How long to bake refrigerated cookie dough

Q: How much longer does chilled cookie dough need to cook?

30 minutes will do the trick if youre simply looking to avoid your cookies spreading all over the place. If you have the luxury of chilling the dough overnight to develop flavor, go for it.

Do you have a bar cookie recipe, but you want to turn it into drop cookies? Or do you have leftover cookie dough and want to turn in into a dessert cookie or pie crust? Or maybe you're just not sure how long to bake your grandma's prized cookie recipe.

Use these baking guidelines—and your creativity—to make perfect cookies every time. Now you can turn your favorite snickerdoodles recipe into a cookie pizza, or transform chocolate chip cookies into a delicious tart shell. Get ready for some delicious experiments.

For all cookies, preheat your oven to 350 F before baking and line the pan(s) with parchment paper or use a silicone pan liner. While some cookie recipes call for other baking temperatures, 350 F is a good place to start if you don't have the temperature and bake time handy.

Type of Cookie	Type of Baking Pan	Baking Times
Drop cookies	baking sheet	8 - 10 minutes
Bar Cookies	13 x 9 x 2-inch pan	25 - 30 minutes
Bar Cookies	15 x 10 x 1-inch pan	20 - 25 minutes
Tart Shell or Cheesecake Crust	9-inch tart or springform pan	20 - 25 minutes
Pie Crust	9-inch pie plate	10 - 15 minutes
Dessert Cookie or Pizza	10- to 12-inch circle on pan	10 - 15 minutes
Mini Tarts	1- to 2-inch balls, mini muffin tin	8 - 12 minutes

Some things to keep in mind when using this chart:

Drop Cookies: The baking time will depend on dough density and temperature of the dough. Plain butter or sugar cookie dough will take less time to bake than cookie dough loaded with mix-ins like nuts and chocolate chips. Frozen or chilled dough will take longer than room temperature dough to bake. Just keep an eye on the cookies as they bake and remove them when they start to color around the edges and lose their raw shine in the middle.
Bar Cookies: The bake time will depend on how thick the bars are, so check them often. They are done when the middle is just cooked through and no longer looks raw.
Tart Shells or Pie Crust: For a crust that holds together, use a buttery dough and bake until cooked through and starting to brown. Right after removing a cookie pie shell from the oven, push the crust down. This will help maintain the pie shell shape needed to hold the filling.
Dessert Cookie: Bake until just cooked through and no longer raw in the middle. Serve warm or let cool and decorate with frosting.

The Spruce / Madelyn Goodnight

In addition to the correct cook time, there are a few other factors that will affect the quality of your cookies:

Ingredients: Use the best cookie ingredients possible. In many cases, this means choosing butter over margarine and making sure to buy quality chocolate or cocoa powder.
Mixing: For the best results, make sure your butter, eggs, and any other chilled ingredients are at room temperature before mixing the cookie dough. The dough will come together faster and be more tender.
Chill: Although you want your cookie-making ingredients room temperature when you combine them, you’ll want your cookie dough to be cooler than room temperature. Refrigerating the dough after you make it gives the flour a chance to hydrate and absorb some of the moisture, which can improve the texture and appearance of the cookies. If you like thicker cookies, chilling also keeps the cookies from spreading as much when baking them.
Parchment: Most cookie recipes call for ungreased baking sheets. Greasing the sheets encourages the cookies to spread, which may not be desirable. Line your pans with parchment, and you'll prevent the dreaded cookie spread while also making cleanup a breeze.

Freezing: You, of course, can freeze already baked cookies, but freezing cookie dough is better. To freeze cookie dough for easy use later, place scoops of dough on lined baking sheets and freeze them for at least an hour, until the dough balls are firm. Transfer the cookie dough balls into freezer zip-top bags or airtight containers. The cookie dough balls can be baked straight from the freezer (add some baking time), or allowed to defrost on baking sheets before baking.

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Even if you're not excited to trim the tree or hang Christmas lights on your house, everyone enjoys the baking that accompanies this festive time of year. Holiday food, specifically baking Christmas cookies, is a beloved tradition.

