When making cookies, what makes a cookie turn out either hard, soft or chewy?

Question

Like if you have a tasty recipe for a cookie that turns out hard, is there something you can change or add to make it soft or chewy but not change the taste?

Answer 1

take your cookies out about 5 minutes earlier than the recipe says to have more chewier cookies, if you cook them longer than the recipe says you'll have harder crisper cookies.

Answer 2

Soft Cookies Vs Hard Cookies

Answer 3

many different things can make change the texture or crisp or chew of a cookie. Baking unfortunately is an exact science you really can't cut too many corners where for instance you want a really buttery crispy cookie so first thought for most is to add more butter wrong this will cause the cookie to spread drastically. there really is no forgiveness with baking, but you can use flavor enhancers like subbing in some brown sugar for white sugar but with doing this you either need to use a little more flour or less water because sugar is a hydroscopic product and brown sugar being even more so then white sugar therefore adjustments would need to be made to keep the balance in the recipe not to get too far off subject i suggest using a little brown for white say if it called for a cup of sugar use 3/4c white sugar and 1/4c brown and reduce the liquid by 2Tbsp. Also reduce the baking time by about 5 min this will give you a cooked center that is set but not hard.

Answer 4

I think it's all in the baking times. Kind of tricky, sometimes you have to do a small pan, at the minimum time, take them out, let them cool and probably they will be soft & chewy. If you leave them in for another minute or so, they get hard/crunchy when cool. Kind of hard to tell until you just experiment with a few.

Answer 5

Ok so you want to make it soft and chewy?
well heres how it works. Let's say the baking time is 18 to 20 mins. cook for 19, youre right in between.
When it gets to about 16-17 mins. check on it, see and stick a toothpick in to see if it is baked well enough, or soft enough. If you want to keep them soft when they cool, keep them in a closed container, air will mak ethem harden

Answer 6

Well, what I usually do is change the amount of dough I put on the baking sheet. If you want thick, chewy cookies you put down more dough and cook them for less time, until the outside edges are browned but the middle is still kind of doughy.

Answer 7

Sometimes you need to 'undercook' the cookie a little bit. I have found that if the edges are light brown about half way to the center of the cookie, it's time to take them out. Any longer than that, and you're going to have a crispy or harder cookie.

Answer 8

A soft cookie usually has a high content of sugar and moisture. A crisp cookie has less sugar and higher fat content. Shortening (Crisco) makes a crisper cookie than oil or margarine.

Answer 9

Are you greasing the cookie sheet? With all the butter/crisco, you surely don't need anymore. My mom always had this problem. We would use the exact same recipe and hers would be flat and mine would be puffy. For the longest time, I figured I must be doing something wrong because I thought Chocolate Chip cookies were supposed to be flat! :D

Answer 10

It's all timing...WHen you take cookies out of the oven and let them cool, they get harder than when you took them out initially. So when i want hard cookies i keep them in the amount of time i was suppose to, if i want them softer i leave them in the oven a like two minutes shorter than the time they are suppose to be in....so timing is the key.