How long do cookies have to be in the oven? Bake until the cookies are golden but still soft in the center, 12 to 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets halfway through. Let the cookies cool for a few minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer them to a rack to cool completely.
As a general rule of thumb, you should refrigerate cookie dough for at least 30 minutes and up to 24 hours. More than that and you won’t see a noticeable difference in the final product, says Haught Brown.
They will still be quite gooey inside, but the top will be set, and they should be golden brown at the edges and just beginning to come away from the sides of the ramekins. Leave to cool for 5–10 minutes before serving.
Most cookies are still soft when done (they harden as they cool) and will continue to bake on the cookie sheet once removed from the oven. Remove cookies from the cookie sheet as soon as they are firm enough to transfer, using a spatula, to a cooling rack or paper towels to finish cooling.
Cookie temperatures fluctuate, with some recipes as low as 300 degrees Fahrenheit, and a few as high as 425 degrees Fahrenheit, but most recipes land on 375 or 350 to evenly bake the entirety of the cookie.
“When your dough is refrigerated, the butter hardens. … So chilling the dough before baking means fluffier cookies with better consistency. Plus, if you have a bowl of dough ready in the refrigerator, it’s much easier to scoop while chilled than at room temperature.
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.
Re-baking will give us hard, brick-like cookies and bars. … If the bars are so underbaked that the eggs are still raw, it’s probably not a good idea to eat or even try to re-bake them if the bars have been sitting out for very long.
Cookies not baked long enough. Using too much flour or the wrong kind of flour. Too many eggs or other liquids in the dough. Too high a ratio of brown sugar to white sugar.