Do I need to chill them?!


Question: Do I need to chill them!?
Here's my recipe: Yield: approximately 48 cookies

1 cup (250 ml) margarine
1-1/2 cup (375 ml) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon (5 ml) baking soda
1 teaspoon (5 ml) baking powder
1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon (2 ml) salt
3/4 cup (175 ml) sour cream
4 cups (1 l) all-purpose flour

In a large mixing bowl, beat margarine and sugar until light and fluffy!. Beat in eggs, sour cream, and vanilla extract; mix well!. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt!. Gradually stir the flour into the margarine mixture until well incorporated!. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill several hours or until dough is firm enough to handle!.

Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C)!. On a lightly floured board, roll out to about 1/4 inch (1/2 cm) thick and cut into shapes with cookie cutters!.

Place on ungreased baking sheets and bake about 15 minutes or until edges are slightly browned!. Let cool about 1 minute on the baking sheet and then remove to wire rack to cool completely!. Decorate with your favorite icing (we recommend Royal Icing)!.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 month if not frosted or up to 1 week if frosted!. Makes approximately 48 cookies, depending on the size cookie cutters you use!. These cookies ship well if cut into regular geometric shapes (such as circles or squares) and packed very carefully!. They can break during shipping if you cut them into irregular or delicate shapes like Santa Claus and snowflakes!. If you want to use fancy cookie cutters, it is best to hand-deliver these cookies!.

It says I need to chill them, honestly, I need to make them tonight, so I can have them in the morning ASAP!. Does the dough need to be chilled!?Www@FoodAQ@Com


Answers:
Ok when this has happeend to me I divided it up into smaller portions and stuck them in the freezer for a little while!. Then I baked one portion and the rest I put into the refrigerator!. You DO need to chill the dough for the cookies to come out correctly!.Www@FoodAQ@Com

With the margarine sour cream, I would recommend chilling them, nothing more, since especially sour cream can go soar rather quickly if kept at room temperature!.
Www@FoodAQ@Com

The chilling has almost nothing to do with the temperature!.
Its about hydrating the flour!. Freezing it will not speed up the process!. It will actually slow it down!.

You are letting the dough rest to hydrate the flour, which is a huge part of cookies or pie dough, pretty much any dough!.
The chilling only comes in to keep the fat in the dough from melting, which would just make it soggy and not good at all!.

Freezing it would keep the water from absorbing into the flour!.

You don't have to let the dough rest, but they won't turn out completely right!.

The only reason that they worked out for the previous person freezing them is because the cold solidified the dough more, which made it act like it was ready!. But the cookies wouldn't be great, just okay!.
But okay cookies are better than no cookies, I suppose!.Www@FoodAQ@Com

Your best bet would be to chill the dough prior to rolling out and cutting with cookie cutters!. The addition of sour cream tends to make the dough thinner and harder to form!. BUT, it you want to speed up the process, roll out the dough with a FLOUR coated rolling pin on a flour coated surface!. The chilling process makes the dough less sticky and easier to roll, cut and form!. You probably can have the same results if you use the flour to eliminate the sticky properties!. Don't handle the dough too much as this will make it even harder to work with!.
OR, chill them overnight and get up early enough in the morning to roll them out, cut them and bake them!.Www@FoodAQ@Com

the reason for chilling is the dough will be quite soft and when cold gets firm enough to roll out and cut!. if you try to do it warm, the dough will stick to everything it comes into contact with and will end up with a big mess and no cookies!.
You can speed the chilling by spreading it out flat on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper and putting it in the freezer of an hour or so, keep an eye on it, you don't want frozen dough, then follow directions according to the recipeWww@FoodAQ@Com





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