Chewy Chocolate Cookies with baking powder 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.

Baking powder, fortunately, contains both baking soda and cornstarch in it, which allows us to bake these cookies until they're crisp, but still have a nice chewy bite.

Baking powder: Baking powder can be used to replace baking soda, though not at a 1-to-1 ratio. Because the former is not as strong as the latter, it's important to use three times the amount of baking powder as baking soda. Be aware, a slightly bitter, off-putting taste might result from using that much baking powder.

Expect about one teaspoon per five ounces of flour; thin and crispy cookies may need a little less, thick and chewy cookies may need a little more. Even without baking powder, a well-aerated dough will still puff with steam. If that supply cuts off before the cookies set, a soft dough will collapse in on itself.

The extra egg yolk helps to add more moisture and richness, for a soft and chewy texture. The other trick is found in the size of the dough ball…. a whole 3 tablespoons in each! This creates larger cookies that spread out perfectly with ultra-soft centers.

Too much baking powder can cause the batter to be bitter tasting. It can also cause the batter to rise rapidly and then collapse. (i.e. The air bubbles in the batter grow too large and break causing the batter to fall.) Cakes will have a coarse, fragile crumb with a fallen center.

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.

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. With less moisture escaping via steam, they also stay moist and chewy.

Many recipes need both kinds of reactions to achieve the intended overall balance of flavor and texture, which is why you'll often see both baking soda and baking powder in a recipe. Even though the ingredients are both adding air during the baking process, they're complements, not substitutes.

If you have a baking recipe that calls for baking soda, and you only have baking powder, you may be able to substitute, but you will need 2 or 3 times as much baking powder for the same amount of baking soda to get the same amount of leavening power, and you may end up with something that's a little bitter tasting, ...

What happens if you put too much baking powder in chocolate chip cookies? ›

As Joy of Baking explains, a surplus of baking powder will turn your treat's flavor bitter. And that's not even the worst part. Adding in too much baking powder could cause your dessert to rise too fast and fall apart.

Just keep in mind that too much baking powder will leave a slightly bitter taste in your baked good, so I wouldn't use anymore than 2 tsp of baking powder per 1 cup of flour.

Baking at 375 degrees F as opposed to a lower temperature will help cookies stay soft: they'll bake faster which means they aren't in the hot, drying air of the oven too long. Pull the cookie sheet out of the oven when the cookies are just set: underbaking is better than overbaking.

Another way to soften cookies is by placing the cookies in an airtight container with a damp paper towel. The paper towel will release moisture and help to soften the cookies without making them too soft or mushy. Another way is to place the cookies in a plastic bag with a slice of apple or a damp tea towel.

Hard cookies: you are over mixing, baking too long, baking at too high a temperature, or some combination of these. Cakey cookies: not enough brown sugar, too much or too little egg, too much flour, maybe you used baking powder instead of baking soda?