Chocolate Chip Cookies Without White Sugar

While many people are still at home right now, more and more people are taking up baking. Whipping up a batch of classic chocolate chip cookies can certainly lift anyone’s mood.

Many people are intimidated by baking because ingredients must be more carefully measured than making something like soup or chicken. 

You might think that not having white sugar at home would mean that you can’t make cookies. Luckily there are many different ways to substitute ingredients in baking, even white sugar!

Although there are likely many different chocolate chip cookie recipes out there, they really don’t differ too much. It’s a basic recipe with a small number of essential ingredients that most people have at home.

If you’ve run out of white sugar at home, but you still have brown sugar, then you can still make delicious chocolate chip cookies.

Brown Sugar vs. White Sugar

Both white and brown sugar come from the sugarcane plant.

Brown sugar is simply white sugar with added molasses. Molasses is a syrup made of sugar.

Because of the molasses, brown sugar can retain more moisture in a recipe. This can change the texture of the cookie.

Brown sugar and white sugar can be substituted at a 1:1 ratio. So for every 1 cup of white sugar that you are substituting, use 1 cup of brown sugar.

Many cookie recipes call for both white and brown sugar, but in most cases, you can easily use one or the other. There may be a slight difference in the texture of the cookie but not enough to change the recipe drastically.

Brown sugar will actually make cookies more moist and chewy. Using white sugar will make a crunchier cookie. This is a matter of preference and one is not necessarily better than the other.

The choice of sugar will not have a huge impact on the flavor. These cookies with brown sugar are definitely delicious, soft, and chewy.

How to Soften Brown Sugar

Many people have a bag or two of brown sugar in their pantry saved from at least one baking recipe that they have made at some point.

If you don’t bake often then you may have found that your brown sugar has turned into a giant hard rock. But don’t toss it away just yet and run out to buy more. You can still save that hardened brown sugar.

How to soften brown sugar:

1. Add the brown sugar to a microwave-safe bowl.
2. Place a wet paper towel over the bowl and microwave the brown sugar for 20 seconds.
3. Remove the bowl from the microwave and remove the paper towel.
4. Whisk the brown sugar with a fork to remove any clumps.
5. If you still have a significant amount of hard clumps in your brown sugar, repeat the process one or two more times.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Add-Ins

Chocolate chip cookies are a classic but there are so many ways that you can change up this recipe. This is the perfect time to go through your pantry and look for ingredients that you can add.

Here are my favorite chocolate chip cookie add-ins:

• Nuts, such as walnuts, sliced almonds, or peanuts
• Raisins or other dried fruits
• Chocolate chunks instead of chips (or in addition to chocolate chips)
• White chocolate chips or other flavored chip
• Candy pieces such as M&Ms

Baking Without White Sugar Tips

• Do not melt butter with this recipe. Leave the butter on the counter for a few hours to soften or place it on top of a warm oven for a few minutes if you need to soften faster.
• Don’t overbeat the eggs as this will cause your cookies to be less soft.

How to Make Chocolate Chip Cookies Without White Sugar

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 F and gather your ingredients.

Step 2: Mix flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium-sized bowl and set aside.

Step 3: In a separate bowl add sugar and softened butter. Mix together with a wooden spoon until the mixture becomes creamy and smooth.

Step 4: Add vanilla and eggs, one at a time, to butter mixture and blend thoroughly.

Step 5: Add dry ingredients gradually to the creamed butter mixture until dough forms. 

Step 6: Mix chocolate chips into the dough.

Step 7: Use a cookie scooper or tablespoon to drop dough onto a cookie sheet.

Step 8: Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

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