Out of brown sugar and up for a new recipe for gooey, soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies with granulated sugar instead? These delicious chocolate chip cookies without brown sugar are delicious, rich, aromatic and oozing with chocolate. This homemade chocolate chip cookies recipe is super easy, and you need only a few basic ingredients to make it. Do you like to bake cookies? Then you'll love my Earl Grey Shortbread Cookies, Butter Pecan Cookies, Lemon Crinkle Cookies, Almond Flour Peanut Butter Cookies and Matcha Cookies recipes as well.
Table of Contents
Do you have a thing for chocolate like me as well? Try my Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake, Dark Chocolate Bundt Cake, Chocolate Brownies, Chocolate Pinwheel Cookies, Chocolate Sour Cream Pound Cake, Condensed Milk Brownies and Coca Cola Cake.
Why This Recipe Works?
- These chocolate chip cookies without baking soda require just a few ingredients.
- This recipe requires only 15 minutes to put together the cookie dough.
- It is a super easy recipe and anyone can bake it.
- You can store these cookies easily to eat later as well.
- You only need white granulated sugar for this recipe.
Role Of Brown Sugar In Cookies
Traditionally the classic chocolate chip cookies are almost always made with one key ingredient, brown sugar. The brown sugar (light and dark brown) is largely made of sucrose with a small percentage of molasses, which give a chewier texture to your favorite cookie recipes. It is therefore a must ingredient for the classic chocolate chip cookie recipe. But today we are making a new recipe, white sugar chocolate chip cookies instead of the traditional brown sugar chocolate chip cookies.
Typically, the brown sugars are made up of 95 % sucrose and only 5% of molasses and blackstrap molasses. Light brown sugar has 3 – 4 % molasses while the dark brown sugar contains 6 – 7 % molasses, hence the dark color. Brown sugar contains more moisture than the white sugar.
Molasses contains glucose, amino acids, fructose and some minerals too, which are responsible for caramelization during baking.
The amino acids in the brown sugar react with the baking soda, which is alkaline in nature, and produce carbon dioxide when introduced to heat in the oven. It helps to lift the cookies and give them height and make them soft and chewy as well.
The brown sugar retains moisture (the white sugar does the same too) from the flour and makes the cookies chewy.
The white sugar, on the other hand, has neutral pH as compared to the brown sugar. The white sugar is made by removing molasses. The cookies made with just white sugar are crispy as compared to those made with brown sugar.
How To Replace Brown Sugar
There are a few replacements for brown sugar for these delicious cookies. The first option is to mix molasses in white sugar but there are slim chances of you having molasses handy at home. Other easier choices could be honey, maple syrup and agave nectar as well. In this recipe we are using simple white castor sugar as the replacement for brown sugar, which works perfectly fine and makes the best chocolate chip cookies.
Dark Molasses: The best way is to use dark molasses, add one tablespoon of molasses in one cup of white sugar to get brown sugar for chewy cookies.
Honey or Maple Syrup: add two tablespoons honey or maple syrup in one cup of white sugar to replace brown sugar.
Agave Syrup or Agave Nectar: add two tablespoons agave syrup in one cup of white sugar instead of the brown sugar for moist, gooey chocolate chip cookies. Agave syrup is usually made of Agave plant sap, particularly Agave salmiana and Agave tequilana.
Ingredients
Pro Tip # 1 - Room Temperature Ingredients
Always use room temperature ingredients (unless otherwise specified) for baking. Ingredients such as butter, eggs and other dairy ingredients like milk, sour cream, yogurt form an emulsion by trapping air inside the batter. The trapped air expands in the oven resulting in perfect baked treats.
- All-purpose flour: gives structure to these cookies.
- White sugar: sweetening element of these cookies.
- Butter: use high-quality butter.
- Chocolate chips: use high-quality chocolate chips for this recipe.
- Baking Soda: to give lift to the cookies.
- Egg: is the binding agent of these cookies.
- Vanilla extract: helps to enhance the flavor.
- Salt: balances the sweetness and enhances the overall flavor.
Pro Tip # 2 - Digital Scale
Use a digital scale to measure all-purpose flour and other dry ingredients. To measure with cup, fluff up the all-purpose flour container using a spoon, then scoop out the flour with spoon into the measuring cup. Never scoop out of the container. It may result in more flour than required resulting in dense bakes.
Instructions
These are basic process shots for this recipe. For detailed instructions refer to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
1. Combine the all purpose flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
2. Beat the butter and sugar for 1-2 minutes until creamy.
3. Add in the egg and vanilla extract.
4. Beat until combined.
5. Combine the flour in the batter.
6. Add in the chocolate chip and fold.
7. Using an ice-cream scoop, scoop out the cookies on to the baking sheet.
8. Bake at preheated oven at 350 F for 10 - 12 minutes and take them out once the cookies edges turn golden brown.
Equipment
- Baking tray.
