How to make it special
Baking powder simply adds carbon dioxide to the equation, providing a more forceful pressure that encourages a dough to spread up and out. Without the well-developed elasticity of a bread dough, the strands of gluten in cookies would sooner snap than stretch, cracking along the surface.
What makes cookies soft and chewy? High moisture content does; so the recipe, baking time, and temperature must be adjusted to retain moisture. Binding the water in butter, eggs, and brown sugar (it contains molasses, which is 10 percent water) with flour slows its evaporation.
Brown sugar—particularly dark brown sugar—makes a cookie chewy; white sugar makes it crispy. If your recipe calls for all white sugar and you want a fudgier result, try swapping out some of the white sugar for brown (go for half and half and adjust from there). You can also use honey or molasses for a chewier cookie.
4. Baking powder. Baking powder contains sodium bicarbonate and acidic salts. The reaction of these two ingredients results in a cookie that is soft and thick, but slightly harder.
Turns out, America has a definitive answer! According to National Today, 35 percent of you like crunchy cookies, but a whopping 65 percent of you LOVE your cookies chewy!
How does melted butter change cookies? … According to The Kitchn, if you use melted butter in your dough, make the dough into small rounds, then chill the dough before popping them in the oven, your cookies will have chewiness from the butter as well as crispy edges. This sounds like chewy and crispy cookie goodness.
What Makes A Cookie Chewy?
- Brown sugar/sugar.
- Egg whites.
- Baking temperature.
- Size of cookie.
- Baking soda/Baking powder.
You may have over-baked them, which caused too much of the liquid from the butter or shortening and the eggs to evaporate, or you could have left them uncovered for too long. The key to softening hard sugar cookies is to return some of the moisture they lost.