Chewy Brown Sugar Cookies Recipe (2024)

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Chewy and warm, with a crackly brown sugar crust, these sugar cookies take less than 30 minutes, start to finish.

By

Yvonne Ruperti

Chewy Brown Sugar Cookies Recipe (1)

Yvonne Ruperti

Yvonne Ruperti is a food writer, recipe developer, former bakery owner, and cookbook author. She is also an adjust professor of baking at the Culinary Institute of America in Singapore.

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and

Daniel Gritzer

Daniel Gritzer

Senior Culinary Director

Daniel joined the Serious Eats culinary team in 2014 and writes recipes, equipment reviews, articles on cooking techniques. Prior to that he was a food editor at Food & Wine magazine, and the staff writer for Time Out New York's restaurant and bars section.

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Updated September 25, 2023

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Chewy Brown Sugar Cookies Recipe (3)

Why It Works

  • Melted butter makes for a denser, chewier cookie.
  • Rolling the dough in brown sugar doubles down on brown sugar flavor, while adding a crackly texture to the exterior.

I had wrist surgery a week and a half ago and have mostly been sitting on my couch at home since, attempting to get work done despite the challenge of a large, stiff cast and sore metacarpals. It's been slow going. Less slow is the rate of sugar I'm ingesting.

That's fine by me, especially if it's in the form of these chewy cookies, which were originally developed by Yvonne Ruperti for her excellent One Bowl Baking column.

There are a couple keys to this cookie's gooey interior and soft and chewy texture. The first is the brown sugar itself. Unlike white sugar, brown sugar is slightly acidic, which means it readily reacts with the alkaline baking soda in the dough, creating plenty of carbon dioxide that softens the cookies as they bake. Brown sugar is also more hygroscopic than white sugar, meaning it hangs onto moisture more readily. (You can read more on how white and brown sugar differ in cookies here.)

The other key to these cookies is the butter. In recipes that call for creaming room temperature butter with sugar, the goal is to beat microscopic bubbles of air into the dough; when the baking soda activates, it's those little bubbles that puff up and expand into lofty cookies. In this recipe, though, the butter is melted first and then mixed with the brown sugar just enough to combine them, which means there's no aeration happening as there is with creaming. This balance of just the right amount of leavening from the brown sugar/baking soda reaction without the added leavening effects of creaming is key.

With less aeration, the brown sugar is left to excel at another of its jobs: Its acidity speeds the development of gluten in the dough and the speed at which the proteins in the dough set during baking, enhancing the dense, chewy texture of the cookies.

Chewy Brown Sugar Cookies Recipe (5)

To really play up the molasses-y flavor of the brown sugar, each dough ball is rolled in it first. This also enhances the crackly texture of the exterior of each cookie, along with an extra-intense blast of caramel flavor.

Recipe Details

Chewy Brown Sugar Cookies Recipe

Active10 mins

Total25 mins

Serves14to 16 servings

Ingredients

  • 14 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted (7 ounces; 200g)

  • 1 3/4 cups packed light brown sugar, divided (12 1/4 ounces; 350g)

  • 3/4 teaspoon Diamond crystal kosher salt; for table salt, use about half as much by volume or the same by weight (3g)

  • 1 large egg (55g)

  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (10ml)

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour (10 ounces; 285g)

  • 1 teaspoon baking powder (4g)

  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda (2g)

Directions

  1. Getting Started: Adjust 2 oven racks to upper and lower-middle positions and preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.

  2. Stir butter, 1 1/2 cups (10.7 ounces; 300g) brown sugar, and salt in a large bowl until combined. Stir in egg and vanilla until combined. Add flour, baking powder, and baking soda to bowl and stir until combined.

  3. Scoop 1/4-cup sized balls of dough onto rimmed baking sheets (7 to 8 per pan). Add remaining 1/4-cup (1.5 ounces; 50g) brown sugar to now empty (unwashed) bowl. Roll each dough ball into sugar, return to pan, and press to about 1 inch thick.

    Chewy Brown Sugar Cookies Recipe (6)

  4. Bake until tops have puffed and cracked, and edges are golden, 9 to 11 minutes, rotating pans from top to bottom and front to back halfway through baking. Let cool on pans for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool.

