This Trick Keeps Your Cookies From Going Stale — and It’s As Easy As Sliced Bread
A single slice of white bread does wonders for keeping cookies fresh.
Food & Wine / Photo by Jennifer Causey / Food Styling by Rishon Hanners / Prop Styling by Sarah Elizabeth Cleveland
There’s nothing like a fresh-baked cookie: crisp on the edges and chewy in the center. And science can explain why.
The minute cookies and other baked goods like bread and cake exit the oven, a process called starch retrogradation begins. Before baking, the neatly arranged starch molecules in flour break down when it’s mixed with other ingredients for a batter or dough. But as your baked goods cool, the starch molecules recrystallize, leaving you with a dried-out product. It’s why they become stale.
Exposure to air speeds up the retrogradation process, meaning you shouldn’t leave your cookies out on a plate (no matter how good they look). Storing your soft sugar cookies and chocolate chip cookies in an airtight container on your countertop can keep them tasting fresh for up to a few days. But you can extend their life even further, and the solution lies in your cupboard (or perhaps your bread box): a fresh slice of white bread. Simply add it to the same airtight container along with cookies that have gone stale; it will soften them in a matter of a few hours.
Related: How to Store Any Type of Cookie to Keep It Fresh
Why this trick works
Because fresh bread contains a relatively high amount of moisture (about 35–42%), adding a slice to an airtight container along with your cookies works to rehydrate them. A few things to keep in mind: The bread you’re using needs to be fresh, or this trick won’t work. Use plain white bread to keep the bread’s flavor from affecting the cookies’ taste, and stick to one slice. (More slices equals more moisture, and that might cause mold or mushiness.)
The bread slice trick also works with other soft baked goods like brownies or a slice of cake. Simply change out the bread when it starts to harden.
Other ways to keep cookies soft
Keep cookies in an airtight container or ziplock bag, storing in a single layer if possible.
Store at room temperature. The fridge can also cause retrogradation, causing the starch molecules of your cookies to crystallize and harden.
Freezing, on the other hand, slows the retrogradation process down, because the water in the bread is frozen and the starch molecules won’t recrystallize. You can keep baked cookies in an airtight container in your freezer for up to three months.
Store soft cookies separately from hard, crispy cookies (such as biscotti). The crispy cookies will absorb the chewy cookies’ moisture, causing your soft cookies to harden — and your hard cookies to soften.
Don’t overbake your cookies! Take them out of the oven as soon as the sides and edges are golden brown; you can always crisp them up more later.
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