Soft and Chewy Carmelita Cookies Recipe | Julie Blanner (2024)

FAQs

How do you make cookies fluffy instead of flat? ›

Try using baking powder instead of baking soda. Baking soda encourages spreading while baking powder puffs the cookies up. If your recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of baking soda, you would use 3 to 4 teaspoons of baking powder.

Butter is more than 15% water, so it plays a role in making cookies soft by adding water and fat, which contributes flavor and tenderness. Melting the butter you're using can make the cookie softer.

Chewy cookies

Sugar dissolved in baking forms a syrup as the dough heats up. Different types of sugars affect the texture because they absorb different amounts of water. Remember moisture is the key! White sugar creates crispier cookies and brown sugar creates chewier cookies.

Add a bit of cornstarch to the dough. Cornstarch helps to absorb moisture and keep cookies soft and tender. Make sure you're using the right type of flour. All-purpose flour will give you a softer cookie than whole wheat flour.

Baking soda

When added to dough, baking soda releases a carbon dioxide gas which helps leaven the dough, creating a soft, fluffy cookie. Baking soda is generally used in recipes that contain an acidic ingredient such as vinegar, sour cream or citrus.

In this series of photos, you can see that as we increase the baking powder, the cookies tend to rise a little more, but only to a certain point. Eventually, the reaction is so strong and violent that it will actually cause those air pockets to rupture and collapse, delivering a denser, squatter cookie.

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.

To soften butter, we recommend leaving it on the kitchen counter for 30 minutes to an hour. Keep in mind that the speed at which your butter will soften depends on the temperature of your kitchen. If it's wintertime, you might need to leave your butter on the counter overnight to fully soften.

Our control cookie, as with most cookies, uses softened butter, and this recipe tends to be a bit cakier. A cookie made with the same amount of melted butter will give you a fudgier, chewier cookie. It helps it spread out more and gives you some nice divots to catch more chocolate.

What does vinegar do in cookies? ›

Vinegar helps with creating a tender and moist crumb

This is because the acidity of vinegar interferes with gluten development. Gluten is a protein that can make our baked goods tough when overworked, which is why you'll often hear me talking about not overmixing your batter.

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.

What ingredients make for a chewy rather than a crunchy cookie? - Quora. Eggs, brown sugar and a fat mix of 50/50 butter and shortening are some of the ingredients that will help make a cookie chewier. Also, fluff the flour with a whisk before measuring it — too much flour will make a cookie dry.

When cookies first come out of the oven the fat in them is still warm, which makes them soft. Yet, once they cool off the butter begins to solidify. Why are my cookies hard and crunchy? You most likely either used too much flour or baked them for too long.

Find a basic cookie recipe you like the taste of, then bake a few to make sure that the cookies don't spread when you bake them. If they do spread, you can add a few tablespoons of flour to the dough and mix again. The dough should not be hard and crumbly, but it should be too wet, either.

The temperature of the dough will also make a difference. Try using room temperature dough instead of chilling it. You might also want to weigh the flour if you are using volume measurements so the fat to flour ratio is consistent. If you are using parchment paper, try greasing the cookie sheets instead.