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.

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

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.

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

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.
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.
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.
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

What's the Difference Between Light and Dark Brown Sugar?

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
244	Calories
11g	Fat
35g	Carbs
2g	Protein

Show Full Nutrition Label

Nutrition Facts
Servings: 14to 16
Amount per serving
Calories	244
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 11g	14%
Saturated Fat 6g	32%
Cholesterol 40mg	13%
Sodium 146mg	6%
Total Carbohydrate 35g	13%
Dietary Fiber 0g	2%
Total Sugars 21g
Protein 2g
Vitamin C 0mg	0%
Calcium 41mg	3%
Iron 1mg	6%
Potassium 57mg	1%
*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.)

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.

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Does brown sugar make cookies more chewy? ›

Brown sugar

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.

View Details ›

What makes cookies chewy instead of crispy? ›

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.

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What does too much brown sugar do 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.

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What are 3 factors that contribute to a chewy cookie? ›

Brown sugar is key. Brown sugar has molasses in it which is like a more liquid ingredient. ...
Use baking soda / powder. It helps give your cookie a little rise which makes the center a little more chewy/cakey hence sort.
Freeze your cookie dough before scooping.

May 17, 2018

Why do you put corn syrup in cookies? ›

So, when you mix corn syrup into your cookie batter, all of that moisture will make and keep your baked cookies deliciously tender. The texture of cookies benefits from corn syrup as well. As you combine your ingredients to make your cookie batter, corn syrup will pull some of the surrounding air into your batter.

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Does butter make cookies softer? ›

Butter gives flavor, tenderness and flaky layers to baked goods. It can also bring a bit of structure and rise. For instance, a chocolate chip cookie dough incorporates butter and sugar to incorporate air into the final result.

Learn More Now ›

What is the best brown sugar for cookies? ›

Using all light brown sugar will yield cookies with a lighter flavor (that's not a bad thing!). They'll be buttery with accents of vanilla and a soft interior, but a lighter molasses flavor. Opting for all dark brown sugar will give you a richer flavor and ever-so-slightly softer centers.

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What happens if you use dark brown sugar instead of light brown sugar in cookies? ›

Using dark brown sugar when a recipe calls for light will give your final product a more robust taste and a darker color, and it might slightly affect the texture.