Special Equipment

Rimmed baking sheet, wire cooling rack, mixing bowl, digital scale

Read More

  • What's the Difference Between Light and Dark Brown Sugar?
Nutrition Facts (per serving)
244Calories
11g Fat
35g Carbs
2g Protein

×

Nutrition Facts
Servings: 14to 16
Amount per serving
Calories244
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 11g14%
Saturated Fat 6g32%
Cholesterol 40mg13%
Sodium 146mg6%
Total Carbohydrate 35g13%
Dietary Fiber 0g2%
Total Sugars 21g
Protein 2g
Vitamin C 0mg0%
Calcium 41mg3%
Iron 1mg6%
Potassium 57mg1%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

Chewy Brown Sugar Cookies Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to chewy cookies? ›

Cornstarch helps product soft and thick cookies. Using more brown sugar than white sugar results in a moister, softer cookie. An extra egg yolk increases chewiness. Rolling the cookie dough balls to be tall and lumpy instead of wide and smooth gives the cookies a bakery-style textured thickness.

What can cause a cookie to be not chewy enough? ›

17, 2021. The ingredients you use and how you shape your cookies both play an important role in whether your cookies turn out crispy or chewy. The type of flour and sugar you use, if your cookie dough contains eggs, and whether you use melted or softened butter all factor into the crispy-chewy equation, too.

What happens if you add too much brown sugar to cookies? ›

Brown sugar adds a beautiful color as well as a more complex flavor. They'll also make cookies chewier, softer, and thicker than white sugar. Adding too much can result in dark brown cookies. Adding too little results in paler cookies.

Why does brown sugar make cookies chewier? ›

Brown sugar is also hygroscopic (more so than granulated sugar) and will therefore also attract and absorb the liquid in the dough. The difference is in the molasses that makes brown sugar brown: It adds moisture and slight acidity, resulting in a moist and chewy texture.

What are three factors that contribute to a chewy cookie? ›

Salted butter, softened – I prefer salted butter but you can also use unsalted and add an extra pinch of salt to the dough. Brown sugar – Just brown sugar because we will get the 'granulated sugar' flavor from the corn syrup. Corn syrup – The corn syrup is what makes these cookies CHEWY FOR DAYS.

How do you keep homemade cookies soft and chewy? ›

“To keep cookies soft, store them in an airtight container and not in a cookie jar,” Amanda recommends.

Should I use baking soda or baking powder in cookies? ›

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.

Does melting butter make cookies chewy? ›

For chewier cookies and bars, we melt our butter instead of following the usual procedure of creaming softened butter with sugar. This simple switch frees up the water content of the butter so that it can freely interact with the flour in the dough or batter.

Which brown sugar is best for cookies? ›

When to Use Light Brown Sugar. Light brown sugar is used to provide a subtle sweetness to baked goods and even to savory dishes. It has a light color and a light flavor that's less sweet than white sugar. It's often used in cookies to help make them soft and moist.

Does chilling cookies make them chewier? ›

Popping your dough in the fridge allows the fats to cool. As a result, the cookies will expand more slowly, holding onto their texture. If you skip the chilling step, you're more likely to wind up with flat, sad disks instead of lovely, chewy cookies. Cookies made from chilled dough are also much more flavorful.

Should I pack brown sugar for cookies? ›

Packing brown sugar is a crucial component in making a consistent baking measurement. Packing brown sugar presses out all of those small pockets of air that get trapped between the sticky sugar granules, and in-turn will ensure that your sweet treat comes out as just that—sweet!

What does melted butter do to cookies? ›

In some recipes, melted butter is responsible for creating a chewy texture in the cookie. In others, the mixture is used to create a crisp, buttery exterior. Read all your recipes carefully to understand the role of melted butter in your batch, and choose your melting method accordingly.

How do you keep cookies thick and chewy? ›

Chill Your Cookie Dough

Chilling your cookie dough for at least 24 hours or up to 72 hours does magical things to your cookies. Think of this like a “marinating” period. Not only will the flavors intensify, but the texture will also improve, so your cookies will bake up nice and thick and chewy.

How do you keep cookies crisp and chewy? ›

The goal for crispy cookies is opposite: You want to keep moisture away. To do this, store crispy cookies separate from soft cookies (whose moisture can actually soften crispy cookies), in an airtight container that's not completely sealed.

Why does melted butter make cookies chewy? ›

Melted butter is important in cookie making because it helps create a unique texture and flavor that cannot be achieved with solid butter. During the melting process, the butter's water content evaporates, leaving only fat behind. This results in a more concentrated flavor and a softer texture in your cookies.

What makes cookies chewy, butter or shortening? ›

If you're looking for chewy, moist cookies, shortening could be the fat to use — just keep in mind that you may want to add some additional flavors to give the cookies some more taste! Alternatively, use a mix of butter and shortening to get the best of both worlds.

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