Buzz
Cookies are like snowflakes and cats: each one unique in its own way, even the imperfect ones. Yet there's a theory that aging your cookie dough can elevate something already delightful to another level. I decided to test whether this dough aging technique truly makes a better cookie—and if not, what could improve it?
What’s the process of 'aging' cookie dough?
Jacques Torres, the beloved chocolatier and head judge of Netflix’s Nailed It!, has a famous chocolate chip cookie recipe that results in cookies with a crackled surface, gooey chocolate pockets, and a touch of sea salt. But what sets them apart isn’t just their perfect appearance—it’s the time they require: The recipe calls for chilling the dough in the refrigerator for a minimum of 24 hours, ideally up to three days.
If letting the dough rest truly improves Torres' cookies, could this be a trick we can apply to all cookie recipes? I set out to find out. While I trust the expertise of the chef, his recipe raises a question: Why on earth are we refrigerating this dough for one to three days? I can't think of any other cookie recipes that require such a lengthy wait.
The science behind 'aging' cookie dough
While you won’t find an explanation from Chef Jacques on mrchocolate.com, his recipe is widely shared, and many have expressed their thoughts on it. The New York Times’ pre-recipe note says, “This gives the dry ingredients time to absorb the wet ingredients, resulting in a firmer dough.” Although this brief note doesn’t necessarily suggest that firmer is better (and refrigeration might be the actual factor for that), it led me to think about the autolyse method, a technique used in some sourdough bread recipes.
Autolyse is a process used in bread making, where you mix flour and water and let it sit for a while. This pause allows the flour to fully absorb the water, softening tough whole grain particles and slowing fermentation to develop flavor, which also makes the dough stretchier. While this is fantastic for bread, it’s not exactly something we need for cookies. Additionally, most cookie recipes don’t have much moisture—just a little extract, egg, and a splash of water in the butter. Even if we were aiming for something like autolyse, that process only takes 30 to 60 minutes.
Still unsure about the reasoning, I decided to run a few tests to see if 'aged' cookies are worth the wait.
A comparison of two cookies
I chose to test two batches of cookie dough: Jacques Torres' recipe and the classic Toll House recipe from the back of a bag of morsels. I baked cookies from both doughs after different aging periods: one batch immediately after mixing (with 30 to 50 minutes of chilling to firm it up, since the other 'aged' cookies would also be chilled); another after seven to twelve hours; and a third after 24 hours.
My goal was to see if this baking marathon would show any changes in the cookies over time or, at the very least, confirm that Torres' recipe really benefits from the extended wait.
The (somewhat) surprising findings
After consuming pounds of chocolate, hundreds of salt flakes, and enduring a stomach ache, I reached a conclusion. It turns out that letting your cookie dough age for more than 50 minutes (which is enough to fully chill the dough) doesn’t lead to any significant changes in flavor or texture.
Whether it’s Toll House or Torres cookies, both batches chilled for 50 minutes resulted in cookies with the same flavor, crispiness, and chewiness as those baked from dough chilled for over 12 hours. In a way, that’s a bit of a relief. If aging cookie dough truly made for better cookies, those pre-packaged dough logs in the refrigerator aisle, which are months old, would technically be the ultimate cookie choice.
(I also tasted samples of each cookie after they had been stored separately in airtight containers for 24 hours to see if the aged cookies performed better post-baking. Again, there was no noticeable difference.)
How to bake the best cookie for your taste
Let me be clear: both cookie recipes I tried were phenomenal. (This is definitely one of my favorite parts of the job.) The fact that you don’t need to age basic cookie dough, let alone Jacques Torres' renowned cookie dough, is great news—because who wants to wait that long to enjoy a cookie? (Not anyone I know.)
But the reason I did this experiment is that I know you all want to create your own version of the perfect cookie. Could aging dough be the key to ultimate chewiness or crispier edges? But much like best friends and avocados, it’s the inside that counts: Torres' recipe uses high-gluten flour, which creates a lovely crust and a satisfying chew on the outer edge. What really matters are the ingredients you choose and how you mix them. Here are a few tips that can help you bake the perfect cookie for you:For chewy cookies: Use more brown sugar. Instead of creaming room temperature butter and sugar, try melted butter without aerating it. Swap 25% to 50% of the all-purpose flour for high-gluten bread flour.
For crispy cookies: Look for recipes with more fat and mostly white sugar. No eggs or just egg whites will make a crispier cookie.
For crunchy cookies: Choose recipes with a bit more flour and less egg for a drier dough. Bake a few extra minutes.
For soft cookies: Cream the fat and sugars until light and fluffy. Use recipes with more eggs, or add an extra egg to make the dough softer.
