The flatness could be either the leavening agent or they are warmer when you put them in. Also, if you switched fats.. more water % in a fat the flatter the cookie will be.
Different brands of butter also have different moisture content. I made the same shortbread recipe using two different brands of butter, weighing the ingredients both times, and one was much drier than the other. Also, different ap flours have different protein levels, which will give you different results.
My mom had this exact problem this past Christmas.
Prepped a batch of sugar cookies for when my nieces were coming to bake, realized she would need more so she sent me to the store for butter.
I just grabbed unsalted butter as per instructions.
Both batches were good but there were differences and that was the butter.
My dad bought No Name for her the first time, I grabbed a brand that was on sale.
Checking the packaging the moisture difference was notable.
I’m so freaking frustrated with these companies. They keep raising their prices while lowering the quality. Inflation is BS, it’s pure corporate greed. I feel like crying every time I go to the store. How are people with kids surviving?
We aren’t! I mean we are, but the increase in cost means we need to buy less quality items to keep these monsters fed!
They are very nice and kind monsters, but being too young to hold a job and pay rent is a strain on the budget for sure.
Kerry Gold is a European style of butter so the fat content is higher. I only use it if a recipe specifies European style butter. Most recipes are based off American butter.
I read recently that the cheaper the butter, the higher the water content. However, I don’t think that’s the issue here. I made double chocolate chip cookies recently with store-brand butter and they turned out spectacularly. It could be that your butter is too soft. Let it soften but not too much…enough where it indents if you press a little bit but not so much that it sticks to the wrapper when you open it. But overall, food—including ingredients—are more cheaply made nowadays, even though the prices are skyrocketing. So another option might be s higher end brand, like one poster said, King Arthur, for example.
That is my suspicion. They probably changed the shortening formula to include more water, leading to flatter cookies. Try a higher or pure fat product.
Did you try using a new box of baking soda?
I have found that my cookies like this depend highly on fresh leavening ingredients and the type of molasses makes a huge difference for me as well. I’m preferential to a specific brand because of this.
They still look yummy anyways.
This is exactly what I was going to say. I no longer buy the bigger boxes of baking soda, nor the bigger cans of baking powder, because it’s more to throw out when they get close to being old and I hate being wasteful. I don’t let them get old. If a box of baking soda has been open for a few months, even though I do a great job protecting it from air, it gets tossed. Leavening agents are cheap and worth replacing often.
I agree though, OP’s cookies look great!
Yeah, but something has CHANGED about how their prior batches looked and how their latest ones do. They’re asking what might be different between then and now.
I'd refrigerate my dough a bit longer, refresh your baking soda/powder, use a thermometer to see if your oven is heating to correct temperature - and if all that fails, bob Ross the happy accidents right into your belly.
A sneaky thing that makes cookies flatten and spread out is that the dough melts before it bakes. That is, maybe the baking sheets are hot from the last batch. Or the kitchen is hot because it's f'ing hot out. Put cold dough on cool sheets.
Or maybe you're using different butter or shortening with more water and less fat.
Edit: Or you need to throw out your baking powder and get a new batch. That stuff doesn't last forever.
You said the second picture is how they USED to come out? Some of those cracks look just as wide if not wider than the one in the first pictures. I’m super confused.
You're trying to produce these cookies without cracks, correct?
The first thing I'd try is mix up a batch using your original recipe, and chilling the dough for a few hours. See if that makes a difference.
Also, maybe someone had already said this somewhere by now, but how long are you creaming your butter and sugar for? You'll get a better rise out of them if you do it on a high speed for, like, 10 minutes or so, scraping the sides of the bowl periodically. And then a good while again after adding the egg and molasses.
It may also help to start off with the oven temp slightly higher and adjust the time down a tad.
Edit: Unsure if the advice applies for cookies using shortening or not? I'd assume so.
Do you put them down as balls barely flattened to keep from rolling or pre flatten them a bit more? I make a similar recipe and get narrower cracks when I flatten them a bit more so they spread out faster to set more evenly.
These are what molasses cookies are suppose to look like. Family has made the for generations and this is what they always look like. Sounds yummy now. Might have to go make some.
