The Perfect Temperature For Baking Cookies, According To Research (And It's Not 350 F)

Even the most intuitive home baker has to admit that the baking process is quite scientific. It's much harder to eyeball ingredients and get consistent results because the exact amount of fat, moisture, sugar, and flour directly impacts the final texture of our baked goods. That's why many of us religiously stick to one chosen recipe. When baking cookies, however, following the recipe too closely might be a bad idea – particularly when it comes to the oven temperature.

The ideal temperature for cookie baking has been the subject of two separate studies, both of which found that the best temperature is higher than the standard 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Specifically, the perfect range likely falls between 374 and 401 degrees. A 2024 study published in the Journal of Food Science looked at three different temperatures: 365, 401, and 437 degrees. When baked for 12 minutes at these temperatures, the cookies turned out perfectly only at 401 degrees. At the lowest temperature, the cookies retained too much moisture and came out underdone. At the highest temperature, the cookies lost their moisture too fast and dried out. It was only that middle-range temp that yielded well-baked, soft, and chewy cookies.

An earlier study, published in the Journal of Food Science and Technology, also examined cookies baked at three different temperatures: 262, 374, and 482 degrees Fahrenheit. Once again, it was the middle-range temperature of 374 degrees (baked for 16 minutes) that produced the cookies with the best texture. Something that both studies mentioned is that, at higher temperatures, cookies also retained their shape a lot better — so, if you've been struggling with cookies that spread out too much, you may have been baking them at a temperature that's just too low.

Old habits die hard, and we understand it may seem daunting to test a fresh cookie batch at a higher temperature, despite what science says. That's why you should always bake a test cookie first, to fine-tune the temperature setting on your individual oven. Start at 374 degrees Fahrenheit and work your way up from there, making sure not to cross the 401 degrees threshold. You could also select a few recipes that call for a higher baking temperature to begin with: Our molasses gingersnap cookies and easy soft caramel cookies are a good place to start.