How to Make Chewy Cookies (Hint: Ingredients Matter)

In this world, there are two kinds of people: crunchy cookie people and chewy cookie people. This is the post for those of you who like chewy cookies! I have a ton of ideas and tactics for making your cookies delightfully chewy, even after they’ve been baked for days.

Chewy cookie lovers, rejoice! Every cookie can (and should) be chewy.

What Makes Cookies Chewy?

Cookie chemistry is a difficult science to grasp. You must consider how the sugar and fat interact with the flour and eggs, in addition to how everything will blend together. The baking time and temperature can have a significant impact on the texture of a cookie.

However, if you want a chewy cookie, you need search for one thing in particular: moisture. You want a cookie that is soft and chewy on the inside rather than crisp and brittle.

Cookies with a greater moisture content will always be chewier, so the key is figuring out how to add moisture to the cookies while still achieving a cookie that retains its form when baked, is completely cooked, and tastes good. It may be extremely difficult!

Fortunately, I’m here to assist and have a plethora of moisture-boosting cookie tips.

Baking Time

One of the most important aspects of producing beautiful, chewy cookies is determining the baking time. You don’t want to bake the cookies for too long or they’ll dry out in the oven. All of the moisture in the cookie will evaporate as it heats, leaving you with a crisp, brown cookie–not what you want!

You must, however, verify that your cookies are cooked long enough to be safe to consume. Most cookie batters include raw eggs, and the eggs must reach 160 degrees F to be deemed safe to ingest.

The first step is to simply read the instructions to decide how long to bake your cookies. Then, check the cookies a bit earlier than advised. If the recipe calls for 10 minutes of baking time, check the cookies after 8 minutes.

A chewy cookie is thoroughly cooked when the borders are golden brown and the middle is still soft. It is desirable for a cookie to have a soft core, but it should not be uncooked.

Not only is this not safe to consume, but the cookie will break apart since it is still basically just dough.

Remove the cookies from the oven when the middle of the cookie appears soft but is no longer glossy. A mushy, dull core indicates that the batter in the center of the cookie is baking and is probably safe to eat. In a hot oven, it doesn’t take long for a cookie to reach 160 degrees!

Cookies will continue to bake after you remove them from the oven, particularly if they are left on the hot sheet pan to cool. The leftover heat from the pan will further bake the cookies, giving them a beautiful solid foundation.

The crucial takeaway here is that your cookies will be chewy when the edges start to brown, the middle is soft but not glossy, and the cookie has been baking for about the time specified in the recipe. The baking time for each cookie recipe may vary, as will the temperature of your oven.

It will undoubtedly be trial and error! Make a note of how long you cooked your chewy cookies on your recipe so you can remember!

Sugar Choices

The kind of sugar you choose in your recipe has a significant influence on how chewy your cookies are. Why? Moisture! Brown sugar is more moister than white sugar and maintains moisture when baked.

Consider how each sugar feels when measured: brown sugar packs down into the measuring cup, is hard, and somewhat damp.

White sugar is dry and gritty, and it rapidly dissolves in a measuring cup. Brown sugar certainly has more moisture, which is ideal for a chewy cookie!

In addition to using brown sugar instead of white sugar to achieve a chewy cookie, you want to use less sugar. Sugar melts when cooked or heated, causing the cookie to spread.

If you spread the cookie too thin, it will bake rapidly and get crunchy. Not what a chewy cookie fan desires!

If you want to develop your own chewy cookie recipe, substitute the white sugar with around 75% brown sugar. So, if your cookie recipe calls for 1 cup white sugar, use 1 cup packed brown sugar instead.

Because of the moisture in the brown sugar, the cookies will be adequately sweet, spread less, and be chewier.

Butter vs. Shortening

You may be shocked to hear that shortening does not yield chewy cookies. Many people find this difficult to accept since shortening is so oily and seems wet.

However, shortening causes cookies to spread, which, as we all know, results in a crispy cookie. Instead of shortening, use pure butter in the cookie recipe.

Not only does butter have a far deeper flavor than shortening, making your chewy cookies even more scrumptious, but it also contains more moisture. Shortening is 100% fat and normally contains 80% fat and 20% water.