- Silicone mats or parchment paper.
- Rubber spatula.
- Electric mixer.
- Mixing bowls.
- Ice cream scoop #8 or cookie scoop.
- Measuring cups and spoons.
- Digital scale or kitchen scale.
Substitutions
- Dark Chocolate Chips: Use any type of semisweet, dark or milk chocolate chips for these cookies. Throw in extra chocolate chips or chocolate bars in the chocolate chip cookie dough.
- Chocolate Chunks: If you are out of chocolate chips, cut the chocolate bar and use the chunks in 1:1 ratio to chocolate chips in this easy chocolate chip cookie recipe.
- White Chocolate Chips: If you like you can replace the dark chocolate chips with white chocolate chips. However, I have never tried it this way.
Variations
- Nuts: Add ½ cup of chopped nuts of your choice in the cookies such as pecans, almonds or walnuts. If you are adding nuts, use ½ cup of chocolate chips instead of 1 cup.
- Dried Fruits: Use ½ cup of any dried fruits of your choice such as cherries, raisins, apricots or cranberries. If you are using dried fruit, then use the chocolate chips in half quantity (½ cup instead of 1 cup).
- Dairy free: Use any plant-based butter instead of regular butter to make these cookies dairy free.
Expert Tips
Do not Overbake: During baking chocolate chip cookies the key is to keep an eye on the cookies while they are in the oven. Once the edges of the cookies turn brown and golden, you should take them out instantly and let them cool in the baking tray for 5 minutes before transferring them to the wire rack to cool completely. Not taking out the cookies at the right time may result in hard and tough cookies instead of the chewy texture.
Keep Space While Arranging Cookies on the Tray: Once the cookie dough is ready, scoop out the cookies and place them on silicone mats on baking trays with 2 – 3 inches distance apart because the cookies will spread during baking and spacing will ensure they do not stick with each other.
Extra Chocolate: Sprinkle more chocolate chips or chunks over the cookie dough balls before placing them in the oven. They will look pretty and add more chocolatey flavor and add to the texture of your cookies.
Frequently Asked Questions
The best part of these cookies is that you do not require to chill the dough before baking so there is no chill time for this easy cookie recipe. For best results prepare the cookie batter, scoop out the cookies on the baking sheet and put it in the oven for 10-12 minutes. You will always get soft texture cookies.
The main difference between both sugars is that white sugar helps to make the cookies to spread and give them crispy golden edges, while the brown sugar contains molasses that helps with caramelization, moisture and chewiness of the cookies. Traditionally, chocolate chip cookies are made with the combination of both sugars to give the perfect texture.
Yes, you can certainly freeze the cookie dough easily. Once you have scooped out the cookies, place them on a baking tray next to each other and freeze them until they are hard and firm. Now take them out, place them into a plastic bag and freeze to up to 3 months. Once you are ready to bake, allow the frozen cookie dough to sit on the counter for a little while. Also know the cookies will need more time (1 – 3 minutes) to bake. Take them out once the edges are brown and golden.
This is a fool proof recipe and feel free to double the recipe. You should get the same perfect cookies.
How To Store
- The cookies can stay fresh in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. While placing them in the container add one or two slice of white bread as they will help the cookies to stay fresh.
- Freeze the baked cookies in the freezer for up to 2 months. Thaw them at room temperature before serving.
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Recipe
Chocolate Chip Cookies Without Brown Sugar
Equipment
- 2 Baking Trays
- 2 Silicone Mats
- 1 Rubber Spatula
- Mixing bowls
- Digital Scale
- Measuring Cups and Spoons
- ice-cream scoop
Ingredients
- 1 cup castor sugar (200 g)
- ½ cup butter (115 g/1 stick) room temperature
- 1 egg (large)
- 1 ½ vanilla extract (15 ml)
- 1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour (225 g)
- ½ teaspoon baking soda (3 g)
- 1 cup chocolate chips (170 g)
- ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line the baking tray with parchment paper or silicone sheet. Set aside.
- Sift all-purpose flour, baking soda and salt together. Set aside.
- Using a hand mixer beat together softened butter and sugar for about 2 minutes, until creamy.
- Add in the egg and vanilla extract and mix until combined.
- Add in the dry ingredients and using a spatula bring the batter together until it forms the shape of a dough.
- Fold in the chocolate chips and combine.
- Using an ice-cream scoop, scoop out the cookie dough and place on the cooking tray with a 3-inch distance in between the cookies.
- Bake the cookies for about 10 – 13 minutes until the edges of the cookies turn golden brown.
- Take out the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool on the baking sheet for five minutes. Then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely for about half an hour.
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