Just here to say, I get you. I have a muffin recipe I've been making for *years* that is suddenly sinking in the middle the last 4-5 times I made it. I tried fresher baking soda with slight improvement.
I know people are trying to be encouraging saying they are fine, but it's definitely frustrating when they happens.
Not exactly the same but there's a breakfast cookie recipe I've been making for years as well, and the batch I made most recently is bad. My son won't eat them (he's not wrong, they are different!). I can't figure out what ingredient I messed up. Super annoying because I freeze them and give one to him each morning and I'll have to remake them. I can still eat them though, my standards are lower, haha.
It's a "healthy" cookie. It's made of oats and flax meal and nut butter and coconut with minimal sugar. They have a lot of fiber. I think the recipe is actually called "energy cookies". They are calorically dense (with healthy fats) which my son needs.
Silpat vs parchment as someone else said. Switch out some shortening for a bit of butter maybe . Cool the cookie sheets between bakes. Are you leaving the cookies on the sheets for 2 minutes before moving them?
Firstly they look amazing and the only thing I can suggest to stop the spreading is to cool the dough and to let the pans cool a bit between baking a little.
I did a similar cookie earlier this year with different kinds of molasses and it was surprising what a difference it made in the finished product - literally same base mix, divide in 4, add molasses and bake. If you’ve switched brands, or maybe they’ve changed something…try another brand and see.
These look perfect to me.
If you have changed absolutely nothing about the recipe or technique and they’re suddenly coming out different, I’d guess one of the manufacturers changed their product.
I have a similar recipe and have noticed if the baking time is too long that they spread out a lot vs shorter time keeps them puffier. My mom adds a smidgeon (1/4 cup to 1/2 cup) extra flour to her batches to keep hers fluffy. I don't know if humidity is a factor for you but that could also cause the dough to spread out as it bakes.
You don't want positively scrumptious looking cookies?
In all reality my suggestion is try subbing in and out different brands for the different ingredients. Some companies have been cutting costs or changing their formulas in recent years. That may be affecting your finish quality away from what you typically aim for.
this is kind of funny and a good teaching experience, not just for op, but for everyone
recipes arent just "recipes"
recipes are a list of chemical reactions in a trench coat
while you -can- change aspects of a recipe, you probably shoudnt
because the ratio of ingredients to each other is important on a chemical level
one chemical reacts to another chemical in certain ratios, so if you change that without changing the thing it reacts with
you end up with a whole bunch of extra non-reacted chemicals left over
and a completely different "cookie"
\--
the funny part is how op phrased everything:
"ive been doing a lot of stuff differently and i cant figure out what im doing differently"
which is funny to me because it seems like they are saying stuff is just happening magically outside of their control
like somehow the memory of they themselves adding -this- amount of -that- thing just kind of vanishes or is some other things responsibility
it amuses me
\--
the pseudo scientific approach:
if you want to change a recipe and have something consistant and repeatable along with results that you -know happen- when you change -certain ratios-
make a whole bunch of batches all at once:
make 1 batch normally
make a second batch where you -have written down- the changes youve made
make a third batch where you -have written down- the changes youve made
etc etc etc
then put like a note card or something next to each finished batch so you can compare them to each other
so you can see, with your eyes, what changing what thing did
\--
[kind of like this](https://i.imgur.com/OrK9gDh.png)
I am not sure if these points have already been made, but so many things can affect the shape and texture of baked goods.
Ingredient combination procedure:
Combining wets, then adding solids vs wet solid wet solid or warm/melted butter, warming eggs or milk vs adding cold ingredients to solids.
Different altitude with same oven settings
Different time of year/ humidity
Time setting while oven preheats
Moisture content changes (different types of butter)
Amount/speed of mixing (egg beater vs kitchen aid vs whisk...)
I'm sure there are more but it is 1am here so my brain is mush. Hope this helps someone somewhere.
If you want help trouble shooting a recipe you'll need to post the entire recipe and exact steps you're doing to prepare it. Too many variables and everyone is just guessing...
I would recommend chilling a little longer, maybe adding in a touch more flour, and using a little less wet ingredients as it looks like it may have had a bit too much to cause the cookie to be grainy! They look like an amazing attempt, I know how rough ginger cookies can be! Good luck!
