Cookie problems

[Bama-Rick]

Is anyone else having trouble making cookies? I use an old circa 1950 Betty Crocker Cookbook for my cookie recipes. Lately, the cookies mostly peanut butter, snickerdoodle, and chocolate chip are way too dry when I follow the recipes I used for the past fifty years. The dough doesn’t pull together when I follow the recipes to the letter. The dough is crumbly and doesn’t come together it doesn’t form a ball. I can fix the problem by adding a few more ounces of shorting.. But don’t know what’s happening, why recipes that have worked for almost a lifetime suddenly fail.

Is anyone else experiencing this kind of problem?

 

[taxlady]

I haven't made cookies in years. Have you changed anything, for example the brand of any of your ingredients?

 

[Aunt Bea]

Ingredients change over time.

I suspect that the elimination of trans fats may be a part of the problem.

 

[Roll_Bones]

I have never had a dough problem and I am having a hard time understanding what you mean.
I would buy a bag of Toll House chocolate chips and make a batch of Toll House chocolate chips cookies and see if they turn out like they should.
One thing I have learned over the years is to under bake them. Bake until set and promptly remove. Once they are cool they are perfect.

 

[Bama-Rick]

I haven't made cookies in years. Have you changed anything, for example the brand of any of your ingredients?

Changed a few things since companies and the products from fifty years ago no longer exist.. But the ingredients I use are still the same as far as I know.. Pillsbury's Best flour and King Aurthur flour is still the same as far as I know.. Borwicks and KC Baking Powder disappeared years ago. Arm and Hammer Baking Soda is still the same I'm guessing. Crisco Shorting is still the same maybe there is no way of knowing for sure.

 

[Bama-Rick]

I have never had a dough problem and I am having a hard time understanding what you mean.
I would buy a bag of Toll House chocolate chips and make a batch of Toll House chocolate chips cookies and see if they turn out like they should.
One thing I have learned over the years is to under bake them. Bake until set and promptly remove. Once they are cool they are perfect.

Following the recipe on a bag of Toll House chocolate chip cookies do not turn out as they should. The dough will not even hold together enough to form anything of structure.

What I mean is if you make Toll House chocolate chips per the recipe on the bag the dough will not cling together it's like dry gram cracker crumbs it doesn't cling together. I cannot explain the problem more simply.

In years past when following the recipe on the bag, the dough would cling together and you could scoop a spoonful of dough on the cookie and it would hold together like a little mound. Using the recipe on the bag nowadays the dough is like scooping dry cracker crumbs on a cookie sheet.

If I follow the recipe to the letter the resulting cookie dough is too dry and crumbly, I can fix the problem by adding more liquid or shortening but why is this necessary? What has changed?

 

[Bama-Rick]

Ingredients change over time.

I suspect that the elimination of trans fats may be a part of the problem.

that's probably the problem.

 

[pictonguy]

that's probably the problem.

I doubt that. Were you using Crisco for your cookies and now switched?

 

[jennyema]

Maybe it’s just me but I think eggs are smaller these days. My large eggs look like what used to be medium and XL looks like large.

 

[pictonguy]

Maybe it’s just me but I think eggs are smaller these days. My large eggs look like what used to be medium and XL looks like large.

Yeah, if the dough is dry and not coming together it's because it's lacking moisture and why weighing everything for baking is probably the better route.

For my pasta recipe I use 750 g's of egg yolk which generally translates into around 40 yolks but that does vary more often than not.

 

[dragnlaw]

From having my own chicken's eggs for quite a few years I can totally agree with jennyema. Am soo glad we will be having our own eggs soon. Can't wait.

It is quite possible that the egg producers are turning their layers over faster. Like many things it takes time to get larger. I never culled my layers for new faster layer hens.

I truly never saw a reduction in laying as they got older. Perhaps the 5 year old's maybe, instead of 1 a day maybe every 3rd day? I know of a rescue hen at 10 years old that lay perhaps once a week, but she's a pet of course, along with a few others that he has.

 

[HeyItsSara]

Remember that package sizes shrink. If the recipe calls for a a package of butter or margarine, for example, it's going to be smaller today then it was years ago.

