This Is When Chilling Your Cookie Dough Is Actually Worth It (and When It Isn’t)

Have you ever embarked on what you thought would be a direct line to warm home-baked cookies only to read, “chill for up to 30 minutes or overnight”? Is chilling dough, especially for cookies, really that important? I’m always looking for a step that I can simplify or skip entirely, so I’ve often wondered if chilling cookie dough worth it.

The answer, as you might have guessed, depends on the cookie.

Why You Should Chill Cookie Dough

Hundreds of cookie dough recipes call for chilling the dough for some length of time before baking. In her cookbook, Life is What You Bake It, Valerie Lomas, winner of The Great American Baking Show, refers to chilling dough as “aging,” which gives it a certain sophistication.

“Like fine wine and women,” Lomas says, “cookie dough gets better with age.” Lomas explains that a minimum of 30 minutes of chill time (though, ideally longer) will allow the butter to firm up, helping it stay solid longer in the oven. This reduces the dreaded spread, which gives you those big, misshapen cookie puddles.

Lomas also notes that, during the chilling time, the flour is able to soak up the wet ingredients, which leads to better browning and flavor.

When You Can Skip Chilling Cookie Dough

Chilling cookie dough isn’t mandatory of course, and if you’re willing to suffer through a blonder, thinner cookie, you can scoop that dough right onto the sheet tray and pop it in the oven.

It’s also unnecessary for many cookie dough recipes that call for melted, as opposed to softened, butter. Spreadable cookie doughs, like for tuiles, often don’t require chilling before baking, nor do most peanut butter cookie recipes (making them a better choice for a quick baking project). And if you’re going to make a giant skillet cookie, you can skip the chilling, too, since it won’t be spreading anywhere (though it could arguably improve the flavor).

How To Chill Cookie Dough

To chill cookie dough, either form it into a disc or log and wrap tightly with plastic wrap, or pre-scoop cookies onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and refrigerate or freeze until ready to bake. If you do plan to freeze the dough, rather than chilling it in the fridge, shape and freeze the dough balls on a sheet tray, and then place them in a plastic zip-top bag, from which you can bake an entire tray or just one emergency cookie. 

If you’re in a rush, you can also chill dough using an ice water bath. I learned this trick from one of my baking muses, Jesse Szewczyk, author of the indispensable cookbook, ​​Cookies: The New Classics. Place the dough in a zip-top bag, flatten the dough inside the bag into a thin sheet, submerge the bag in a bowl of ice water for 20 minutes. The rapid chilling process will allow the sugar to dissolve, the flour to hydrate, and most importantly, the butter to harden.