Does “aging” the Dough Really Make the Cookies Better?
Cookies are like snowflakes and cats: Each one is special in its own way, even the nastiest ones. But there is a common belief that aging cookie dough can make an already great dish even better. So I decided to see if aging cookie dough could actually make cookies better. (And if not this, then what could?)
How to age cookie dough?
Jacques Torres, chocolatier and charming head judge on the Netflix show Nailed It!, has a popular recipe for chocolate chip cookies that are baked crispy, drizzled with chocolate and kissed with sea salt. But what’s special isn’t how perfect they are, it’s how long they take to make: the instructions call for chilling the dough in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours, and ideally for up to three days .
If this resting time really matters for Torres’ treats, can it be used for all cookie recipes? I decided to investigate. Because while I trust the chef’s experience, his recipe begs the question: why the hell are we putting this dough in the refrigerator for one to three days? I don’t exactly know of any other cookie recipes that work this way.
The theory of “aging” cookie dough
While you won’t find Chef Jacques’ musings on mrchocolate.com , his recipe is publicly available and many people have re-posted it and seem to have formed their own opinions. The New York Times blurb for the recipe says , “This gives the dry ingredients time to absorb the wet ones, resulting in a firmer dough.” This short paragraph doesn’t say that harder is better (and perhaps that’s what refrigeration is responsible for), but it did get me thinking about the autolyse method , a mixing technique used in some sourdough bread recipes.
Autolyse is when you start a bread recipe by mixing flour and water and then let it sit for a while. During this pause, the flour has the opportunity to fully hydrate. The whole grain flour solids soften and fermentation slows down, gaining flavor, which also produces a more elastic dough. This is amazing for bread, but not exactly what we typically want to happen with cookies. Plus, most cookie recipes have little to no moisture anyway—a little extract, eggs, and a little water in the butter. And even if you assume that this is the process we are going through here, autolysis will only take 30 to 60 minutes .
Still unsure of my reasoning, I ran some tests to see if the “sanitized” cookies were worth the wait.
Test of two cookies
I decided to test two batches of cookie dough: Jacques Torres’ recipe and the classic Toll House recipe on the back of a bag of chunks. I baked cookies from both batches with different resting periods: one immediately after mixing the dough (with a 30-50 minute refrigeration to allow it to firm up, since the rest of my “aged” cookies also had to come out of the refrigerator); another bake seven to 12 hours later; and another one 24 hours later. ]
I was hoping this baking marathon would show any changes in the cookies over time, or at least prove that Torres’ particular recipe actually benefited from the extra waiting time.
(Kind of) amazing results
Pounds of chocolate, hundreds of salty cereals and one stomach ache later, I came to a conclusion. It turns out that resting cookie dough for more than 50 minutes (which is long enough for the dough to cool completely) does not result in any noticeable changes in flavor or texture.
Whether it was Toll House or Torres cookies, both doughs refrigerated for 50 minutes resulted in cookies with the same taste, crispness and chewiness as cookies baked with dough that was refrigerated for more than 12 hours. In a way, it’s a relief of sorts. If aging cookie dough actually resulted in better cookies, then those logs in the refrigerator filled with month-old packaged dough would technically be the GOAT.
(I also tasted samples of each cookie after they had been stored in airtight containers separately for 24 hours to see if the aged cookies held up better after baking. Again, there was no noticeable difference.)
How to make the best cookies for you
Make no mistake, both cookie recipes I made were incredible. (This is when I enjoy my job the most.) The fact that you don’t have to age basic cookie dough, let alone Jacques Torres’ famous cookie dough, is good news, because who wants to wait that long to eat cookie? ? (Nobody.)
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But the main reason I did this research in the first place is because I know you guys want to create your own version of the perfect cookie. Perhaps aged dough will be the secret to superior chewiness and crispy edges? But as with best friends and avocados, it’s what’s on the inside that matters most: Torres’ cookie recipe uses high-gluten flour, which produces a nice crust on the outside and a nice chew on the outer edge. That is, the ingredients you choose and the ratio in which you add them are what can actually help you bake the perfect cookie for you . Here are a few rules that will really make a difference in your baking: For chewy cookies: Use a taller cookie cutter. ratio or brown sugar. Instead of creaming room temperature butter and sugar, try using melted butter and don’t worry about creaming it with the sugar. Replace 25% to 50% of the all-purpose flour with high-gluten bread flour.
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For crispy cookies: Use recipes that are even higher in fat and use mostly white sugar. Recipes without eggs or with only egg whites produce crispier cookies.
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For crunchier cookies: Use cookie recipes that have a little more flour and less eggs for a drier dough. Add a few more minutes to the baking time.
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For soft cookies: Beat shortening and sugar until very light and fluffy. Use recipes with a higher egg content or add more to make any recipe a little softer.