When making a chewy cookie, you really want that little amount of water. So use butter instead of shortening and keep the shortening for another recipe!

Flour Options

The kind of flour you choose will affect the texture of your cookies. Most cookie recipes ask for all-purpose flour, which works well. Nonetheless, all-purpose flour has a modest quantity of gluten, resulting in a firmer, stronger cookie texture.

This is excellent for structural reasons, but it is no longer suitable for chewy cookies. If you can minimize the quantity of gluten in the recipe, the cookies will become more soft and chewy.

Use half all purpose flour and half cake flour in your cookie recipe to reduce the gluten level while maintaining the structure that gluten offers.

Cake flour has less gluten and produces a chewier cookie. Because you are just replacing half of the flour, your cookies will retain their form and not spread.

You might also add cornstarch in your recipe. A teaspoon of cornstarch for every 1 cup of flour will keep the gluten in the flour from completely forming.

Cornstarch will also help keep the cookies from spreading too much, resulting in a great, thick cookie with a soft, chewy middle.

Cool the Dough

Cooling the dough for at least 30 minutes after combining is a tried and tested method for making your cookies chewier. during the dough is chilled in the fridge, it not only develops more flavor as the ingredients interact, but it also helps the core of the cookies remain soft during baking.

You may either chill the dough in the mixing bowl and scoop it shortly before baking, or scoop the soft dough into balls, chill them on a sheet pan, and bake. Either method of cooking is effective!

Chewy Cookies vs. Cakey Cookies

A chewy cookie is not the same as a cakey cookie. While both are soft, one will be quite wet, and the other may be rather dry.

You should probably bake the chewier, more moist form rather than the drier choice. Just because you prefer soft cookies doesn’t mean you want one with the texture of a cake!

A few factors might cause your cookies to be cakey rather than chewy. The sort of leavener you use is one factor. Baking powder recipes will be more cakey since the baking powder causes the cookies to bubble up in the oven quicker, drying them out much faster.

Instead, use a cookie recipe that calls for baking soda, which has a slower leavening power.

If you use too much flour in your cookies, they will be cakey and crumbly. When measuring flour, make sure that each scoop is entirely level rather than stacking it up. It is usually a good idea to measure the flour into a separate bowl before adding it to the cookie dough to avoid accidentally adding too much!

A recipe with too many eggs might also result in cakey cookies. Eggs assist to bind the components together and supply moisture, which is necessary for a chewy cookie. However, using too many eggs might result in a gummy, thick, and cakey cookie.

Stick to the amount of eggs specified in your cookie recipe–this is one item you don’t want to experiment with too much!

Make Little Changes

While I have provided several methods for generating chewy cookies, it is crucial to realize that making too many adjustments to a recipe might result in a cookie disaster. A few little adjustments, on the other hand, may result in the exact chewy cookie you’ve been looking for!

My recommendation is to select a cookie recipe that you like and then evaluate it using this chewy cookie guide. Using a decent recipe from the start can save you a lot of time and trial and error!

Is brown sugar or white sugar used in the recipe? Is it made with all-purpose flour or cake flour? Are the cookies entirely great, save for a little overcooking? Answer these questions before making a modest adjustment and retrying the recipe.

To prevent gluten from developing, replace the sugar with brown sugar or add that teaspoon of cornstarch to the flour mixture. Examine how your minor alteration makes your cookie chewier, and if it still isn’t chewy enough, try something different!

Baby step your way to the perfect, chewy cookie!

Keep Your Cookies Chewy

After you’ve made a delicious batch of chewy cookies, wrap them tightly and store them in an airtight container or on a platter covered in plastic wrap. Cookies that are exposed to air for an extended period of time will dry out, which means they will become crunchy!

To add moisture, insert a slice of white bread in the jar with the cookies. The moisture from the bread will permeate into the cookies, keeping them soft and chewy.

You now have a better understanding of chewy cookies, why they are chewy, and how to create your own chewier. Chewy cookies are fantastic, and according to a recent survey, 65% of people in the United States prefer chewy cookies over crispy cookies! The chewy cookie has won the vote of the people.