Avoid One Type Of Sugar If You Want Soft And Gooey Cookies

Avid bakers will know that small changes in the ingredients you use while making cookies can warrant dramatically different results. While these differences can help you in pursuit of the perfect chocolate chip cookies, they can also result in less-than-desirable outcomes due to seemingly minute ingredient substitutions. This is especially the case when it comes to sugar.

When it comes to cookie recipes that call for brown sugar, substituting that ingredient with white sugar is typically a no-go, especially if you want your cookies to be soft and gooey like we do. This advice was relayed to us here at The Takeout by Erin Jeanne McDowell, author of "The Fearless Baker" and the host of Happy Baking on YouTube. When asked about how brown and white sugar can affect your homemade cookies differently, McDowell was quick to recommend not using white sugar in your cookie recipes when it isn't called for. "It's not quite this simple," McDowell started, "but subbing white sugar in a recipe that calls for brown sugar will likely make for a crisper cookie instead of a chewier one."

While there are a few chocolate chip cookie recipes in which brown sugar isn't needed whatsoever, it's very unlikely the key ingredient isn't included in your go-to cookie recipe. That's because the molasses present in brown sugar helps cookies achieve an ideal taste and texture. As McDowell put it, "Brown sugar contains some additional moisture levels that white sugar does not. In some recipes, this small quantity of moisture can make a big difference: altering the spread and final texture of the cookie."

McDowell also noted what using white sugar instead of brown sugar can do to the taste of the cookies, saying, "there will be a significant flavor difference: white sugar is simply sweet, while brown sugars are more complex overall in flavor due to the caramel notes of the molasses."

Suffice it to say that the molasses extracted from brown sugar to create white sugar is vital to making your cookies achieve the best taste and consistency they can have. Luckily, this means if you are out of brown sugar but are in possession of molasses and white sugar, you can make a good substitute for the ingredient. So, while the cookie lovers out there are better off having brown sugar on hand, it's not impossible for your homemade cookies to achieve greatness without it.