Dear Test
Kitchens: I love to make cookies. I am
experiencing a problem, though. My recipes that call for butter are turning out
flat. Recipes that call for shortening or margarine retain their shape, but the
ones with butter go flat. This is especially frustrating with rolled cookies.
Any suggestions? –Susan Z, Augusta, MO

Dear Susan: While it’s
hard to define the problem with certainty without being familiar with your
troublesome cookie recipes, it sounds like it may be a fairly common issue. It
likely has to do with the temperature of the butter. Butter that is too warm may
cause the cookies to spread and turn out flat.
Shortening is not affected by the temperature, so the cookies hold their shape.

We have a few suggestions that may help with this:

1. Make
sure the butter is slightly soft to the touch, but not melting.
A good rule of thumb is to cut refrigerated butter into small pieces and let it
stand at room temperature until softened. This may take for 10 to 15 minutes or
less, if you have a sunny, warm kitchen.

2. Chill the dough for about one
hour or until it’s stiff to the touch. If preparing drop cookies, try portioning your cookies into dough
balls before chilling – it’s easier than trying to handle a bowl of chilled,
stiff dough. For rolled cookies, work with small
portions of the chilled dough at a time so that the butter in the dough doesn’t
become too soft with excessive counter time. If re-rolling dough, be sure to chill it in between.

3. Avoid putting cookie dough (chilled or not) onto a warm pan. Baking sheets should
always cool off sufficiently before putting the dough on them.