The Instant Addition You Need For Extra Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

Nothing is more disappointing than when you grab a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie, expecting it to have the fluffiest texture, but then it feels like a brick in your mouth. It's a cookie, not a potato chip! So, how can you achieve an impeccably chewy chocolate chip cookie? Well, the secret is vanilla pudding mix.

The next time you are preparing your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, simply pour in a box of vanilla pudding mix with your eggs, butter, and sugars, then continue with the remainder of the instructions as normal. Vanilla pudding is a key ingredient for pumpkin pie dip or fluffy cake, but how does this soften the cookies? The cornstarch in the pudding mix helps boost the chewiness and allows your chocolate chip cookies to feel softer than cumulus clouds. 

If you want to experiment a little, try banana cream or butterscotch pudding mix, but the traditional French vanilla flavor will complement your classic chocolate chip cookie ingredients. Say goodbye to cookies that almost break your back molars, and hello to cushiony chocolate chip perfection, plusher than your favorite stuffed animal. 

Besides vanilla pudding mix, there are other alternatives for exquisitely chewy chocolate chip cookies — namely agave syrup. The gateway to soft cookies is to ensure the dough retains moisture throughout the baking process, so adding a sugar that holds the most water (fructose) will lead to cushiness, not crunchiness. That is where agave syrup comes in, since it contains about 80% fructose. By substituting 20% of the called-for sugar in your cookie recipe for agave syrup, you will be on your merry way to the softest cookies your tastebuds have ever gotten ahold of. 

Whether you are whipping up small bite-sized cookies or a skillet chocolate chip cookie, replacing some of the butter with cream cheese is another secret hack for achieving chewiness. With as little as a 1/4 cup, the cream cheese will create a soft center and a crunchy circumference — pleasing people on either ends of the cookie-texture spectrum. 

Another solution for cookies softer than a fuzzy blanket is to add corn syrup (ensure that it is not high fructose corn syrup, and instead just regular or light corn syrup). Not only does the syrup serve as a bearer of sweetness, it will protect the dough from drying out in the oven. An added bonus: The corn syrup will help preserve the chewiness of the cookies to last for days, instead of quickly hardening.