Just found out butter temperature matters way more than I thought

Was reading through a Baking Illustrated article from 2019 and they said dough temperature can shift your whole bake by like 15 minutes. I've been using cold butter straight from the fridge for years and wondering why my cookies spread weird. Anyone else ignore basic temp rules and fight with flat results?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_alice1mo ago

Cold butter straight in, you said you still chilled the dough after mixing right? How long did you chill it for? I've found the real trick is letting it sit in the fridge for at least an hour, sometimes two, because if I only do 15-20 minutes it barely makes a difference on the spread. Did you notice a big difference between chilling for a short time vs a long time?

hollyramirez1mo ago

Hmm, "15 minutes" feels like one of those claims that sounds dramatic but doesn't really hold up in a real kitchen. I've used cold butter tons of times and yeah, my cookies spread weird too, but I've also had great results with it when I chilled the dough after mixing. Your mileage may vary but I think a lot of the "rules" in those articles are more about perfect lab conditions than what happens when you're just baking on a Tuesday. Take that 15 minute shift with a grain of salt, temperature matters but not like it's the end of the world.