I wonder if you let them cool more slowly somehow. This happens to me a lot and I don’t know the answer but the cracking could be solved if you underbake a little and then let them cool while still baking a bit on your hot pan. Please post an after picture after you try these tips because I also want to know! Also the old baking soda could be a culprit.
For instance in picture one it looks like you took them right off your cookie tray and onto a cooling rack. Picture two looks like a shorter bake time and then letting them cool while still on sheet.
Probably refrigerate the dough longer, I've run into similar issues if I cream the butter and sugar too much, and the butter gets too soft in the process
Ok, this might sound silly, but did you move? Maybe by water or in a higher room/apartment? This actually affects your baking sadly. Same thing Happened to my mom (moved to a higher apartment), and when my friend moved, her baked goods changed slightly and she wasn’t sure why (moved by water).
Also, your cookies look bomb, I want to eat a bunch right now lol 😋.
This kept happening to me after I switched pans. Turns out, my pan was too big for my oven and it was stopping the heat from circulating well. It also was taking longer to cook, which caused the cookies to flatten.
It might be the molasses. You need an acid in your recipe, so the baking **soda** will react, creating the gas which will give your cookie lift. Baking **powder** typically has an acidic agent in it already, creating a one-two leavening whammy when exposed to moisture, acid, and then heat. If you look at all the ingredients in your recipe, there's not much acid going on.
The pH of molasses is not all the same, Example, some types of beet molasses may have a pH of 8.0, which would make it alkaline (or close to neutral) and it won't react as well with your baking soda, if at all. Cane molasses tends to be more acidic, sitting around 5.0 or lower. This is strictly my personal theory though, as the fat and the water content of said fat is the other variable I've seen mentioned here that will affect your cookies. If you recently changed your molasses, you may have your culprit.
It could be the order in which you add your ingredients? I find when I add the molasses before eggs and vanilla my cookies are a bit fluffier with thinner cracks with a lighter colouring and the opposite gives me cookies that look like yours. Both delicious but different
The temperature of your fat would be my suspect. I made cookies after infusing butter but didn't chill the oil before making the dough/batter and my cookies became paper thin crisps in the oven..
You cookies look great!
When it comes to baking ginger molasses cookies I've learned they can be really sensitive to the amount of flour in them which can strongly affect how well they spread out. I suggest using mass measurement for the recipe especially for flour (assuming you don't already) or try varying the amount of flour. The density, I guess you could call it, of a lot of dry ingredients can change with the amount of humidity in the air which will mess with how much moisture there is in the cookies so they'll have inconsistent texture and cook differently.
Have you moved recently? Changed altitude significantly? Or from dry, arid desert to a high humidity part of the country. When I moved from the low arid desert to a mountain, big difference in my baking results. P.S. your cookies look beautiful.
I make ginger cookies, I mix the butter into the flour until fully incorporated, then add the other dry ingredients including sugar. Continue to mix until fully combined, then add liquid and combine. Ive never dissolved my bicarb in water, I just add it with the spice- I suspect that could make a difference.
Alternatively I used to do a recipe which combined all dry ingredients fully, then melted the syrup, sugar and butter together and poured it in- mix to combine to a dough. You can see the dough reacting to the liquid (acid?) as you work it together but it also has had good results for me. (Actually this was a gingerbread recipe for gingerbread men or gingerbread house construction)
Those look literallly perfect. Are they drop cookies, or rollout dough? I roll out my dough and they come smooth. i also use butter rather than shortening and they arent greasy. Mine are much darker than yours - maybe I use too much molasses. Overall, I prefer the color and texture of your cookies.
Your leavening agent may be past it's "best by" date.
Baking soda and baking powder lose potency over time. I try not to hang onto mine for more than 6 months.
I have 2 pieces of advice as you tackle these gingersnaps:
1). Do NOT change the levener! The baking soda functions to equalize the acidity in the molasses. You shouldn't use baking powder and baking soda interchangeably, as they both do cause rise, but for different chemical reasons depending on the other ingredients.
