Cookies Too Dry

Our answer

Nigella's Chocolate Chip Cookies should have crisp edges but soft, slightly fudgy interiors. However they won't be particularly chewy and they should not spread out on the baking sheet that much. There are several reasons why the cookies may have become dry and crumbly but the two most likely are that either the cookies were baked for too long or too much flour was added to the dough. The cookie should be baked only until the edges are slightly golden and the top looks a little wrinkled. The cookies at this point will still be very soft, if you let the cookies bake until they are firm then they will become dry. The cookies will become more solid as the cool so don't worry if they do look soft in the centre. Let the cookies sit on the baking sheet for 5 minutes then carefully transfer them to a wire rack using a fish slice, perforated spatula or a thin spatula, such as a palette knife.

Ingredients should be measured carefully and if you are using US cup measures then they should be level cups with the brown sugar being packed fairly firmly into the cup. The flour should be plain (all-purpose) white flour and not self-raising. Also the combination of brown and caster (superfine) sugars is important as this helps the texture of the cookie, using all brown or all white sugars will give a different type of cookie. Switching the bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) for baking powder will also affect the texture of the cookie and is not recommended.