Do You Need Separate Bowls When Mixing Cookie Dough

Question

I recently bought a baking cookbook (after listening to the author on the Milk Street podcast!) The cookie recipes in this book mostly instruct the baker to mix all of the ingredients, except the flour, with the butter and sugar in the initial creaming process. This means the raising agents, salt, etc. I’m used to a dry ingredient mix and a wet, which get mixed together in a second step. This results in more bowls to clean! Does this technique work with most recipes? Or should I keep whisking the dry ingredients together before I add them to the wet? I know this might seem persnickety, but I love the ease of the all in one mix! Thanks for the feedback!!

April Dodd · Accepted Answer

Really glad to hear that podcast has inspired more baking, Annie. As a general rule, of course the most reliable thing to do is to follow the instructions as given in each recipe; recipe developers do a ton of work behind the scenes. That said, let's think about the reasons for the standard bowls of wet and dry ingredients. One big reason to keep dry and wet separate is so that we don't over-hydrate or over-work the flour, resulting in dense, bready cookies. So it definitely makes sense to keep the flour away from the other ingredients as long as possible. But why keep the other dry ingredients separate too? Two big reasons. First, mixing salt, spices, and leavening agents with the flour helps to ensure that they are evenly spread throughout the batter. Second, we don't want to expose leavening agents to moisture too early. Baking soda starts to react as soon as it is combined with liquid and acid (including vanilla), and part of baking powder's "oomp" is used as soon as it interacts with any form of liquid. So combining those ingredients with the flour helps to ensure you get the full leavening you need. With all of that said, you can see how, if you work quickly, most cookie recipes would work fine with the technique in your new book, which saves you that dry ingredients bowl. Does that make sense? - April D.

Do You Need Separate Bowls When Mixing Cookie Dough

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