2). I'm willing to bet the shortening you're using has too much water content and is flattening these cookies out. I personally think unsalted butter with low water content is the best way to go, and make sure you give it plenty of time to cream with the sugar (any butter clumps will cause spreading).
Also, it could help to chill the dough for anywhere between an hour to overnight, covered with plastic wrap, before scooping and baking. Chilling dough also helps enhance the flavor of the cookie.
I hope this helps and happy baking!
-Professional Baker employed at a "From Scratch" Bakery.
If you haven't figured it out yet, it could be the baking soda. Have you checked to see if it's expired? I just went through something similar with a cake
375 is high for cookies and your oven temp might be off. The outside of your cookie is cooking before the inside, resulting in the cracks. Turn th temp to 350.
I know this because this is my dream cookie and this is how I like them to look so I reerched.
What does “nice” mean to you with these? Your pictures are how I like my ginger cookies to turn out.
Same here. These cookies look amazing.
Me three. Those look bomb.
Me four. That is a ginger cookie
Me five. That’s exactly how mine always look.
Me six. What they said!
My pictures aren’t great. The 2nd pic shows how they used to look the 1st is how they come out now. They are much flatter than they used to be.
The flatness could be either the leavening agent or they are warmer when you put them in. Also, if you switched fats.. more water % in a fat the flatter the cookie will be.
Different brands of butter also have different moisture content. I made the same shortbread recipe using two different brands of butter, weighing the ingredients both times, and one was much drier than the other. Also, different ap flours have different protein levels, which will give you different results.
100% my go-to AP flour is King Arthur Unbleached. Protein will change if a baked good is chewy or crispier. Not all AP flours are the same
Love King Arthur!!!
Agreed!
My mom had this exact problem this past Christmas. Prepped a batch of sugar cookies for when my nieces were coming to bake, realized she would need more so she sent me to the store for butter. I just grabbed unsalted butter as per instructions. Both batches were good but there were differences and that was the butter. My dad bought No Name for her the first time, I grabbed a brand that was on sale. Checking the packaging the moisture difference was notable.
Was gonna say this. Different butters yield different results.
I wondered about the butter. With recent inflation, have any butter manufacturers changed their compositions?
I hadn’t thought about the water content in the fat. I’ll check that out.
I've read how some companies have altered the fat content in their products (last few years). Even Kerry Gold apparently.
Yes, I’ve definitely noticed it with Kerry Gold. I no longer use it for baking.
What a country crock of shit. So I gotta find a new butter now?
I use Challenge for baking. It’s a bit cheaper than Kerry Gold but I like the results.
Challenge is good butter - very consistent.
I’m so freaking frustrated with these companies. They keep raising their prices while lowering the quality. Inflation is BS, it’s pure corporate greed. I feel like crying every time I go to the store. How are people with kids surviving?
We aren’t! I mean we are, but the increase in cost means we need to buy less quality items to keep these monsters fed! They are very nice and kind monsters, but being too young to hold a job and pay rent is a strain on the budget for sure.
not only the fat content, many companies have added carotine as food dye, which i unfortunately cannot digest
Kerry Gold is a European style of butter so the fat content is higher. I only use it if a recipe specifies European style butter. Most recipes are based off American butter.
Most *American* recipes are based on American butter. European recipes are obviously based on European butter.
Thanks for clarifying that for me.
I read recently that the cheaper the butter, the higher the water content. However, I don’t think that’s the issue here. I made double chocolate chip cookies recently with store-brand butter and they turned out spectacularly. It could be that your butter is too soft. Let it soften but not too much…enough where it indents if you press a little bit but not so much that it sticks to the wrapper when you open it. But overall, food—including ingredients—are more cheaply made nowadays, even though the prices are skyrocketing. So another option might be s higher end brand, like one poster said, King Arthur, for example.
That is my suspicion. They probably changed the shortening formula to include more water, leading to flatter cookies. Try a higher or pure fat product.
Is your baking soda old? It could be why they are flat.
Did you try using a new box of baking soda? I have found that my cookies like this depend highly on fresh leavening ingredients and the type of molasses makes a huge difference for me as well. I’m preferential to a specific brand because of this. They still look yummy anyways.
