Whip up this warm batch of scrumptious Easy Chocolate Chip Cookies without Brown Sugar! Their rich buttery texture is sure to leave you wanting more. Make them with 6 ingredients and serve with warm milk, hot cocoa or tea.
Make these incredibly rich, caramelized, and chewy chocolate chip cookies without brown sugar in no time at all. This recipe is just as easy as traditional choc chip recipes and doesn’t require any special steps and ingredients.
What I Love About This Recipe
First of all, these homemade chocolate chip cookies without brown sugar have all the flavor! The dough is perfectly moist and the chocolate chips add a delicious chocolatey taste to every bite.
To top things off, they are incredibly easy to make, require a few easy-to-find ingredients and make a fab Christmas treat too. You can also try double chocolate chip cookies without brown sugar or my favorite, Nutella stuffed cookies.
Why Make Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies Without Brown Sugar?
Okay, so many of you are most likely here because you don’t have brown sugar. That’s why most people look for a chocolate chip recipe without brown sugar.
But, it’s important to understand why brown sugar is used in the first place for these recipes. This way, you can make an educated decision regarding substituting it or making an effort to find some.
First, brown sugar helps add more flavor. This type of sugar essentially still contains some molasses (hence the brown color). That gives baked goods a much more caramelized sugary flavor. It’s often also a lot sweeter.
This type of sugar also helps add more color to the cookies. It gives it a golden brown, earthy color instead of a pale white finish.
Brown sugar also helps create chewier cookies, the ultimate characteristic of choc chip cookies.
And finally, brown sugar is a little healthier than granulated white sugar. However, the only way it’s healthier is that it is less refined and contains more nutrients. It doesn’t contain fewer calories or sugar.
When you use a brown sugar alternative, you lose some of these traits. Your cookies will likely come out paler and have a less caramelized flavor. The cookies may also be crisper because they contain less moisture.
For most recipes, this isn’t the end of the world. But for some, it could just make or break the cookies.
Luckily, the chocolate chip cookie recipe I have for you today has some alterations that will still leave these cookies with a rich, sugary flavor and uber-chewy gooey texture.
Ingredients
- Salted butter: Use good quality room-temperature butter for this recipe. There is no need to add salt to the dough as the butter already has salt.
- Granulated white sugar: Adds sweetness to the cookies.
- Egg: This will help to moisten and bind the dough.
- Vanilla extract: To sweeten the cookies.
- All-purpose flour: Sift the flour to remove excess lumps and dirt.
- Baking soda: A leavening agent that helps the cookies to rise as they bake.
- Chocolate chips: Add semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips. You can also use chocolate chunks instead.
Equipment
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Mixing bowl
- Electric hand or stand beater
- Rubber or silicone spatula
- Sieve
- Cookie sheet
- Non-stick baking paper
- Cooling rack
Variations
The recipe is great because it is easy to add in your favorite ingredients. For extra crunch add nuts like pistachios, peanuts, macadamia nuts and more. Add 1/4 cup of nuts to the dough and the chocolate chips and follow the rest of this recipe.
You can add dried fruit like apricots or raisins to sweeten the cookies. Add 1/4 cup of dried fruit to the dough after adding the chocolate chips and follow the rest of this recipe.
How to Make Chocolate Chip Cookies Without Brown Sugar
Make the cookie dough
- Combine the butter and granulated sugar in a large mixing bowl. Then, beat the mixture until the butter becomes lighter in color and fluffy in texture. You can also feel whether or not the sugar has started to dissolve a little.
2. Then, add the egg and vanilla extract to the creamed butter. Mix it in well, but don’t overwork the mixture.
3. Sift the flour and baking soda directly into the wet ingredient mixture. Fold them in using a rubber spatula, again ensuring that you don’t over-mix the cookie dough. Keep folding the ingredients together until they are just combined.
4. Finally, fold in 1 cup of chocolate chips until they are evenly distributed.
Shape the cookies
5. Line a cookie sheet with non-stick baking paper. Scoop about 1 heaped tablespoon of cookie dough onto a lined baking sheet. Space the cookies about 3 inches apart to ensure they don’t merge during baking.
Press a few additional chocolate chips onto the top of each cookie. Then, place the entire sheet inside the fridge and allow the cookies to rest for 30 minutes.
