Brown Sugar and Cinnamon Cookies Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What happens if you add too much brown sugar 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.

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.

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.

Flavor flat-out: Cookies won't be sweet, obviously! Sugar adds sweetness and balances other flavors. Texture troubles: They might be drier and crumblier, as sugar helps hold moisture and creates a chewier texture. Browning bummer: Expect a paler color, as sugar helps with browning during baking.

Using the wrong leavening agent

If you accidentally add baking soda instead of baking powder to baked goods, they won't rise because there is not enough acid.

Baking powder simply adds carbon dioxide to the equation, providing a more forceful pressure that encourages a dough to spread up and out.

One -too much soda makes cookies puff quickly then immediately deflate into cow pie looking cookies. They spread out thinly. Too much makes them taste terrible, like metal and leaves a weird semi sour taste in the mouth. This also happens if too much baking powder or other leavening is used, flat and bitter.

Brown sugar adds a dense chewiness to certain types of baked goods like cookies. When brown sugar is replaced with white sugar, you may end up with a slightly crispier result. Still, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. White sugar can be used to replace brown sugar, producing only slight changes in texture and flavor.

Room temperature butter is just the right consistency to incorporate air when it's creamed with sugar. These trapped air pockets result in risen, fluffy cookies. If the butter is any warmer, it won't incorporate enough air and your cookies will have less rise.

Will hard brown sugar ruin cookies? ›

If your recipe has the sugar dissolving or melting into a liquid, you can actually use the hardened stuff without issue. But if your recipe calls for creaming (like with these cookies) or blending the sugar into a batter, you want to re-soften it before using.

Pastry Flour: An unbleached flour made from soft wheat, with protein levels somewhere between cake flour and all-purpose flour (8 to 9 percent). Pastry flour strikes the ideal balance between flakiness and tenderness, making it perfect for pies, tarts and many cookies.

The molasses content in dark brown sugar will make your baked goods moister than if you use light brown sugar. That means that not only is the flavor affected, but the texture will be, too. Light brown sugar will result in a subtler flavor, while dark brown sugar will give your baked goods a richer flavor.

Brown sugar is moister than granulated sugar, so using too much of it can make your baked goods denser and heavier. Too much brown sugar can also affect the structure of your baked goods. Brown sugar contains molasses, which can make your baked goods denser and more moist.

You're on the right track, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce or even a teaspoon or more of white vinegar can help to balance out the sweetness from too much brown sugar.

Excess Sugar and Fat

If your cookie contains excess sugar or fat, it will spread while baking. If your first batch of cookies spreads, try adding a few tablespoons of flour to help thicken the remaining dough.

Other than that, the cookies made with light brown sugar spread a bit more, and the ones made with dark brown sugar rose just every so slightly higher.