The Ingredient You Need For Chewy Bakery-Style Cookies Is Corn Syrup

Who doesn't love a trip to their favorite bakery to grab some delicious cookies? Those bakers know all of the tricks to making the most scrumptious cookies that will have you coming back for more of their tasty treats. However, that doesn't mean you can't make your own cookies that will provide the same delectable chewiness as the cookies from that bakery you just can't stay away from. Why? Because the secret's out: If you want to make chewy, bakery-style cookies at home, simply add some corn syrup to your cookie recipe.

When you include corn syrup alongside your cookie ingredients, its properties alter the moisture levels and texture of your cookie dough in a way that will create deliciously soft cookies to rival the chewiness of the cookies from your favorite bakery. Although there is a must-know finishing touch for chewy cookies, corn syrup will get the job done primarily because of how it affects the sugar in your cookie dough to keep your cookies incredibly soft for a long time.

The bakers at your favorite bakery probably know that if they don't include corn syrup in their cookie recipes, after the baked cookies are taken out of the warm oven and get closer to room temperature, the granulated sugar will start to recrystallize. This makes the cookies harder, crunchier, and, consequently, less enjoyable. However, corn syrup deters this process.

Corn syrup contains glucose, a sugar that can recrystallize but will resist the process. When you put your cookies in the oven to bake, the glucose in the corn syrup blocks the granulated sugar molecules from finding each other and reconnecting to form crystals throughout the cookies. As a result, when those freshly baked cookies from the oven start to cool off, they will stay soft. They'll also be delicious. And all you need is a tablespoon of corn syrup in your cookie recipe to achieve this. Corn syrup may not be the only ingredient that can help create the chewiest cookies, especially considering that melted butter is also key, but corn syrup does additional things to facilitate a chewy cookie result.

Corn syrup is a super potent humectant, which means that it has a strong ability to not only absorb moisture but also hold on to moisture. When it comes to water molecules, corn syrup essentially does the opposite of what it does to sugar molecules after baking — the corn syrup encourages and allows the water molecules to connect. 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. After you scoop your cookies, chill the dough, and bake your cookies, the air that got into your cookie dough will have made your cookies delectably smooth. Again, corn syrup may not be the only ingredient to make chewy cookies — cream cheese is another — but it is the ingredient that can get your cookies just as chewy as the ones from your favorite bakery.