The Biggest Egg Mistake You're Making With Cookies

If, when you're making cookies, you're using egg whites instead of the whole egg, your cookies are going to taste completely different. If you add too few or too many eggs, you've got a problem on your hands. If you're making scrambled eggs with chives, feta, and cherry tomatoes, then adding them to your cookie dough ... you're definitely doing it wrong. There are plenty of mistakes you can make when baking that perfect batch of cookies, and luckily most of them are easy to identify and easy to fix. (Except that scrambled eggs one. If you did that, you're going to need to start over.)

Business Insider writes that making little missteps can change the result of a chocolate chip cookie recipe. Problems such as over-mixing, using too much flour, or accidentally subbing baking powder in for baking soda might make your cookie less than perfect. But when it comes to eggs, Allrecipes highlights that one of the things people tend to do wrong is using cold eggs. In order to make cookies with a desirable "fluffy, light-as-air texture," says Allrecipes, the eggs should be room temperature. Could it be that simple? Oeuf, yes. And we're here to tell you why.

Refrigerating eggs is a common practice in the U.S., where Business Insider reports that the farming and processing practices for eggs are very different than those in Europe. Because USDA-approved eggs undergo an intense (and very hot) washing process in order to be considered chemical-free and safe for consumption, the shell may be less effective at blocking bacteria. So important to store eggs in the cold section of the store. And you're right to be refrigerating them at home, too. However, the fact remains that cold cookie dough is simply not going to aerate properly, according to Allrecipes.

"When you beat eggs and sugar at room temperature," chef Ina Garten tells Houston Public Media, "it incorporates the ingredients better and makes a huge difference." Garten leaves the eggs she intends to use for baking out overnight. (However, the USDA advises against letting refrigerated eggs sit out for over two hours.) Allrecipes has a quicker fix. Just let the eggs sit in warm water for a few minutes. Room-temperature eggs will give your dough the air pockets it needs for texturally sound, scrambled egg-free cookies, which is all any of us can ask for, really.