Simple hacks to make store-bought cookie dough taste better | Vanilla Molina (2024)

FAQs

Simple hacks to make store-bought cookie dough taste better | Vanilla Molina? ›

Add a few drops of extract to flavor your cookies

If you're making cookies from a boxed mix, an easy way to add your own spin to the cookies is to add a tinge of almond, rum, or citrus extract from your spice cabinet. These extracts are made by concentrating flavors in an alcohol solution.

Add a few drops of extract to flavor your cookies

If you're making cookies from a boxed mix, an easy way to add your own spin to the cookies is to add a tinge of almond, rum, or citrus extract from your spice cabinet. These extracts are made by concentrating flavors in an alcohol solution.

Easy Add-In: After creating the dough according to the sugar cookie mix instructions, Add 2 tablespoons of sour cream to create a tangier, cakier and all-around more flavorful cookie. Flavor Twist: For a punchier twist, swap the water in the sugar cookie mix instructions for rum, bourbon or coffee liqueur.

Insert food-safe wooden crafts sticks into sandwich creme cookies. Dip cookies into melted bittersweet chocolate chips. Add chocolate-covered pretzels for ears, candy eyeballs and a cinnamon imperial for the nose.

There are a few things you can do to salvage dry and crumbly cookie dough. First, try adding more liquid—a little bit at a time—until the dough comes together. This could be milk, water, or even additional eggs.

Some premade cookie dough can have a processed, almost chemical-like aftertaste, but you can mask it by adding extra flavor extracts to your dough. You can use a splash of vanilla extract or try other variations, like almond extract or mint extract, to change up the flavors of your cookies.

Just roll the dough into one inch balls and then coat them in equal parts cinnamon and sugar. Then I press them gently with a glass before baking them according to the directions on the package. That's it!

Prep Instructions

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 13 to 17 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. COOL 2 minutes; remove from cookie sheet.

To make your store-bought sugar cookies more festive, you can try adding colored sprinkles or sanding sugar on top before baking. You can also use cookie cutters to create fun shapes or designs, or even mix in festive add-ins like crushed candy canes, mini chocolate chips, or dried cranberries.

How to doctor up refrigerated cookie dough? ›

Baking recipes have to be fairly precise for the best results; adding extra liquid in the form of milk to cookie dough could cause the baked cookies to spread, over-brown, and lose their shape. However, it's easy to add a tablespoon or two of milk powder to cookie batters without affecting the final texture.

It is almost impossible to reduce the sweetness of cookie dough once made, without further reducing the quality. The closest you could come would be to create a second batch of cookie dough ingredients with reduced sugar, and combine it with your existing dough.

I'm a former pastry cook, and I think premade cookie dough makes a low-effort but delicious dessert. Switch things up by baking the dough in a cast-iron skillet or microwaving it in a mug. Adding extra chocolate, chopped nuts, coarse salt, or marshmallows can make cookies even better.

Sandwich your dough between two sheets of parchment, roll, then freeze; it makes cut-out cookies a breeze!

Soft – Dough that's “soft” or “runny” can be thickened by adding one or two tablespoons of flour to your mix. This will help keep your batch from “Spreading” and coming out of the oven looking like flat, not-so-cookie-like puddles.