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Chemistry

The science behind baking the perfect chocolate chip cookie

Whether you like yours fudgy or crisp, nothing beats a chocolate chip cookie. Sam Wong explains how to get your preferred texture

By Sam Wong

30 August 2023

Little cute girl on kitchen is taking chocolate cookie from table.

Vasyl Dolmatov/Getty Images

A CHOCOLATE chip cookie, fresh from the oven, cannot fail to be delicious. You don’t need any scientific knowledge to bake great cookies, but it is illuminating to learn how the ingredients combine to affect the flavour and texture – and how you can tweak the recipe to suit your taste.

Most recipes start with creaming butter and sugar together. This isn’t just about combining the ingredients – it is about getting air into the mixture. If you do this for several minutes with an electric mixer, your cookies will be light instead of dense, and you will get more cookies out…

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