This Expert-Approved Tip Makes Store-Bought Cookie Dough Taste Homemade

Store-bought cookie dough makes baking easier than ever, but the results often lack the hard-to-define essence that homemade baked goods achieve. It turns out that the secret to success might be an ingredient you already have in the fridge: Butter is a key player in all kinds of from-scratch recipes, and we have some expert-approved advice for how to integrate the prized dairy product into your next batch.

"To help make store-bought cookie dough taste homemade, I crumble the dough into my mixer, then add a little real butter," says Tammy Stiffler, owner of Stiffler's Mom's Cookie Factory. This is just one of the many baking tips she shared with Chowhound when asked how she would improve store-bought cookie dough to taste homemade.

Most cookie dough from the store comes rolled into pre-formed balls or as one large mass in a tub or tube. Crumbling the cookie dough into an electric mixer with butter helps to soften the consistency and more thoroughly incorporate the extra fat. This hack works with pretty much any recipe and will improve the best and worst store-bought chocolate chip cookie doughs alike, making them less grainy.

Butter, being the fickle ingredient that it is, can alter the taste and texture of cookies. The temperature of the butter will impact the density of the cookie once it's been baked. Cold, stiff butter right from the fridge will make for a thicker dough that results in a flakier, crunchier cookie that won't spread as much, having a softer middle and harder edges. It'll definitely hold its shape well for dunking in milk. Melted butter in the dough causes the cookie to spread out with a gooey, pull-apart feel. Use browned, melted butter for an even richer, nuttier taste.

The best method might lie somewhere in the middle. Room temperature butter has just enough give to result in a soft, fluffy cookie, and it's favored by celebrity chefs such as Martha Stewart and Jacques Torres. Browning and then refrigerating the butter is a technique used by Nick DiGiovanni and Andrew Rea in their cookies. You can soften butter quickly, like Mary Berry, or take it out of the fridge the night before, which is how Ina Garten prepares to bake cookies. Take a page from the pros by using any of these tricks with store-bought dough to create an unforgettable, homemade taste.