Biscuits spreading on the tray in the oven.

andree3, Aug 18, 4:41am
Hi, I made the yummy-looking chocolate chippie recipe that was in the Listener last week - simple sounding recipe containing butter, demerara sugar, eggs, flour, bit of salt and chocolate pieces. chilled the dough in the fridge for 2 hours then put blobs on a buttered tray in the oven. then they spread all over the place and went very thin and weren't very nice. why do biscuits do this! they didnt' look like this in the picture! any suggestions! cheers
deus701, Aug 18, 4:57am
reduce the sugar content next time.maybe reduce by a quarter or a third.
kinna54, Aug 18, 5:00am
too much sugar and/or the mixture is not creamed enough.
scamples, Aug 18, 5:03am
from my expereience it has always been too much butter that would
cause the biscuits to spread, cannot see how sugar would cause it.
Cut down on the butter and see what happens.good luck
harrislucinda, Aug 18, 5:04am
brownsugarandmixtureverymoist
cookessentials, Aug 18, 4:52pm
too much butter IMO
lisha2, Aug 18, 5:12pm
oohhhh thats what happens to ALL my bikkies.Now I know.
wasgonna, Aug 18, 9:27pm
Happens to me too so next time I might pour mixture into egg rings . cheap enough at $2 stores.

Must remember to spray rings first.
kinna54, Aug 18, 9:37pm
Made zillions of cookies and still stand by the statement of good creaming of the mixture, and checking sugar quantities. You can hear as you beat in the creaming stage if the mixture is right, there should be no sound of gritty sugar against the beater, and the mixture should look creamy white. Did you taste the finished product: Did it taste grainy! could you detect a sugar taste over anything else! There is the answer. If at the finished stage of the mix, and you think the mix is too"soft", add another tsp of flour and mix thru.
aly5, Aug 18, 10:55pm
Iunderstood that over creaming can also cause biscuits to spread too much.
buzzy110, Aug 19, 12:51am
This is perfect advice. In fact, I'd go so far as to state that it is the only advice that should be taken note of in this particular case. I'm talking from experience here as well so I know exactly what happens when you do not do exactly as kinna has said.

The best thing you can do for yourself is figure out a way to cream the butter and sugar. I prefer to make sure the butter is creamed (beaten till it is malleable and going white, then I add the sugar, a bit at time, not adding anymore until the butter looks smooth.

"Overcreaming" is the term that may be used if you let the butter melt during the creaming process. This can happen if you are working in a hot kitchen, especially in summer.
kinna54, Aug 19, 1:07am
Thank you buzzy, appreciate your input, and the added overcreaming advice. Spot on.
andree3, Aug 19, 2:59am
oooh thanks for all the good advice! i was wondering if it was a silly question but clearly not. demerara sugar is quite course so would be harder to cream well than regular white sugar.! but will give it a go again. the recipe did call for a lot of butter (in my opinion) but could be the technique that was the problem. cheers
andree3, Aug 19, 4:41am
Hi, I made the yummy-looking chocolate chippie recipe that was in the Listener last week - simple sounding recipe containing butter, demerara sugar, eggs, flour, bit of salt and chocolate pieces. chilled the dough in the fridge for 2 hours then put blobs on a buttered tray in the oven. then they spread all over the place and went very thin and weren't very nice. why do biscuits do this! they didnt' look like this in the picture! any suggestions! cheers
rainrain1, Aug 19, 4:17pm
If that fails, toss the recipe and find another
daleaway, Aug 19, 8:23pm
.or add more flour.
buzzy110, Aug 19, 8:27pm
.or put the sugar into a coffee grinder and make it smaller, or even a blender.
buzzy110, Aug 20, 12:51am
This is perfect advice. In fact, I'd go so far as to state that it is the only advice that should be taken note of in this particular case. I'm talking from experience here as well so I know exactly what happens when you do not do exactly as kinna has said.

The best thing you can do for yourself is figure out a way to cream the butter and sugar. I prefer to make sure the butter is creamed (beaten till it is malleable and going white, then I add the sugar, a bit at time, not adding anymore until the butter looks smooth.

"Overcreaming" is the term that may be used if you let the butter melt during the creaming process. This can happen if you are working in a hot kitchen, especially in summer.