The Bread Hack That Keeps Homemade Cookies Fresh

You'll very rarely find yourself baking a single cookie. Instead, you usually wind up throwing a whole dozen onto a baking sheet and popping it in the oven. Even if you eat two or three at a time, there's bound to be leftovers. You toss those cookies into a jar and return to them a few days later only to find that the once soft, gooey treats are now hard as rocks. While some people prefer their cookies extra crisp, most want to maintain the fluffy, decadent crumble of a fresh cookie for as long as possible. For softer cookies that last longer, try adding a piece of bread to your cookie container.

The first step in keeping cookies fresh is to store them in an airtight tub, no more loose-fitting cookie jar lids or open trays. Once you've got that part of the problem solved, all you have to do is sacrifice a slice of bread to hibernate with your cookies until you're ready to eat them. Bread is pretty moist, which is a good thing for preventing your cookies from drying out and beginning to rival a hockey puck. Too much moisture would cause mold growth, but a slice of bread has just enough. As the water in the bread evaporates with nowhere to go (thanks to that airtight container) it mingles with the sugar particles in your cookies, keeping them soft.

Cookies contain way more sugar than bread, which is what makes them taste so darn good. Sugar draws in water, causing cookies to attract and retain moisture from the air. Bread is the complete opposite and loses moisture to the air the longer it sits out. This makes the two foods a match made in heaven. The hygroscopic cookie sucks up all that extra moisture from the slowly evaporating slice of bread, pausing the cookie's staling process, which is where baked goods lose their moisture over time.

Sadly, a slice of that fancy whole wheat bread won't have the same kind of moistening effect as a slice of good old-fashioned white bread, which has a higher moisture content. (This should make your wallet happy since a loaf of white bread can be considerably cheaper than other specialty breads.) It's also worth noting that not every freshly baked cookie needs the bread trick to remain soft. Cookies like oatmeal raisins can conserve chewiness all on their own, with no bread necessary. That simple slice of white bread may not be the fanciest item in your kitchen, but it'll make those shortbread cookies taste like a million bucks even days after baking.