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Each one uses six ingredients or less – and you can make each one in 10 minutes or less!
Sugar in cookies sweetens the dough. But that’s not all it does!
Bet you didn’t know all the other ways sugar makes adifference in your cookies.
What Sugar Does In Cookies
Sugar tenderizes.As it dissolves with other ingredients, sugar absorbs moisture which slows downthe development of gluten and starch. Sugar helps the dough be tender andcrumbly rather than tough.
Sugar caramelizes.When is heated above its melting point sugar turns golden or amber. Thecoloring deepens the cookie surfaces … and makes your kitchen smell delicious.
Sugar expands.Since sugar melts when it is heated (that is, baked), sugar in the dough helpsthe cookies to spread on the baking sheet or in the baking pan.
Sugar stabilizes.In recipes with little or no fat (like meringues), sugar adds bulk, helping toslow coagulation.
Kinds of Sugar in Cookies
Four types of sugar are most commonly used in bakinghomemade cookies.
Granulated Sugar
Granulated sugar, also called refined sugar, table sugar, orwhite sugar, is the type of sugar that fills your sugar bowl. It is what most people think of first when they think of sugar in cookies.
It is extracted from sugar beets or sugar cane. Sugar beetsare processed to remove syrup, and after concentration the sugars are isolatedand crystallized.
Sugarcane is processed a bit differently. Stalks are cut,crushed and combined with water and lime. The resulting syrup is cooked toisolate the crystals.
In both cases, sugar crystals are refined through a purificationprocess, bleached white with sulfur dioxide, and dried so that the crystals donot clump together.
You can identify different types of granulated sugar bycrystal size. The most common white sugar for cookie baking is regular sugar,which is classified by the food industry as “fine” or “extra fine.”
Superfine sugar (or ultrafine sugar), the finest of allgranulated white sugar textures, is called for occasionally in recipes becauseit dissolves easily. In cookie baking, it is used for delicately-texturedcookies and meringues. Superfine sugar is also called caster or castor sugar,particularly in the UnitedKingdom, so named for the shaker in which itis packaged.
Brown Sugar
Brown sugar is white sugar with added molasses, giving it aricher, deeper flavor. The molasses also softens and moistens the sugar.
Dark brown sugar has more molasses than light brown sugar,but the two can be used interchangeably – depending on your taste. Dark brownsugar is more intense. Light brown sugar has a more delicate flavor. When a recipe calls specifically for darkbrown sugar or light brown sugar, you can substitute either one for the otheras they both function in the same way in a recipe. The difference between thetwo in cookies is how each highlights flavors. Dark brown sugar adds depth,white light brown sugar is more subtle.
Powdered Sugar
Powdered sugar, also called confectioners sugar, is agranulated sugar crushed into a fine powder, sifted, and combined withcornstarch. The cornstarch prevents clumping and makes up about 3 percent of product.
A higher number of Xs on powdered sugar packages indicatefiner grind; for instance 4 X (XXXX) powdered sugar is more finely ground than3 X powdered sugar (XXX). All levels of powdered sugar grind can be used interchangeablywith each other in cookie recipes. But take note: powdered sugar is not to besubstituted for granulated sugar or brown sugar, since the added cornstarch inpowdered sugar changes cookie chemistry and texture.
Raw Sugar
Sometimes raw sugar is confused with brown sugar, since bothare colored tan, golden, or light brown. It is produced from the residue leftover after the first stage of cane sugar processing. Cookie recipes sometimescall for raw sugar particularly as a sprinkled topping. You can use raw sugarinterchangeably with white sugar and brown sugar in cookie recipes.
You may encounter three different kinds of raw sugar in yourbaking adventures: Demerara sugar (coarse textured), Turbinado sugar (finetextured), and Barbados sugar,(steam cleaned sugar).
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