The Best Hack I Ever Learned for Bakery-Style Cookies

There’s something so comforting about homemade cookies. They’re the perfect cure for a crummy day, and they even make the best days just a smidge better. They can come in all different sizes and shapes, with different flavors and textures. And one of the best things about homemade cookies is that they don’t have to look perfect.

But when you’re making cookies to bring to the office or to a party, or even a batch to gift to a friend, sometimes you want them to look as impressive as possible, enough so that folks seeing them question if they really are homemade. 

One way to give them that bakery-window look is to make your cookies as round as possible. While we all know that a lopsided cookie is no less delicious than a round cookie, there’s something supremely satisfying about a perfectly symmetrical cookie.

This technique pops up on social media every so often and for good reason. To get rounded cookies, place a drinking glass or round cookie cutter around a just-baked, lopsided cookie on your cookie sheet, gently swirl it around, and lift the glass to reveal your perfect cookie.

How to Make Perfectly Round Cookies

Here are some tips for shaping success:

• Make sure whatever tool you use to create the round shape is slightly larger than the cookie itself. You don’t want the edge of the cookie to get cut off.
• You can use any round tool you like, like a wide-mouth jar, a drinking glass, a round cookie cutter, or a bowl. As long as it’s round and slightly larger than the cookie, it'll do.
• For this trick to work, you have to do it right after you take your cookies out of the oven. If you wait too long and the cookies begin to cool, the edges will no longer be malleable and you'll risk breaking your cookie.

Use this technique on any round cookie, such as chocolate chip cookies, Snickerdoodles, Chocolate Crinkle Cookies, or peanut butter cookies.