If you are seeking an answer to how to fix cookie dough with too much flour, chances are that you’ve made a major cookie blunder and need help reviving your cookie dough batter. Don’t worry, we’ve all been there! In today’s post, I’ll offer my favorite tips and tricks for reviving cookie dough suffering from too much flour. Contrary to belief, dough with too much flour can still be resurrected, often even with as little as a single ingredient. Ready to fix that floury cookie dough? Then, let’s get to it!
Table of Contents
- How Do You Know if Cookie Dough Has Too Much Flour?
- What Happens if Extra Flour Is Added to Cookie Dough?
- How to Fix Cookies With Too Much Flour?
- Let the Cookie Dough Rest
- What Happens if You Bake Cookie Dough With Too Much Flour?
- How to Fix Cookie Dough With Too Much Flour? These Tips Work!
- FAQs
How Do You Know if Cookie Dough Has Too Much Flour?
Cookie dough that has too much flour will be thick and hard to stir. It may appear very pale, crumbly, and even chalky looking.
Of course, there are a few cookie dough recipes (both edible and non-edible) that have this look to them anyway. However, in most instances and types of cookie dough, cookie dough should be moldable, much like soft clay or playdough. It should not be hard to the point that you can’t get your spoon or hands through it.
If you find that your cookie dough is this stiff, try remediating it with the tips mentioned below.
What Happens if Extra Flour Is Added to Cookie Dough?
Adding extra flour to your dough may help or harm your cookies.
The action of adding a little extra flour to cookie dough can have its benefits. In fact, this is among the many surefire ways to fix sticky or runny cookie dough when you’ve added too many liquid ingredients.
However, this same method of adding extra flour to your dough can also ruin your cookies. Too much flour will affect your cookies in the following ways:
- Chalky taste: Putting too much flour in your cookies will leave your cookies tasting, well, like flour. This chalky and slightly bitter taste is the last thing you’d expect from deliciously fresh-baked cookies, so you’ll want to avoid adding more flour to your cookie dough if you think there’s already enough.
- Bland flavor: Apart from the chalky taste comes the bland flavor of too much flour in the dough. While adding a bit of flour to runny dough is fine, adding too much flour will leave the resulting cookie tasting bland. This is not only due to the flour itself, but the ingredients are now out of ratio. Thus, a cookie that should have been sweet is now tasting dull as if flour was the only ingredient. This is why it is important to strike the right balance between dry ingredients and wet ingredients to achieve the perfect cookie dough consistency.
- Crumbly bite: As you might imagine, adding too much flour to your dough can dry a cookie dough recipe out. The end result will be dry cookie dough that results in an equally dry and crumbly cookie. This may be particularly disappointing if you love a chewier cookie. But don’t despair. I have the tips and tricks you need to solve these issues later on in this post!
- Thick cookie: Some cookie dough recipes are naturally thick. You may even be looking to thicken cookie dough if it’s too thin. But when a cookie isn’t designed to be that way, it can taste really gross. Just as flour is added to sticky dough to make it the right consistency, adding too much flour can result in a thick dough that renders your cookies dry and unappetizing.
- Doughy center: Along with yielding dry cookies, adding too many dry ingredients, namely flour, can cause your cookie dough to bake unevenly. The result is a cracked, crumbly, and thick cookie that likely has an undone center.
How to Fix Cookies With Too Much Flour?
Now that you know the common conundrums associated with putting too much flour in cookie dough, it’s time to reveal how to fix cookie dough with too much flour. The answer is that adding more liquid to achieve the correct consistency is key.
But exactly what should you be adding? And are there any other techniques that can save your royally messed up batter?
What Do I Do if I Put Too Much Flour in Cookie Dough?
You can easily solve the issue of putting too much flour in your cookie dough. Try these tips the next time you encounter this issue.
