25 Spring Cookie Recipes You'll Want to Make All Season Long (2024)

FAQs

What homemade cookies stay fresh the longest? ›

Dry cookies, like shortbread cookies, gingersnaps, and Danish butter cookies, will stay fresher for longer because they have very little moisture.

Try using baking powder instead of baking soda. Baking soda encourages spreading while baking powder puffs the cookies up. If your recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of baking soda, you would use 3 to 4 teaspoons of baking powder.

Brown sugar, meanwhile, is dense and compacts easily, creating fewer air pockets during creaming—that means that there's less opportunity to entrap gas, creating cookies that rise less and spread more. With less moisture escaping via steam, they also stay moist and chewy.

The most likely benefit of adding water to your cookie dough is to help hydrate the batter. If your dough looks dry after mixing (especially when using browned butter), adding a tablespoon or two of water could be just what your dough needs to prevent a dry, crumbly cookie.

Almond biscotti is known for its excellent shelf life due to the double baking process, which removes most of the moisture and makes them crisp and dry. When stored in an airtight container, these cookies can stay fresh for several weeks, making them an excellent choice if you want to have cookies that last longer.

Since moisture helps cookies stay soft and fresh, adding a slice of white bread into the container with cookies can help. The moisture from the bread slice transfers to the cookies, preventing them from getting dry. White bread is best for this hack so that no flavor is added to the cookies.

Baking soda is typically used for chewy cookies, while baking powder is generally used for light and airy cookies. Since baking powder is comprised of a number of ingredients (baking soda, cream of tartar, cornstarch, etc.), using it instead of pure baking soda will affect the taste of your cookies.

In this series of photos, you can see that as we increase the baking powder, the cookies tend to rise a little more, but only to a certain point. Eventually, the reaction is so strong and violent that it will actually cause those air pockets to rupture and collapse, delivering a denser, squatter cookie.

Baking cookies quickly in a hot oven – at 375 degrees F as opposed to a lower temperature – will make for soft results. They'll bake fast instead of sitting and drying out in the oven's hot air. Ever so slightly underbaking your cookies will give you softer results than cooking them the full amount the recipe says.

Baking soda

When added to dough, baking soda releases a carbon dioxide gas which helps leaven the dough, creating a soft, fluffy cookie. Baking soda is generally used in recipes that contain an acidic ingredient such as vinegar, sour cream or citrus.

What happens if you forgot to put baking soda in cookies? ›

If you fail to add a teaspoon of baking soda or however much your recipe needs, the cookies won't have those bubbles inside them to rise up. If you forget to add the acid, too, the baking soda won't be able to react or produce carbon dioxide.

1. Cookies. Cornstarch does kind of incredible things to cookies. I mean not only does it give them soft centers, prevents them from spreading, and makes them somewhat thick (in a good way), but it also contributes to the chewiness factor, which, in my opinion, is the most important cookie attribute.

The moisture contributed by the milk will also increase spread and hydrate more of the starches in the flour. These hydrated (gelatinized) starches support the structure of the air pocket wall, keeping the cookies from collapsing once cooled. By holding more water, they also help keep the cookies softer over time.

Too Much Flour

Our cookies didn't expand much from the rolled-up balls we put on the baking sheet. They also didn't brown as well as the other cookies. It doesn't take much—in this case, my mom and I added just 3/4 cup extra flour to the dough. The cookies tasted good, but were dry and definitely crumbly.

Soft – Dough that's “soft” or “runny” can be thickened by adding one or two tablespoons of flour to your mix. This will help keep your batch from “Spreading” and coming out of the oven looking like flat, not-so-cookie-like puddles.

Keep cookies cool

Your stored cookies will stay freshest in a cool, dry place, such as the back shelf of your pantry. Depending on the variety, they'll last anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. You can also freeze cookies for up to six months.

To extend the shelf life of products, many bakers use specially formulated enzymes for preservation. These naturally occurring protein compounds can keep baked goods soft while preventing crumbling and staling.

Keep Them Sealed

The key to keeping cookies fresh and soft is to seal them in an airtight container, like a resealable freezer bag.