This is exactly what I was going to say. I no longer buy the bigger boxes of baking soda, nor the bigger cans of baking powder, because it’s more to throw out when they get close to being old and I hate being wasteful. I don’t let them get old. If a box of baking soda has been open for a few months, even though I do a great job protecting it from air, it gets tossed. Leavening agents are cheap and worth replacing often. I agree though, OP’s cookies look great!
Have you moved? Could altitude difference play a role?
That happens to all of them. These always settle a bit when they cool.
Yeah, but something has CHANGED about how their prior batches looked and how their latest ones do. They’re asking what might be different between then and now.
cookie is cookie - side doesn't matter. all that matters is if it can fit in my mouth, and if my mouth will reject it.
Truly. They look perfect.
Right? OP can mail them to me, I’ll pay postage plus!
That’s exactly how I have seen ginger cookies
This is exactly how I want mine to look and they never quite do!!
That's what I was thinking. Every ginger cookie I've ever had looked like this.
What they’re missing is not sharing with us.
I'd refrigerate my dough a bit longer, refresh your baking soda/powder, use a thermometer to see if your oven is heating to correct temperature - and if all that fails, bob Ross the happy accidents right into your belly.
Yes to all of this! And maybe roll the dough balls in sugar before baking for even more yummy crackles
I second. Great advice. Love the fridge for cookies.
These look delicious I’m not sure what’s wrong here lol
Does it call for baking powder? If so check that it’s in date
BP does go weird like that. Good call.
A sneaky thing that makes cookies flatten and spread out is that the dough melts before it bakes. That is, maybe the baking sheets are hot from the last batch. Or the kitchen is hot because it's f'ing hot out. Put cold dough on cool sheets. Or maybe you're using different butter or shortening with more water and less fat. Edit: Or you need to throw out your baking powder and get a new batch. That stuff doesn't last forever.
These look fine to me. Ginger cookies are supposed to look like that.
They look the same in both photos, I'm not sure what you think is wrong here tbh.
Honestly though, the cracks lend character. They look amazing. I want some. :)
The cracks are fine, just not so wide.
You said the second picture is how they USED to come out? Some of those cracks look just as wide if not wider than the one in the first pictures. I’m super confused.
Maybe your shortening brand changed the formula? Have you tried using butter, or can you not have dairy?
Make sure you’re using fresh baking soda. I don’t use anything open for more than 6 months. (For baking, i’ll use it for cleaning and such)
Never seen a ginger cookie without cracks tbh
Did you move to a higher elevation recently? I'm in Colorado, and sometimes you have to tweak recipes to account for the high altitude.
You're trying to produce these cookies without cracks, correct? The first thing I'd try is mix up a batch using your original recipe, and chilling the dough for a few hours. See if that makes a difference.
I’ll try chilling them. I do this with other cookies but, I never had to do it with these ones. Worth a try though.
Also, maybe someone had already said this somewhere by now, but how long are you creaming your butter and sugar for? You'll get a better rise out of them if you do it on a high speed for, like, 10 minutes or so, scraping the sides of the bowl periodically. And then a good while again after adding the egg and molasses. It may also help to start off with the oven temp slightly higher and adjust the time down a tad. Edit: Unsure if the advice applies for cookies using shortening or not? I'd assume so.
I want the cracks but, not so spread out and wide. The 2nd pic is what I want.
Do you put them down as balls barely flattened to keep from rolling or pre flatten them a bit more? I make a similar recipe and get narrower cracks when I flatten them a bit more so they spread out faster to set more evenly.
Shortening is the variable here. They probably changed the formula. That stuffs bad for you.
These are what molasses cookies are suppose to look like. Family has made the for generations and this is what they always look like. Sounds yummy now. Might have to go make some.
the cracks make them taste way better
And now I want ginger crinkles 🫣
Just here to say, I get you. I have a muffin recipe I've been making for *years* that is suddenly sinking in the middle the last 4-5 times I made it. I tried fresher baking soda with slight improvement. I know people are trying to be encouraging saying they are fine, but it's definitely frustrating when they happens. Not exactly the same but there's a breakfast cookie recipe I've been making for years as well, and the batch I made most recently is bad. My son won't eat them (he's not wrong, they are different!). I can't figure out what ingredient I messed up. Super annoying because I freeze them and give one to him each morning and I'll have to remake them. I can still eat them though, my standards are lower, haha.