Bake the cookies
6. Preheat your oven to 360ºF (180ºC) while your cookies are resting. Bake your cookies on the middle oven rack for 12-15 minutes. The baked cookies won’t be hard. They will have a slightly pale color (due to the lack of brown sugar) and be soft.
Remove the baked cookies from the oven and leave them to cool on the sheet at room temperature for 15 minutes.
Once slightly cooled, remove the cookies from the sheet and cool them on the wire rack completely.
7. Serve these yummy soft chocolate chip cookies without brown sugar as a snack or treat with warm milk or hot chocolate.
Tips And Tricks For Making This Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chocolate chips: You can use any chocolate chip flavor that you’d like. I prefer dark chocolate chips because they contrast the sweet cookie beautifully. But, most people (especially kids) will prefer milk chocolate. A good in-between option is a 55-60% semi-sweet dark chocolate.
- Chilling: This chocolate chip cookie recipe benefits greatly from chilling the dough in the fridge. It helps prevent them from spreading excessively. However, if you are short on time, you can skip this step. An alternative compromise is to chill the dough in the freezer for 10 minutes only.
- Batches: My recipe makes between 20-24 cookies, depending on the exact size of each portion. However, you can make the cookies much larger than a tablespoon. If you do, make sure that they bake slightly longer (about 15-18 minutes).
FAQs
My number one alternative for both brown and white granulated sugar is coconut sugar. And it also has a brown color that will help make your choc chip cookies less pale.
Alternatively, you can always use palm sugar or an alternative like xylitol or stevia. These sweeteners, however, are a lot more difficult to substitute.
Use white sugar if you don’t have brown sugar to hand. Brown sugar will make the cookies less chewy and caramelized. It also often leads to a paler color. However, the alternative cookies won’t necessarily be bad. They will just be different from the original recipe.
Believe it or not, you can make brown sugar at home. All you need to do is combine 1 cup of white sugar with 2 tablespoons of molasses. It creates a dark brown sugar that is perfect for choc chip cookies.
Place cookies in an airtight container and store them at room temperature for up to 7 days. These cookies can also be frozen. Add cookies to an airtight container and freeze them for up to one month. Defrost cookies by letting them sit at room temperature to thaw. Then heat them in the oven for a couple of minutes to remove excess moisture.
Thanks for reading this recipe, comment below if you made this and let me know how it went! Follow @simshomekitchen on Instagram, take a photo, tag and hashtag it with @simshomekitchen.
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Easy Chocolate Chip Cookies Without Brown Sugar
Equipment
- Measuring cups and spoons
- mixing bowl
- Electric hand or stand beater
- Rubber or silicone spatula
- Sift
- Cookie sheet
- Non-stick baking paper
- Cooling rack
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup salted butter softened at room temperature (115g)
- 2/3 cup granulated white sugar 180g
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 2/3 cups Ap flour 208g
- 1/4 tsp of salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips or any of your choice
Instructions
Make the Cookie Dough
- Combine the butter and granulated sugar in a large mixing bowl. Then, beat the mixture for 3 minutes or until the butter becomes lighter in color and fluffy in texture.
- Then, add the egg and vanilla extract to the creamed butter. Mix it in until just combined.
- In a separate bowl, sift in flour and baking soda and whisk well.
- Next, add flour mixture to the wet ingredient and fold them in using a rubber spatula. Do not over mix the cookie dough. Keep folding the ingredients together until they are just combined.
- Finally, fold in 1 cup of chocolate chips until they are evenly distributed.
- Line a cookie sheet with non-stick baking paper. Then scoop about 1 heaped tablespoon of cookie dough onto a lined baking sheet. Space the cookies about 3-inches apart to ensure they don’t stick when baking.
- Press a few additional chocolate chips on top of each cookie.
- Then, place the entire sheet inside the fridge and chill the cookies for 30 minutes.
Bake the cookies
- Preheat oven to 360ºF (180ºC).
- Bake cookies on the middle oven rack for 12-15 minutes.
- Remove the baked cookies from the oven and leave them to cool on the sheet at room temperature for 15 minutes.
- Once slightly cooled, remove the cookies from the sheet and cool them on the wire rack completely.
Notes
- Chilling the dough helps to prevent them from spreading excessively. However, if you are short on time, you can skip this step. An alternative compromise is to chill the dough in the freezer for 10 minutes only.
- Batches: My recipe makes between 20-24 cookies, depending on the exact size of each portion. However, you can double or triple this recipe to feed a larger crowd.
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