What You Should Never Do To Bar Cookies Or Else They'll Turn Out Ugly

If someone mentions cookies, the first thing you think of is likely the traditional round cookie you'd find at a bakery or in a bag of Chips Ahoy. But dessert lovers are well aware that cookies come in all shapes and sizes — including bars. Along with classic brownies and lemon bars, square-shaped cookies are a popular staple at potlucks and parties, thanks to how easy they are to prepare (no rolling or scooping each cookie by hand required!) and serve to a crowd. According to The Big Cookie Company, bar cookies have been around since the 1930s and are usually baked in a pan and cut into pieces, hence the name.

However, for as simple as bar cookies are to make — many involve just mixing the ingredients and dumping them into a pan — they do require you to follow some basic techniques and steps if you want to nail the texture, taste, and appearance. Here's one of the common mistakes many bakers make when whipping up a batch of bar cookies, and how you can avoid it for better-looking treats.

You patiently waited for your cookies to finish baking, so as soon as you pull them out of the oven, you're ready to slice them up and dig in. But wait — cutting your bar cookies too early could make or break how they look. "Don't cut them while they're warm," the King Arthur Baking Company cautions, explaining, "You'll make bars with very ragged edges, and they're much more likely to fall apart when you're taking them out of the pan." Instead, let the bar cookies cool in their pan, set on a baking rack. Better Homes & Gardens seconds this, saying that cooled cookies retain their shape much better than hot ones do.

How long it will take for your bar cookies to cool completely depends on a lot of different factors. Some people recommend cooling them for at least an hour, while others, like the blogger at Joy Food Sunshine, say 30 minutes is enough. Be sure to give your next bar dessert, such as an easy 7-layer cookie bars recipe, ample time to cool off, and you'll notice a major difference in the structure of these sweet, shareable treats.