When baking soda is used in cookies, it gives the cookies a chewy, coarse texture. You will know you forgot to add a leavener if your cookies turn out somewhat hard and flat. While it is often known for its uses in baking, baking soda is also utilized for a variety of functions outside of baking.
According to Cake Decorist, although baking soda is in fact responsible for producing fluffy, chewy cookies, more baking soda does not actually mean a fluffier and chewier cookie. In fact, if you add more than the recipe calls for, your cookie will lose its integrity in both texture and taste.
When added to dough, baking soda releases a carbon dioxide gas which helps leaven the dough, creating a soft, fluffy cookie.
Why Do Cookies Get Hard? Like all baked treats, cookies are subject to getting stale. Over time, the moisture in the cookies evaporates, leaving them stiff and crumbly. It’s the same thing that happens to breads, muffins, and other baked goods.
Baking soda becomes activated when it’s combined with both an acidic ingredient and a liquid. Upon activation, carbon dioxide is produced, which allows baked goods to rise and become light and fluffy (1).
Baking cookies quickly in a hot oven – at 375 degrees F as opposed to a lower temperature – will make for soft results. They’ll bake fast instead of sitting and drying out in the oven’s hot air. Ever so slightly underbaking your cookies will give you softer results than cooking them the full amount the recipe says.
What happens if you accidentally put too much baking soda?
Too much baking soda causes cakes to brown and may leave a weird taste. The Maillard reaction speeds up under basic conditions (like when you add to a recipe a lot of baking soda, which is alkaline, i.e. basic).
Using lower-moisture sugar (granulated) and fat (vegetable shortening), plus a longer, slower bake than normal, produces light, crunchy cookies. That said, using a combination of butter and vegetable shortening (as in the original recipe), or even using all butter, will make an acceptably crunchy chocolate chip cookie.
But for chocolate chip cookies, you’d use baking soda because it allows the dough to spread, and you get thinner, crisp edges with a tender center. (Now I’m craving cookies!) That, in an easy-to-remember nutshell, is the science behind baking powder and baking soda. Of course, I’m not going to leave it there.
Baking soda is generally about three times stronger than baking powder, so adjust your recipe accordingly. Baking soda and baking powder can produce cookies with different textures. Baking soda is typically used for chewy cookies, while baking powder is generally used for light and airy cookies.
If your cookies look like the first one in the above picture, it’s probably because the dough contained too much sugar leaving your biscuit overly crunchy (as in don’t feed them to grandpa) and dark brown. They probably also got stuck to the baking sheet. Ease up on the sugar in the recipe.
Reheat them in the microwave on medium setting for 15 to 20 seconds. This should be enough time for the cookies to soak in the moisture from the paper towel. If you take them out and they haven’t softened enough yet, wrap them in another damp paper towel and microwave again for 10 more seconds.
To harden soft cookies, whether they are freshly baked or a few days old, put them in the oven preheated to 300-50°F and bake for a few additional minutes. You can also adjust your cookie recipe and pick the right baking tray to get crispy cookies every time.
It is possible to make cookies without baking soda or baking powder, but the resulting cookie will be dense. This is because carbon dioxide is not being produced by a chemical reaction that typically occurs when baking soda or powder is present in the cookie batter.
Both baking powder and baking soda are chemical leavening agents that cause batters to rise when baked. The leavener enlarges the bubbles which are already present in the batter produced through creaming of ingredients. When a recipe contains baking powder and baking soda, the baking powder does most of the leavening.
It’s all about moisture. To keep it simple, cookie recipes that contain a lot of butter, brown sugar or egg yolks are going to yield soft and chewy cookies, because those ingredients add moisture and retain it for a longer amount of time.
While overcooked sugar cookies are certainly still palatable, they’ll be hard and crunchy, instead of soft and chewy. → Follow this tip: Pull the cookie sheet from the oven as soon as they’ve set and gained some color, but not too much. They should also look slightly crackled across the center.
What is Baking Soda?
- Aka bicarbonate of soda or sodium bicarbonate.
- The same exact reaction happens in our cookies, cakes, breads, etc.
- Good rule of thumb: I usually use around 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda per 1 cup of flour in a recipe.
- Baking powder contains baking soda.
It’s also notable that using too much flour can cause cookies to be puffy. You might have used a bit more flour than you should have, and this could have contributed to the overall puffiness. Sometimes little errors such as not measuring out a cup properly will make the difference.
One trick to keep in mind is that both baking powder and baking soda gives rise, but baking soda also spreads due to its leavening strength in small amounts. Think of what the recipe is trying to ultimately achieve, both taste and texture-wise, and that should give you a clue if you forget which to use.
If your baking soda or baking powder is expired, your cookies won’t develop as they are supposed to – causing them not to rise but simply to spread across your oven tray. It’s a good idea to regularly replace your raising agents as they are key to baked goods rising as they should when baked.
1. Unless you want cakey cookies, avoid using baking powder: The cookies made with both the single- and double-acting baking powders were just too darn cakey. 2. Baking soda helps cookies spread more than baking powder.
If your cookies are rock hard, the site explains that it’s likely due to an over-abundance of sugar, which hardens, darkens, and flattens the cookies as they bake. Bake or Break adds that over-mixing your dough can be the culprit, too. When flour is blended with other ingredients, gluten starts to form.
The most common reason that cookies are tough is that the cookie dough was mixed too much. When flour is mixed into the dough, gluten begins to form. Gluten helps hold baked goods together, but too much gluten can lead to tough cookies.
Overworking the dough.
The more you mix and work the dough after adding the flour, the more gluten is formed, which can result in cookies that are tough and hard. → Follow this tip: After adding the flour, mix just until you see no more visible flour.
For softer, chewier cookies, you will want to add much less granulated sugar, slightly more brown sugar, and a fair bit less butter. For cakey cookies, you will often be including even less butter and sugar.
One of the most common reasons why cookies didn’t spread out in the oven is because you added too much flour. Cookies rely on the perfect ratio of butter to flour in order to spread just the right amount when baked. It’s very easy to over measure flour when using cup measurements.
Q: Why are my cookies so thin and flat? The butter or dough was too warm. Butter should be at room temperature (unless otherwise noted). If the dough seems too soft, chill it for 10 to 15 minutes before baking.
Mistake: When cookies turn out flat, the bad guy is often butter that is too soft or even melted. This makes cookies spread. The other culprit is too little flour—don’t hold back and make sure you master measuring. Finally, cookies will also flatten if placed and baked on hot cookie sheets.
Even without baking powder, a well-aerated dough will still puff with steam. If that supply cuts off before the cookies set, a soft dough will collapse in on itself. If it continues until the end, the air pockets are preserved as the cookie’s crumb.
If you don’t have baking soda, you can use baking powder, at three times what the recipe calls for. So if a recipe calls for one teaspoon of baking soda, you can use three teaspoons of baking powder. Baking powder also contains a little bit of salt, so it’s also a good idea to halve the salt the recipe calls for.