Add an Egg
Adding an egg is a great way to add a little moisture to your cookie dough while reaping other benefits of adding an extra egg. For example, adding an additional egg to cookie dough has long been associated with yielding a chewier cookie.
In addition, an extra egg adds just the right amount of liquid without compromising much on the flavor. It can also give your cookie some oomph and dimension. in
All in all, adding egg as extra liquid is a great way to get your dough completely perfect!
Add Milk
Adding milk to cookie dough with too much flour can be a lifesaver when it comes to achieving the correct cookie dough consistency. If you’re dealing with edible cookie dough, know that adding milk is often a standard part of a cookie dough recipe. In fact, many edible cookie doughs instruct you to add as much milk as you need to achieve the desired consistency.
With normal cookie dough, you’ll notice that milk is rarely a part of the ingredients list. Still, this is a viable option for reviving cookie dough with too much flour because it adds more liquid without affecting the cookie dough’s flavor. Not to mention, milk is almost always a staple in every kitchen, so this is a quick and easy ingredient to grab whenever cookie-making troubles strike.
Add Water
Much like adding milk, adding water is a perfectly viable way to fix dry cookie dough that has a copious amount of flour. When doing so, only add a teaspoon or so at a time until you achieve the right consistency. From there, gently stir the dough with a wooden spoon (or your hands) to get the water fully incorporated.
Be very careful not to add too much water to your dough. Doing so will yield bland results and can also cause your cookie texture to change.
Add Butter (or Oil)
Adding a fat to your dough is another great way to help loosen up a dough that has too much flour.
Adding more fat to dough can sometimes change the consistency, but it will depend on what kind of fat you use. To begin, I always recommend using only a tablespoon or so at a time. This will prevent you from adding too much fat to cookie dough which can yield its own set of issues.
Knead the Dough
Apart from using a normal wooden spoon or rubber spatula to mix cookie dough, you can also opt to use your hands. Using your hands to knead cookie dough allows the warmth from your skin to help meld the dough together when it has too much flour. It also gives you the opportunity to feel the dough’s consistency for yourself to make sure it’s what it should be – not too dry and not too sticky.
Let the Cookie Dough Rest
Assuming you have put enough flour in the cookie dough (and not too much), you may simply need to let your cookie dough rest before stirring it again.
Though you may THINK there’s too much flour in the dough, it’s possible that it’s the right amount, but it just needs time to sit. This is most often the case when you’ve over-mixed the cookie dough, which is something you definitely want to avoid doing.
By allowing the dough to rest, the dough becomes easier to work with.
What Happens if You Bake Cookie Dough With Too Much Flour?
If you don’t feel like following the aforementioned steps to fix cookie dough with too much flour, you may decide to simply bake the dough without making any adjustments.
The results? You’ll likely dislike the taste and texture of the cookies. Depending on how much flour you’ve put in them, they’ll probably be dry, crumbly, chalky, and bland.
If this happens to you, consider smashing the cookies up and using them to top your ice cream (like this Oreo cookie dough recipe) or mixing them into a milkshake. Cookies with too much flour may not taste great, but they certainly have their uses if you know how to get creative with them!
How to Fix Cookie Dough With Too Much Flour? These Tips Work!
Remember, fixing cookie dough with too much flour is a relatively simple task. To make dough pliable again, simply add a bit of liquid or use your hands to warm the dough up enough to work through. If this doesn’t work, you may need to bake the cookies anyway and use them for alternate purposes. The cookies may not taste exactly as planned, but I’m sure you can find good uses for them!
I hope this has helped you learn how to fix cookie dough with too much flour. Have any of these methods worked for you? Until next time!
FAQs
What happens if you put too much flour in dough?
Too much flour in cookie dough will cause the dough to be difficult to stir and can often make the dough dry, chalky, and crumbly.
How do you remove excess flour?
Excess flour cannot be removed from cookie dough per se, but too much flour can often be remediated by adding extra liquid in the form of egg, milk, or water.
