The Genius Hack That Stops Cookies From Spreading In The Oven

Making cookies taste delicious is one thing. But making them look like they're professionally baked is quite another! Thankfully, you can make your tastiest cookies look beautiful with one simple — but extremely smart — hack.

One of the biggest roadblocks to serving perfect cookies is understanding how they bake. Cookies tend to spread on the pan, so if you're not careful, they may spread into each other. This could result in your cookies looking like they've "pooled out" from the center. Or the cookies spread into each other to create one giant, unsightly cookie when you were aiming for a dozen smaller ones instead. This hack, which makes excellent use of a muffin tin, will solve all of your "cookie spread" woes, though! You just need to make sure that your cookie dough is cut in the shape of the bottom of the muffin tin, and you'll have cookies that have that bakery-style "rise" without the dreaded "spread."

Who would have thought that a humble muffin tin could work magic on your cookies? This muffin tin hack will change your cookie game by changing the shape of your cookies, so you'll no longer have to worry about misshapen or too-large cookies.

When you use the bottom of a muffin tin to shape your cookies, your cookies will start out as those "perfect circles" that every baker envies. But those beautiful dough rounds aren't the only reason why this hack is so smart. Each section of the muffin tin acts as a barrier for your cookies, so they won't clump together as they bake. They'll only have space to grow "up," so you'll end up with cookies that are full, thick, and tall — on top of having that lovely, round shape! Using a muffin tin to set some physical boundaries for your cookies will leave anyone who tries your baked goods wondering how you're able to make them look so flawless. If you choose to reveal your secret, this hack will also make you look like a culinary innovator, so it's a win-win.

If you don't have a muffin tin available to prevent your cookies from spreading, don't worry! There's an easy way to stop the dreaded "cookie clump" if all you have is a cookie sheet.

When you bake cookies using a standard cookie sheet, start by making sure that you space the cookie dough sections far enough apart from each other that they don't run the risk of spreading into each other. Then, if you bake multiple batches of cookies, avoid using the same cookie sheet for each batch. A hot baking sheet from your last batch of cookies or a baking sheet that has become greasy from cookie dough remnants from previous batches will accelerate the spread of your cookies — and that's before they even reach the oven. Using a muffin tin to shape your cookies is a creative way to stop them from spreading too far in the oven. But even without a muffin pan, you can easily stop your cookies from clumping into each other.