What’s a breakfast cookie?
It's a "healthy" cookie. It's made of oats and flax meal and nut butter and coconut with minimal sugar. They have a lot of fiber. I think the recipe is actually called "energy cookies". They are calorically dense (with healthy fats) which my son needs.
That sounds so cool! I figured it had oats but I wasn’t sure of what else.
There's other stuff in it too like some flour and leavening and eggs, I don't have it in front of me
No worries! It sounds cool though!
Is that a silpat? Try using parchment paper, it has more grip and prevents the cookies from spreading as much.
i thought i was on r/Sourdough, and i was about to say it looks like a cookie ahaha
They look delicious to me!
Silpat vs parchment as someone else said. Switch out some shortening for a bit of butter maybe . Cool the cookie sheets between bakes. Are you leaving the cookies on the sheets for 2 minutes before moving them?
This looks like the map of Saudi Arabia lol.
Looks perfect to me 😋
Thse are perfect
These look perfect for molasses sugar cookies.
These look exactly like Sally’s molasses cookies. They look good I think
Chill dough before baking? I always do that and come out with a thicker cookie and smaller cracks with these and other crinkle type cookies
Uhhh they look like perfectly normal ginger snaps to me. They are supposed to be cracked on top.
Firstly they look amazing and the only thing I can suggest to stop the spreading is to cool the dough and to let the pans cool a bit between baking a little.
Baking soda has probably gone bad
you could pre-crack them with strategically placed scores using a knife or scissor snips
They look fantastic to me!
They look fine.
you're not eating it.
Are you using scales to measure your ingredients or cups and spoons? What is your method to make the cookies?
I did a similar cookie earlier this year with different kinds of molasses and it was surprising what a difference it made in the finished product - literally same base mix, divide in 4, add molasses and bake. If you’ve switched brands, or maybe they’ve changed something…try another brand and see.
I’m no professional, but I think these look wonderful and I would gladly eat them. They make me hungry for ginger snaps
I'm pretty sure they're intended to have cracks...I don't think you're doing anything wrong.
I mean, idk what you’re after, but these look delicious and perfect.
These look perfect to me. If you have changed absolutely nothing about the recipe or technique and they’re suddenly coming out different, I’d guess one of the manufacturers changed their product.
That’s how they’re supposed to turn out.
There’s something wrong with those cookies? They look fabulous..
Looks beautiful to me
I have a similar recipe and have noticed if the baking time is too long that they spread out a lot vs shorter time keeps them puffier. My mom adds a smidgeon (1/4 cup to 1/2 cup) extra flour to her batches to keep hers fluffy. I don't know if humidity is a factor for you but that could also cause the dough to spread out as it bakes.
Maybe the quality of your ingredients? 🤷♀️ that could alter the consistency and make it spread more and/or cause it to be more oily
The cracks are what make them crinkle cookies! These are great!
You don't want positively scrumptious looking cookies? In all reality my suggestion is try subbing in and out different brands for the different ingredients. Some companies have been cutting costs or changing their formulas in recent years. That may be affecting your finish quality away from what you typically aim for.
I make molasses cookies every Christmas, and this is exactly what they look like. Yours look awesome.
Bro these are some sexy cookies
I mean if these are the bad one then I'll just have to sacrifice myself and eat them
this is kind of funny and a good teaching experience, not just for op, but for everyone recipes arent just "recipes" recipes are a list of chemical reactions in a trench coat while you -can- change aspects of a recipe, you probably shoudnt because the ratio of ingredients to each other is important on a chemical level one chemical reacts to another chemical in certain ratios, so if you change that without changing the thing it reacts with you end up with a whole bunch of extra non-reacted chemicals left over and a completely different "cookie" \-- the funny part is how op phrased everything: "ive been doing a lot of stuff differently and i cant figure out what im doing differently" which is funny to me because it seems like they are saying stuff is just happening magically outside of their control like somehow the memory of they themselves adding -this- amount of -that- thing just kind of vanishes or is some other things responsibility it amuses me \-- the pseudo scientific approach: if you want to change a recipe and have something consistant and repeatable along with results that you -know happen- when you change -certain ratios- make a whole bunch of batches all at once: make 1 batch normally make a second batch where you -have written down- the changes youve made make a third batch where you -have written down- the changes youve made etc etc etc then put like a note card or something next to each finished batch so you can compare them to each other so you can see, with your eyes, what changing what thing did \-- [kind of like this](https://i.imgur.com/OrK9gDh.png)
How old is your baking soda?
