How to Soften Crisp Cookies

Revive stale cookies with bread.

Imagine biting into what you believe will be a soft, chewy cookie but finding a crisp and crunchy one instead. Those crispy cookies can be revived, and the next time you make cookies you can tweak a recipe for crispy cookies to turn it into one for soft cookies that will remain chewy in storage. Does this Spark an idea?

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Brown sugar
Vegetable shortening
Wire cooling rack
Airtight container
Slice of bread

Instructions

Make Soft Cookies from a Crispy Cookie Recipe
- 1
  
  Replace the white sugar in the cookie recipe with brown sugar, which is hygroscopic and attracts moisture from the atmosphere, keeping cookies moist and soft after baking.
- 2
  
  Use vegetable shortening instead of butter in the cookie recipe. Since shortening melts at a higher temperature than butter, it will cause the cookies to spread less as they bake. Cookies that spread too thin have a greater surface area, allowing more moisture to evaporate and hastening the rate at which the cookies harden.
- 3
  
  Chill the dough for one hour or more in the refrigerator before baking to prevent the cookies from spreading too quickly in the oven and becoming crunchy.
- 4
  
  Check the cookies at the earliest baking time on your recipe, and remove them from the oven as soon as they turn light brown. Over-baked cookies will be hard and crispy.
- 5
  
  Cool the cookies on the pan for one minute then transfer to wire cooling racks to cool to room temperature.
- 6
  
  Package the cookies in airtight containers with a slice of bread to keep the cookies soft. Replace the bread slice daily.
Soften Baked Crisp Cookies
- 7
  
  Place the crispy cookies into an airtight container.
- 8
  
  Add a slice of bread and seal the container.
- 9
  
  Leave the cookies at room temperature overnight, and check the next morning for softness.