Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe - Gemma’s Bigger Bolder Baking (2024)

FAQs

Why are my chocolate chip cookies crunchy and not chewy? ›

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.

Cornstarch gives the cookies that ultra soft consistency we all love. Plus, it helps keep the cookies beautifully thick. We use the same trick when making shortbread cookies. Egg yolk: Another way to promise a super chewy chocolate chip cookie is to use an extra egg yolk.

The more eggs you add, the more chewy and almost cake-like your cookie will be. While the tedious act of separating your yolks from your whites may be a bit of a pain, a crumbly, dry chocolate chip cookie is probably worse, so we're in favor of giving this one a shot.

Using too much baking soda.

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.

Cookies. Cornstarch does kind of incredible things to cookies. I mean not only does it give them soft centers, prevents them from spreading, and makes them somewhat thick (in a good way), but it also contributes to the chewiness factor, which, in my opinion, is the most important cookie attribute.

Though most bakers and cooks prefer butter for its unparalleled taste, margarine does have its place. Because of its high water content, baked goods made with margarine will often have a softer texture.

Room temperature eggs are good for baking because they blend more evenly in batters and help the dough rise more easily than cold eggs straight out of the fridge. Cold eggs, on the other hand, can result in lumpy batter, a stodgy texture, and require longer baking times — and no one wants that!

You can whisk 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil, 2 tablespoons of water and 2 teaspoons of baking powder together to replace each egg in baked goods like cookies, brownies or quick breads. This substitution won't impact a recipes' flavor profile the way egg substitutions like mashed banana or flaxseed might.

What does brown sugar do to cookies? ›

In that role, white sugar aerates the dough when creamed with butter for thick and puffy cookies. Brown sugar, meanwhile, is dense and compacts easily, creating fewer air pockets during creaming—that means that there's less opportunity to entrap gas, creating cookies that rise less and spread more.

Melted butter leads to flatter denser cookies as the dough is wetter and spreads out faster. Using chunks of cold butter will give you a fluffier and cakier cookie.

Too much butter makes cookies turn out just as you'd expect: very buttery. This batch of cookies was cakey in the middle, but also airy throughout, with crispy edges. They were yellow and slightly puffy in the middle, and brown and super thin around the perimeter.

Don't Overmix the Dough

Overmixing is literally just the process of mixing something too much, which usually creates texture issues from too much gluten development and leads to tough cookies. Like these “soft, chewy” cookies from when I first started baking: These were neither soft nor chewy.

Under-Bake Your Cookies

Ever accidentally bake a batch of cookies for too long, only to find that they were crunchy and hard instead of soft and chewy? The opposite goes for under-baking. Pull your cookies out of the oven a minute or two early (while the centers are still gooey).

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.

Too Much Flour in Cookies. Overcooked Cookies. Cookie Dough Got Hard in Fridge. Too Much Butter Cookie Dough.

Fat is a very important ingredient in cookies – it tenderizes, crisps and browns, adds color and a wonderful flavor that is impossible to duplicate. Butter, our fat of choice, ensures good baking results and adds the most desirable taste, texture and appearance.