Use This Secret Ingredient If You Prefer Super Chewy Cookies
From chocolate chip to snickerdoodle, pretty much every type of cookie starts off with the same basic ingredients. No cookie is complete without butter, flour, and sugar, and eggs, but the ratios of these ingredients will vary depending on the texture you're going for. If you use more butter, for example, your cookies will spread faster and become crispier, but if you increase the amount of eggs, you'll end up with a batch that's thick and cakey, The Spruce Eats shares.
For chewy cookies, however, there's not as clear cut of a formula. That's because, according to Bob's Red Mill, the amount of chewiness in cookies relies on the moisture content of the dough. The mix-ins you add, any substitutions you make, how you incorporate the ingredients, and even where you store the cookies once you take them out of the oven can all alter that moisture content and ultimately, the texture. But there's one ingredient that makes it a lot easier to achieve a chewy cookie despite all the other variables.
Adding agave syrup makes a big difference
When you make cookies that are chewy, you might notice that they don't stay chewy for long. As Fine Cooking explains, this happens because chewiness is dependent on moisture, and that moisture eventually evaporates out. The best way to retain the moisture, and by extensionm the chewiness, is through fructose. Fructose comes in many forms, including honey, corn syrup, and molasses, but the most effective one in cookies, Bon Appétit claims, is agave syrup.
Agave syrup is 80% fructose, the most compared to the other options, and it also has a neutral flavor, which means you don't have to worry about your cookie recipe tasting all that different. Bon Appétit recommends replacing 20% of the sugar in your original recipe with the syrup, and by adding 1 tablespoon of flour per one-fourth cup of agave. This will ensure that the cookie won't spread, but will be the perfect amount of chewiness.