There’s nothing worse than finishing a batch of rollout sugar cookies just to have the cookie dough be too dry and the baked cookies taste like flour.
We’ve all been there…
You labor over that batch of cookies from scratch and then when you finally bite into the finished product they just taste like… flour?
Even worse, the dough is all crumbly, doesn’t want to bind together, rolls out lumpy and just comes out looking dry.
I get this question often about my cookie recipe.
The assumption always is that there’s something wrong with my cookie recipe.
The question is often more nuanced and posed as: can I add more sugar to this recipe? It doesn’t taste sweet enough.
Or more bluntly: this recipe is awful! It’s dry and tastes way too much like flour. AND the dough was way too crumbly and didn’t stick together at all.
Friends, I hate to break it to you, but the cause of the too dry dough or the flour taste isn’t my recipe 😉 Chances are it’s how you add the flour.
(And, now, do not add more sugar! It will make the cookie spread more and do other things that I don’t entirely understand 😉 )
Let me explain!
(And read along for my top 4 tips to not making your cookies taste like flour.)
*DISCLOSURE:This post contains affiliate links which means that, at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission if you make a purchasefrom one of my links. I greatly appreciate your support!
Weigh Your Flour
As you’ll see in my class workbooks and on my blog, all of my recipes come with weights in grams for ingredients first (and then cup measurements after).
This is because weighing your ingredients is the BEST way to measure the correct amount. Improper flour measurement is the #1 cause of your cookie dough being too dry or the cookies tasting like flour.
Baking is a science, right? Well, science needs precise measurements to work best.
Here’s a link to a scale I recently bought on Amazon, but really you can use whatever you have that has both grams and ounces (grams for the ingredients in the icing/cookie recipe and ounces for weighing your icing).
Generally speaking, 1 cup of flour is 120 grams. That said, some different brands will say as low as 112 or high as 130. I just go with 120g 😉
Proper Measuring Cup Technique
If you can’t weigh the flour, make sure you use proper measuring cup technique! This will also prevent the cookie dough from being too dry.
What NOT to do:
DO NOT scoop the flour out of the bag/container with the measuring scoop. This can add up to 50% more flour than what is actually called for because you are compacting the flour as you as scooping (kind of like the difference between loosely measuring brown sugar vs. packed brown sugar).
What TO do:
Use a spoon to fill the measuring cup and then use a knife to scrape off the excess from the top. This will give you the perfect amount of flour!
Here’s a short video on YouTube to show you what I mean.
Roll Your Dough Out With Powdered Sugar
Most people need to sprinkle their rolling pin and/or rolling surface with something to keep the dough from sticking to it (this sugar cookie recipe shouldn’t be THAT sticky so sometimes it’s not needed, but I always use it anyway).
The most common product to use is flour for this. If you’re going to use flour, you have to be careful with how much you’re sprinkling because you can VERY easily add too much flour to any recipe. I repeat: this method can VERY easily result in cookies that taste like flour.
While my cookie recipe doesn’t have TOO much flour, I will say that it is on the higher end of flour content. So, if you’re sprinkling with flour, it’s even easier to ruin the flour balance in the recipe by adding too much.
Instead, I recommend sprinkling with powdered sugar.
This will make the dough taste a tiny bit sweeter on the outside and it can sometimes leave a bit of sheen if you use too much (I’ve even had some people claim that my cookies look underbaked because of this…they’re not!). But otherwise, it’s my preferred method!
Now, if you only have flour on hand, that’s OK! Just don’t be heavy-handed, ok 😉 You CAN use flour to roll out the dough and have it not end up tasting like flour, but it’s a delicate balance.
Do Not Over Bake The Cookies
Ok, this isn’t exactly related to preventing your cookies from tasting like flour, but since we’re talking about my cookie recipe, might as well talk about one of the most important variables to success: do not over bake the cookies.
I repeat, DO NOT OVER BAKE THE COOKIES.
Many cookie recipes (mostly drop recipes, but some rollout) are best when the edges are browned (the browning usually adds a nice caramelized flavor), but not mine. This is another reason why the salt content is so high in my recipe so that there is enough flavor without needing to brown the cookies.
And just to be clear: my recipe is NOT meant to be crispy! So browning my recipe will just burn it, not make it crispy and delicious.
For my recipe, it’s best when it is JUST cooked enough. This the point RIGHT BEFORE browning.
How do you know when they’re perfectly baked?
If your cookies are browned, they’re over-baked.
If they’re still shiny in the middle, they’re under-baked.
If they’re matte/set in the middle and the edges are NOT brown yet, they’re perfect.
Often, I don’t always know FOR SURE until I take them out of the oven and flip one over (VERY carefully). The bottom will look perfectly cooked and no browning in sight.
So, how long does that take?
In my recipe I give a range of 8-12 minutes because it depends on:
- how big the cookies are
- how close together you placed them (closer together the longer they’ll take to bake)
- whether you’re using parchment paper, silicone mats (regular or the perforated Chua mats) or nothing
- the type of pan you’re using (“nonstick” tend to be thicker and take longer to bake)
- your oven (they don’t all bake the same!)
- oven temperature (no oven heats up to exactly what’s on the dial, so it’s best to use an oven thermometer for the most accurate results)
Now, if you over-bake your cookies, it’s not the end of the world. Promise! It’s all a learning curve. Make notes for next time so you can improve 😉
The nice thing about my lemon royal icing recipe is that the addition of the lemon juice somehow softens the cookie over time.
Don’t ask me why or how because I don’t technically know, I just know that this has always happened with my cookies and apparently that doesn’t happen with vanilla royal icing.
And, second of all, it tastes delicious and has a strong flavor so it does a decent job at masking any off taste on the cookie 😉
If you live in a high-altitude climate…
I do not personally live in a high-altitude climate and I’ve never baked or decorated in one, but I’ve gotten this question a few times so I consulted a cookie friend who does! The general recommendation seems to be to add an additional egg yolk to the cookie recipe to prevent the cookies from drying out.
Hope all of these tips helped to prevent your dough next time from being too dry or from tasting like flour!
Other posts you might be interested in:
- What Is Royal Icing: A Beginner’s Guide
- How to store royal icing (more detailed instructions)
- Royal icing consistencies
- How much icing per cookie – coming soon!
- All of my favorite cookie decorating supplies
- Left-Handed Cookie Decorating
- Cookie Decorating Practice Sheets