 

[GotGarlic]

Remember that package sizes shrink. If the recipe calls for a a package of butter or margarine, for example, it's going to be smaller today then it was years ago.

Butter is still packaged in 1-lb. boxes with four 1/4 lb (4 oz) sticks in each box. Measuring other ingredients by weight will prevent problems with them.

 

[GotGarlic]

Following the recipe on a bag of Toll House chocolate chip cookies do not turn out as they should. The dough will not even hold together enough to form anything of structure.

What I mean is if you make Toll House chocolate chips per the recipe on the bag the dough will not cling together it's like dry gram cracker crumbs it doesn't cling together. I cannot explain the problem more simply.

In years past when following the recipe on the bag, the dough would cling together and you could scoop a spoonful of dough on the cookie and it would hold together like a little mound. Using the recipe on the bag nowadays the dough is like scooping dry cracker crumbs on a cookie sheet.

If I follow the recipe to the letter the resulting cookie dough is too dry and crumbly, I can fix the problem by adding more liquid or shortening but why is this necessary? What has changed?

Do you weigh your ingredients? It sounds like your dough is dry. Maybe you're packing more flour in your measuring cups than you used to.

I bake a fair amount and I'm not having problems like you describe.

 

[dragnlaw]

Aside from butter, which sometimes is extremely erroneous in that it calls for "a stick" of butter, even the 'old time recipes' should still work.
But one must remember, back in the Church Ladies Tea Recipe Book, there was no internet to fling it all over the world and most ladies knew how big a stick, or knob of butter, coffee cup of flour. The "mug" as we know it now was only ever a tin mug from the camp for hiunters/loggers and Girl Guides etc. There were no "Best Dad Ever" mugs, rude, funny or otherwise.

One day I took all my coffee cups and measured flour in them. To just under the lip - they all actually held about a cup! I was amazed. Even mugs don't really hold that much more. Try it, think you'll be a bit surprised at how close they are!

 

[GotGarlic]

Aside from butter, which sometimes is extremely erroneous in that it calls for "a stick" of butter, even the 'old time recipes' should still work.

What do you mean? A stick of butter is 1/4 lb or 4 oz and has been for many decades.

 

[dragnlaw]

What do you mean? A stick of butter is 1/4 lb or 4 oz and has been for many decades.

I agree and if you buy butter in sticks it is a given. But if you rarely, IF EVER, buy butter in sticks, you have no idea. Although I do now use a scale - there was a time I did not and had no idea what 4 oz or 1/4 lb translated into a measuring cup.
Witness all the scribbles in my Joy of Cooking books and a few others. Also... pour contents into your 8 quart dish.... ummm, tell me please, which one is my 8 quart dish? I was never good at eyeballing it.

I'm sure that there were/are many dedicated bakers who knew it, but as a young housewife just making cookies for her kids one day = no clue.

 

[HeyItsSara]

I'm not talking about recipes that call for a specific amount. I'm talking about recipes that call for a package or a stick or whatever.

 

[taxlady]

What do you mean? A stick of butter is 1/4 lb or 4 oz and has been for many decades.

I agree and if you buy butter in sticks it is a given. But if you rarely, IF EVER, buy butter in sticks, you have no idea. Although I do now use a scale - there was a time I did not and had no idea what 4 oz or 1/4 lb translated into a measuring cup.
Witness all the scribbles in my Joy of Cooking books and a few others. Also... pour contents into your 8 quart dish.... ummm, tell me please, which one is my 8 quart dish? I was never good at eyeballing it.

I'm sure that there were/are many dedicated bakers who knew it, but as a young housewife just making cookies for her kids one day = no clue.

One four ounce stick of butter is only half a cup. A pound of butter is two cups. But, we have to pay extra for butter in sticks, instead of a one pound block of butter. i recently checked online for here in Quebec and it was usually at least $2 more for one pound of butter (same brand) in sticks as compared to one pound blocks.

 

[GotGarlic]

What do you mean? A stick of butter is 1/4 lb or 4 oz and has been for many decades.

I agree and if you buy butter in sticks it is a given. But if you rarely, IF EVER, buy butter in sticks, you have no idea.

I think most of the recipes we come across in English on the internet were developed in the United States. Most of the butter for sale in the United States is sold in 1-lb boxes of four sticks.