For those of us who lack the time and patience to make fresh cookies as frequently as we want to eat them, there is store-bought cookie dough. Say what you will about break-and-bake cookies, but they come with some serious advantages — namely, consistency of product and a lack of mess. There are many ingredients that take chocolate chip cookies to the next level .
But our favorite ready-made dough hack is one of the most impressive of all. It will bring you close to homemade flavor, along with elevating the texture of your cookies to heavenly levels of chewiness. The secret? Brown sugar, which you likely have in your pantry already, even if you didn't make the cookie dough yourself.
Mixing your store-bought dough with brown sugar, with or without the addition of extra butter, will result in cookies that are moister, chewier, and altogether more delicious. This improvement may even trick your loved ones into thinking you spent hours channeling your inner Keebler elf. The secret is in the chemistry It's not a coincidence that most cookie recipes use a combination of brown and white sugar.
Sugar is not only necessary for sweetness; it enables the Maillard reaction to take place as it caramelizes, browning the cookies and lending them toastiness. Brown sugar specifically contains molasses, which is slightly acidic. Combined with the baking soda in your recipe, it triggers a leavening effect that gives your sweet treats their prized texture.
Cookies without brown sugar just won'.