The Sweet Ingredient That Gives Chocolate Chip Cookies A Chewy Boost

It's pretty easy to tell if your grocery store chocolate chip cookies will be soft and chewy or crisp and crunchy, as most of these packaged treats offer some sort of texture indication right there on the label. Unfortunately, that's not always the case with the homemade version of this fan-favorite cookie flavor. Even if you employ all of our hacks for making great chocolate chip cookies, sometimes they still end up on the crispier side.

That's not a dig at crunchy chocolate chippers. There's a time and place for those bad boys, but when you set out on your baking adventure intending to make moist and chewy cookies, being met with the exact opposite as you take your first bite is undoubtedly disappointing. Surely, there's got to be a way to lower the crunchy cookie risk factor and achieve that soft-baked consistency you can buy at the store. As it turns out, there is.

All it takes to secure that delectable, melt-in-your-mouth texture is a touch of agave syrup in your recipe. The sweet ingredient gives chocolate chip cookies a chewy boost thanks to its high fructose content, making it highly hygroscopic, or, in less scientific terms, able to hold a lot of moisture for a long time. Therefore, because the agave syrup can lock in all of that moisture, you can attain the ultimate chewiness in your chocolate chip cookies.

Agave syrup is the simple answer for how to achieve overall chewiness in your chocolate chip cookies. However, swapping your traditional white sugar for this sweet alternative isn't quite the easiest thing ever. There are a few things you need to know before substituting agave syrup for sugar, starting with the fact that this isn't a one-for-one switcheroo. Because agave is much sweeter than white sugar, you need less of it in your recipes. The general rule of thumb is that for every cup of white sugar called for, sub in ¾ cup of agave syrup.

That's not the only change you'll need to make when using agave syrup as a sugar substitute. As you may have heard, baking is very much a science, and even the slightest change in your ingredients can completely alter the outcome of your recipe. If you're using agave syrup in chocolate chip cookies, the ratio of liquid to dry ingredients will be off, resulting in a runny cookie dough that will overspread in the oven. There are ways to counteract this. You can reduce the amount of each liquid ingredient that your recipe calls for by 2 tablespoons or add a tablespoon of flour for every ¼ cup of agave syrup. We know it sounds like extra work, but it'll all be worth it when you sink your teeth into a delectably soft, homemade cookie.