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For
those who bake cookies on the regular, it's not uncommon to encounter
the occasional oddball—one or more cookies from the same batch of dough,
scooped out with all the rest, yet inexplicably larger, thinner, and
browner than the rest. Sometimes these differences characterize the
entire cookie; other times they affect one section alone.
There might only be a few such cookies in an entire batch, so it's easy
to dismiss them as a fluke or some hot spot in the oven. But this sort
of irregularity doesn't come from uneven heat, it comes from uneven
textures within the dough—streaks of butter and sugar left from
inadequate scraping of the bowl and beater during the creaming process.
As a quick refresher, the creaming method isn't about mixing ingredients
together, it's about aerating them. Beating the butter and sugar,
whether with a spatula or the paddle attachment of stand mixer, folds
them together over and over, trapping little pockets of air with every
turn. This transforms the butter and sugar from a dense, dark, and
gritty mass into something light, pale, smooth, and voluminous—the
ubiquitous "light and fluffy" benchmark mentioned so often. But if the
bowl and beater aren't thoroughly scraped with a flexible spatula along
the way, a dense film of butter and sugar may build up around the bowl,
or clump in knots at the heart of a paddle attachment.
When the bowl and paddle are scraped along the way, these dense areas
are less likely to form in the first place, and are soon homogenized
into the batter when they do. But without proper scraping to ensure
these dense areas will have a chance to lighten, they'll create rogue
pockets of unhomogenized dough that will spread, brown, and rise at a
different rate than the rest—leading to those mysteriously malformed
cookies.
As the creaming process itself represents a wide spectrum of potential
textures, the exact degree of strange behavior can vary from a few
cookies that are only a little thinner, denser, and browner than the
rest, to those that spread and pool in an almost shocking way. Along
with scraping the bowl and beater as needed, thoroughly scraping the
bowl and folding the finished cookie dough a few times with a flexible
spatula can go a long way in homogenizing its texture.
Aside from sloppy technique, frequently experiencing dense streaks of
butter and sugar shot through a dough or batter may be a sign the
ingredients are too cold (as hard butter lacks the plasticity needed to
aerate), or that the bowl to beater clearance of a stand mixer needs
adjusting (as the paddle won't reach far enough into the bottom of the
bowl).
The former can be avoided by paying close attention to ingredient
temperature, and softening the butter to whatever stage or temperature
is listed within the recipe; for recipes that don't include any
information more specific than "room temperature" butter, it's generally
safe to aim for something between 65°F (18°C) and 70°F (21°C).
The latter can be addressed with a manual adjustment. For those using a KitchenAid bowl lift stand mixer, we have a guide on how to adjust the bowl to beater clearance by hand. For those with tilt-head mixers,
information on making this adjustment can be found in the instruction
manual for the mixer, or on the manufacturer's website.
It's normal to wind up with a weird cookie from time to time. Nobody's
perfect and often that weirdo is someone's favorite crispy boi, but good
technique and attention to detail can make these occasions rare indeed.
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