quaker® Steel Cut Oats are whole oats that have not been rolled into flakes. Instead, they are cut approximately into thirds. Quick Quaker® Oats are simply cut into slightly smaller pieces so they cook faster.

How Long Should I Chill Cookie Dough? Anywhere from 24 to 72 hours. The longer you chill the dough, the more flavor will develop. The flour will also absorb more of the moisture so the thicker and chewier the final texture will be.

The bread/apple trick

Here's a baker's trick you'll find in our new Monster Cookies recipe: Adding a piece of fresh white bread to the storage container will keep cookies from becoming hard or stale.

Whatever moisture is left in the cookies is always in a state of evaporation. At the same time, the sugars and starches are solidifying. Ergo, hard cookies.

Different types of sugars affect the texture because they absorb different amounts of water. Remember moisture is the key! White sugar creates crispier cookies and brown sugar creates chewier cookies.

Too much gluten yields tough cookies. To prevent over-mixing, stop blending ingredients as soon as the streaks of flour are no longer visible (via The Kitchn).