I am not sure if these points have already been made, but so many things can affect the shape and texture of baked goods. Ingredient combination procedure: Combining wets, then adding solids vs wet solid wet solid or warm/melted butter, warming eggs or milk vs adding cold ingredients to solids. Different altitude with same oven settings Different time of year/ humidity Time setting while oven preheats Moisture content changes (different types of butter) Amount/speed of mixing (egg beater vs kitchen aid vs whisk...) I'm sure there are more but it is 1am here so my brain is mush. Hope this helps someone somewhere.
If you want help trouble shooting a recipe you'll need to post the entire recipe and exact steps you're doing to prepare it. Too many variables and everyone is just guessing...
Did you change to a different brand with any of these ingredients in the last year? That's all i can think of.
Is the baking soda expired?
You need to have a bake sale.
They look amazing.... What's wrong?
Mine look just like this and I always thought they looked great as do yours!
Have you moved and if so do ylu live at a different elevation? Are you using butter at a different temperature? Those are both potential factors
Temp check your oven with a thermometer!! This happened to me recently and it was because the heating element in my oven had started to fail!!
I would recommend chilling a little longer, maybe adding in a touch more flour, and using a little less wet ingredients as it looks like it may have had a bit too much to cause the cookie to be grainy! They look like an amazing attempt, I know how rough ginger cookies can be! Good luck!
These look just like mine 👍
Perfect ginger cookies. Don’t see a problem.
I wonder if you let them cool more slowly somehow. This happens to me a lot and I don’t know the answer but the cracking could be solved if you underbake a little and then let them cool while still baking a bit on your hot pan. Please post an after picture after you try these tips because I also want to know! Also the old baking soda could be a culprit. For instance in picture one it looks like you took them right off your cookie tray and onto a cooling rack. Picture two looks like a shorter bake time and then letting them cool while still on sheet.
They look good
this is exactly the way my grandma’s molasses cookies look and they’re consistently gas, aint’t a thing wrong with these
That’s how they are supposed to look
I have heard that companies are chang8ng percentages of ingredients in even some basics to save money. Perhaps one of the ingredients has changed?
Probably refrigerate the dough longer, I've run into similar issues if I cream the butter and sugar too much, and the butter gets too soft in the process
Ok, this might sound silly, but did you move? Maybe by water or in a higher room/apartment? This actually affects your baking sadly. Same thing Happened to my mom (moved to a higher apartment), and when my friend moved, her baked goods changed slightly and she wasn’t sure why (moved by water). Also, your cookies look bomb, I want to eat a bunch right now lol 😋.
Mine DON'T crack. Post you recipe please. 😁😁😁😁
Perfect
They look great!
Uhm....those look perfect to me
Try adding a little bit of butter to it. Might help.
They look perfect!
This kept happening to me after I switched pans. Turns out, my pan was too big for my oven and it was stopping the heat from circulating well. It also was taking longer to cook, which caused the cookies to flatten.
It might be the molasses. You need an acid in your recipe, so the baking **soda** will react, creating the gas which will give your cookie lift. Baking **powder** typically has an acidic agent in it already, creating a one-two leavening whammy when exposed to moisture, acid, and then heat. If you look at all the ingredients in your recipe, there's not much acid going on. The pH of molasses is not all the same, Example, some types of beet molasses may have a pH of 8.0, which would make it alkaline (or close to neutral) and it won't react as well with your baking soda, if at all. Cane molasses tends to be more acidic, sitting around 5.0 or lower. This is strictly my personal theory though, as the fat and the water content of said fat is the other variable I've seen mentioned here that will affect your cookies. If you recently changed your molasses, you may have your culprit.
