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Great Recipe...but Cookies Fall Apart

sshipper's picture
sshipper

Great Recipe...but Cookies Fall Apart

hi Everyone,

I have made an extraordinary lemon cookie and despite chilling, for many hours the cookies still come out very thin and fragile,  I have also rolled them in sugar.  My customers love them,  but I really can't sell them cookies that are a bunch of crumbs.  the primary ingredients are white flour, egg, butter, lemon juice, lemon zest, baking soda, etc.

Does anyone have some ideas about what is wrong or a few ideas of what to do with the recipe?  I have tried another  recipe using vegetable oil....the texture was wonderful and the cookie was awful.

Thoughts anyone?

 

Best,

Stephanie

pmccool's picture
pmccool

If you don't have concerns about proprietary information, posting the entire recipe would be helpful.  As you are aware, a cookie made with 1/2 cup of butter will behave very differently than the same kind of cookie made with 1 cup of butter.

Process information will also be important.  Things like mixing, shaping, baking, temperatures (room, ingredients, oven), etc.

In other words, the gory details.  Your initial description can only invite random guesses, not helpful diagnoses.

Paul

mimifix's picture
mimifix

Hi Stephanie,

When a cookie spreads too much it's often from lack of flour or too much sugar. Try adding  a small amount of flour and see what happens. Next, check your sweetness level. While I agree with Paul that seeing a recipe is the most helpful for diagnosis, I would be careful since this is how you make a living.

Mimi

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

Protein, where it's coming from?  Sometimes a little extra egg white or cream might make the difference.  Or let the dough rest before adding the lemon juice or alcohol might also make a difference.  A bit of Cream of Tarter perhaps?  

Jaydot's picture
Jaydot

I use a dollop of sourdough starter instead of baking soda in cookies (about 30 gr in a total cookie mixture weight of 540 gr), then let the mixture rest for about an hour at room temp. That works beautifully and produces a very tasty cookie.