Setting out cookies for Santa and participating in cookie swaps are two of the sweetest occasions during the season. There are plenty of times when you'll bake throughout the holidays, from homemade gifts to office party snacks.

This year, your cookies will be the favorite at every event because you followed these cookie baking tips. Sarah Epperson, one of our Test Kitchen pros, shared her best-kept cooking-making secrets, the most important of which is always to chill the cookie dough.

I know—it's not a real secret. Some recipes and directions say to chill or use the chilled dough. But you probably didn't think that step was essential to the final product. You may have even heard that refrigerated cookie dough is unnecessary. As I recently learned, chilling the dough is extremely important. And like most good things in life, we owe it all to science and butter.

That's right. The composition of your cookies will come out differently after refrigeration because of the butter in the dough.

"When your cookie dough is not refrigerated, the butter is at room temperature. Therefore the heat from the oven reacts with the butter quickly, making it spread thinner," says Epperson.

And while some people prefer a crunchy, thin cookie, there are arguably many more people who like soft, thick cookies.

"When your dough is refrigerated, the butter hardens. So when you bake them, they spread less and hold their shape better," adds Epperson. "Which means a better likelihood of a soft, chewy cookie in the center."

Chilling the dough creates fluffier cookies with better consistency. Plus, if a bowl of dough is ready in the refrigerator, it's much easier to scoop while chilled than at room temperature. Epperson said that, like many foods, cookie dough benefits from resting (in the refrigerator) to let the flavors infuse and basically marinate together. So not only will the cookie's consistency be more even, but the actual taste will be better, too!

Additional Baking Tips

Here are some additional cookie tips to help you during this year's holiday baking season.

Use more than one baking sheet. When baking multiple batches, a hot cookie sheet will melt the dough before placing it in the oven. The hot sheet can ruin the cookie's consistency, so starting with a room-temperature tray is always better.

Allow Proper Circulation

Make sure to have the right size cookie tray for your oven. For proper circulation, there must be at least two inches of clearance on all sides. This distance includes at least two inches from the top of the tray to the top of the oven.

Overlap Foil on Pans

This tip isn't technically isn't for cookies, but brownies are another common baked good for the holidays. To help the transition of brownies to a cooling tray after baking, first line the tray with foil, which overlaps and tucks into the sides.

Reuse Parchment Paper

Holiday baking can get costly. Do yourself a favor by reusing the parchment paper. Flip it over to the other side and save time and money.

Ever wonder how to get crisp outlines of your favorite Christmas cookie shapes? Flour the cookie cutter edges before using. Flouring the cookie cutter rather than the dough helps to prevent adding extra dry ingredients to the mixture.

Additional Ingredient Tips

Eggs Should Be Room Temperature

When baking, use eggs at room temperature. Leave eggs to rest after rooming them from the refrigerator until achieving this even temperature. Room temperature eggs combine more readily with butter and other ingredients, which creates a better texture and consistency in the dough.

Use Cooking Spray on Measuring Cups

To measure dry ingredients accurately, use cooking spray on measuring cups. The spray prevents it from sticking.

Don't Overpack Flour

When measuring flour for cookies, don't pack it into the cup like brown sugar. Keep measurements light by scooping or spooning flour into your measuring cup and leveling off the top. It's important to allow the flour to aerate.

After Baking Tips

Let Cookies Rest

Before transferring your cookies from the pan to a wire rack for cooling, first set the tray on top of the wire. Let cookies rest for at least five minutes, so they won't crumble as easily when you move them.

Bang Pan Against the Kitchen Counter

After taking cookies out of the oven, give the cookie sheet a bang against the counter. This professional move helps cookies to remain chewy on the inside and crispy on the outside.

30 minutes will do the trick if you're simply looking to avoid your cookies spreading all over the place. If you have the luxury of chilling the dough overnight to develop flavor, go for it.

HEAT oven to 350°F (or 325°F for nonstick cookie sheet). PLACE cookie dough rounds about 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. BAKE 10 to 14 minutes or until light golden brown.

HEAT oven to 350ºF (or 325ºF for nonstick cookie sheet). SPOON dough by tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. BAKE 12 to 15 minutes or until edges are golden brown.