THE BEST SOFT SUGAR COOKIE RECIPE (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to soft cookies? ›

Baking cookies quickly in a hot oven – at 375 degrees F as opposed to a lower temperature – will make for soft results. They'll bake fast instead of sitting and drying out in the oven's hot air. Ever so slightly underbaking your cookies will give you softer results than cooking them the full amount the recipe says.

Eggs make cookies softer and puffier. It doesn't need to be a lot of egg; half of an extra large egg will make a difference in a basic recipe. You can also swap out egg yolks for whole eggs. A large egg weighs two ounces, so use your kitchen scale to get the same weight of yolks.

Brown sugar adds moisture and contributes to the chewiness of the cookies. Eggs: Use room temperature eggs, as they incorporate better into the dough, resulting in a more even texture. Flour: Use all-purpose flour or a combination of all-purpose flour and bread flour.

The bread/apple trick

Here's a baker's trick you'll find in our new Monster Cookies recipe: Adding a piece of fresh white bread to the storage container will keep cookies from becoming hard or stale.

Softened butter and melted butter are not the same. Using melted butter will change the texture of whatever you're baking. If you only want the butter to soften for spreading, microwave it on the Defrost setting (30%) in 5-second increments until it's softened as desired.

Take the cookie dough out of the refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature for about 15-30 minutes. This allows the fats in the dough (like butter) to soften, making the dough more pliable. Gently knead the dough with your hands. This helps distribute warmth and encourages the fats to soften.

If you enjoy your cookies soft and chewy, chances are likely the recipe contains a common ingredient that serves a very specific purpose. No, it's not granulated sugar, nor the butter. It's not the egg, all-purpose flour, or even the vanilla extract. The simple, yet oh-so-necessary component is cornstarch.

Baking soda is typically used for chewy cookies, while baking powder is generally used for light and airy cookies. Since baking powder is comprised of a number of ingredients (baking soda, cream of tartar, cornstarch, etc.), using it instead of pure baking soda will affect the taste of your cookies.

What happens when you bake without brown sugar? To be succinct, the resulting baked good could be slightly drier or more crisp. Without the excess moisture from the molasses in the brown sugar, the final cookie won't be as chewy and the final bread might be drier.

What is the best sugar for cookies? ›

In that role, white sugar aerates the dough when creamed with butter for thick and puffy cookies. Brown sugar, meanwhile, is dense and compacts easily, creating fewer air pockets during creaming—that means that there's less opportunity to entrap gas, creating cookies that rise less and spread more.

Over-working the dough yields a tough cookie, which is not at all what you want. The very best sugar cookies are soft and tender. → Follow this tip: One of the keys to great sugar cookies is mixing the dry ingredients only until they're just incorporated, and not a second longer.

add more oil or butter in the recipe, and when you bake them, have the oven temperature a bit low, and don't bake them for too long, take them out of the oven before they go brownish on the outside or edges. that will give you softer cookies. just make sure the insides are actually baked, and not runny.

The primary purpose of vanilla extract is to add flavour to baked goods. Lacking it, baked goods tend to have a bland and boring taste. Vanilla extract can also contribute moisture to create a soft and fluffy texture.

Cookies begin losing moisture through evaporation from the moment that they come out of the oven. So it's totally normal for them to harden up a bit. Yet, this is why you need to store them in an airtight container once they completely cool or they will continue to lose moisture.

Granulated sugar absorbs moisture better, giving you the nice crispy texture you're craving! Weirdly enough, eggs also contribute to soft cookies. So if you can limit or exclude eggs from your cookie recipe, you'll have an easier time getting them crisp!

Try using baking powder instead of baking soda. Baking soda encourages spreading while baking powder puffs the cookies up. If your recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of baking soda, you would use 3 to 4 teaspoons of baking powder.