Sara Arif

ISM- Period 6

Lpez-Alt, J. Kenji. "The Food Lab: The Science of the Best Chocolate Chip Cookies."Serious

Eats.Serious Eats, 19 Dec. 2013. Web. 27 Mar. 2017.

<http://sweets.seriouseats.com>.

Each ingredient in cookies has a very important and specific role.

Butter softens the cookie and makes it spread.
The more butter you use, the wider and more tender the cookie will be.
Melting butter slightly before mixing ingredients in is recommended.
Creaming butter or melting it completely yields cakey cookies.
Shortening is a perfectly adequate substitute for butter. However, if shortening is used
cookies will be softer and denser than those made with butter.
This is due to the different melting qualities between the ingredients.
Eggs whites provide the most water in a cookies.
They are a source of protein.
Egg yolks are a source of fat. They keep the cookies soft and fudgy.
Depending on which of these qualities are preferred, the ratio of egg whites to egg yolk
can be changed as long as the total amount of egg remains the same.
Brown sugar and white sugar are structurally different.
Brown sugar is crystalized sucrose with traces of fructose and glucose while white sugar
is just crystalized sucrose.
Baking with brown sugar creates cookies that are moist while baking with white sugar
creates cookies that are crisp and wide.
Equal parts brown sugar and white sugar is usually called for in recipes.
Since corn syrup and white sugar are different forms of essentially the same thing, they
can be substituted for each other.
It is not recommended to use corn syrup if aiming for traditional tasting cookies.
Cookies made with corn syrup instead of sugar end up extremely soft and chewy. They
also have a darker colored appearance.
There is a significant difference between baking powder and baking soda. They cannot be
used interchangeably.
Baking soda is a pure alkaline powder that rapidly breaks down into carbon dioxide,
sodium, and water.
Baking powder contains alkaline powder but also has other powerful acids in it.

This article summarizes the role of butter, eggs, sugars, baking powder, and baking soda
in making cookies while including important characteristics and substitutions for each.