dissolves in the limited amount of moisture.
When the dough heats up during baking, more
sugar can dissolve, and the added liquid
causes the cookie to soften and spread. Then
when the cookie cools, some of the sugar
recrystallizes, and the initially soft cookie
develops a distinctive snap — a process that
may take a day or two. Other forms of sugar
— honey, molasses, corn syrup — tend to
absorb water rather than crystallize (chapter
12), so when heated they form a syrup that
permeates the cookie, helps it to spread, and
firms as it cools, making it moist and chewy.
Eggs Eggs generally provide most of the
water in a cookie mix, as well as proteins that
help bind the flour particles together and
coagulate during baking to add solidity. The
fat and emulsifiers in the yolk enrich and
moisten. The higher the proportion of whole
eggs or yolks in a recipe, the more cake-like
the texture.