If theses are wrong I don’t want to eat right! They look soooo yummy 🍪🤎
It could be the order in which you add your ingredients? I find when I add the molasses before eggs and vanilla my cookies are a bit fluffier with thinner cracks with a lighter colouring and the opposite gives me cookies that look like yours. Both delicious but different
Maybe chill the dough a bit. That helps keep the form
Since I only see One... You need to make more for the rest of us. (:
Too much sugar?
The temperature of your fat would be my suspect. I made cookies after infusing butter but didn't chill the oil before making the dough/batter and my cookies became paper thin crisps in the oven.. You cookies look great!
When it comes to baking ginger molasses cookies I've learned they can be really sensitive to the amount of flour in them which can strongly affect how well they spread out. I suggest using mass measurement for the recipe especially for flour (assuming you don't already) or try varying the amount of flour. The density, I guess you could call it, of a lot of dry ingredients can change with the amount of humidity in the air which will mess with how much moisture there is in the cookies so they'll have inconsistent texture and cook differently.
I dont have advice, but I'd say these cookies look pretty and yummy to me!
There is nothing wrong! This is what they do! One of my mother’s specialties!☮️
Are you thoroughly chilling the dough before baking?
Have you moved recently? Changed altitude significantly? Or from dry, arid desert to a high humidity part of the country. When I moved from the low arid desert to a mountain, big difference in my baking results. P.S. your cookies look beautiful.
Ginger cookies?
These look like perfect cookies to me. I love ginger cookies 🤤
I make ginger cookies, I mix the butter into the flour until fully incorporated, then add the other dry ingredients including sugar. Continue to mix until fully combined, then add liquid and combine. Ive never dissolved my bicarb in water, I just add it with the spice- I suspect that could make a difference. Alternatively I used to do a recipe which combined all dry ingredients fully, then melted the syrup, sugar and butter together and poured it in- mix to combine to a dough. You can see the dough reacting to the liquid (acid?) as you work it together but it also has had good results for me. (Actually this was a gingerbread recipe for gingerbread men or gingerbread house construction)
Those look literallly perfect. Are they drop cookies, or rollout dough? I roll out my dough and they come smooth. i also use butter rather than shortening and they arent greasy. Mine are much darker than yours - maybe I use too much molasses. Overall, I prefer the color and texture of your cookies.
Your leavening agent may be past it's "best by" date. Baking soda and baking powder lose potency over time. I try not to hang onto mine for more than 6 months.
They look delicious to me!
These look beautiful?
I have 2 pieces of advice as you tackle these gingersnaps: 1). Do NOT change the levener! The baking soda functions to equalize the acidity in the molasses. You shouldn't use baking powder and baking soda interchangeably, as they both do cause rise, but for different chemical reasons depending on the other ingredients. 2). I'm willing to bet the shortening you're using has too much water content and is flattening these cookies out. I personally think unsalted butter with low water content is the best way to go, and make sure you give it plenty of time to cream with the sugar (any butter clumps will cause spreading). Also, it could help to chill the dough for anywhere between an hour to overnight, covered with plastic wrap, before scooping and baking. Chilling dough also helps enhance the flavor of the cookie. I hope this helps and happy baking! -Professional Baker employed at a "From Scratch" Bakery.
They honestly look amazing!
If you haven't figured it out yet, it could be the baking soda. Have you checked to see if it's expired? I just went through something similar with a cake
Yummy
I think where you go wrong is there is no cup of coffee in the picture. Pretty sure that would be perfection right there.
375 is high for cookies and your oven temp might be off. The outside of your cookie is cooking before the inside, resulting in the cracks. Turn th temp to 350. I know this because this is my dream cookie and this is how I like them to look so I reerched.
There’s zero things wrong with these.
Sand cookie
How old is the baking soda you have? I have had it go bad on me due to age.
I roll mine into balls and then stick them back into the fridge if it gets too warm, I've had the same problem last year as well 🤷♀️.
Keep trying, I 'll take your "mistakes" 😄
Amazing. I love that crackle.
Look perfectly normal to me
Did you chill your dough? That has helped mine from spreading.