For the first recipe at The Sugar Dial Down, let’s start with the iconic chocolate chip cookie, why don’t we. What makes a chocolate chip cookie great? Well, for most folks, the cookie needs to be crispy on the outside edges, chewy on the inside and there needs to be a little chocolate in each bite. And for a lot, it’s also supposed to be intensely sweet. But here at The Sugar Dial Down, while we still want the crisp, the chewy and the chocolate, we’re just a lot happier when the cookie is not overly sweet.

So, let’s make a homemade version that fits the bill! If I randomly pull one of the many recipes off the web, and just adjust it to use, say, half the amount of sugar, what I typically end up with are dry, crumbly cookies. Some recipes seem to work if I test a cookie right after baking while it’s warm, but by the next day, well, the cookies just don’t hold together – they’re a crumbly mess.

Alas, maybe that’s just the way the cookie crumbles. But, hold on, it doesn’t have to…

So, we wondered, could we come up with a recipe that would work both at the typical level of sugar used AND as we reduced the sugar in the recipe? After a lot of experiments, we came up with one that works. We found using oil instead of butter made the biggest difference. The combination of butter with the high sugar gives rise to the chewy texture on the inside and crispy edges on the outside. But once you start lowering the amount of sugar, the butter – because it’s solid at room temperature – makes the cookie crumbly. If we replace the butter with oil, we still get chewiness when using only one quarter of the sugar of a standard recipe. The milk powder in our recipe also helps to retain moisture and adds a touch of creaminess, too. 

But you may ask, is that it? Except for the sweetness, are the cookies at the low and high sugar level pretty much identical? Alas, no, not identical. Especially with baked goods, sugar has multiple functions in a recipe. And while we found another way to retain moisture, the recipe using a quarter of the sugar, is a tad less chewy than the typical level of sugar (what we call level 5). Another difference you’ll notice if you try both higher and lower sugar versions is cookie shape after baking. Raw cookie dough made with more sugar is softer. That means, even if you shape the higher sugar dough balls into cylinders about twice as tall as they are wide (which we recommend), they will spread into nice circles while baking. The low sugar versions, on the other hand, need a little help. Shape those to the desired shape right on the baking sheet before putting them in the oven. You might even want to roll the dough with a rolling pin and use a cookie cutter if you’re looking for perfect circles.

Okay, so what sugar version to try?

Now, unless you’re already a die-hard low sugar eater, we’d recommend taking a step-wise approach to sugar reduction. So, first time around, try using one level of sugar below the standard level listed, i.e. use 1 cup, level 4. See how you and the family enjoy it and decide then, if the next time around you want to go down another level or stay at one cup for a while.

What I like about this cookie recipe is that I can double the batch and freeze 3/4 of the dough, making about 15 cookies at a time. I just roll the dough into a cylinder shape, divide into the batch size I’d like to cook each time and freeze. Then, the day before, I just take out the amount I want to make and place it in the fridge overnight. I take the chilled dough straight out of the fridge, form to desired shape, bake, and voila, fresh home-baked cookies!

A few additional notes when baking the lower sugar versions of this recipe: Since the amount of ingredients, like flour and sugar, can vary quite a bit if you measure by cups (depending on how packed the flour or sugar is), be sure to follow the amount to use according to the weight given. Low-sugar recipes are just a lot less forgiving when the ingredient amount veers from what’s prescribed. The temperature of the eggs can also affect the cookie texture, so be sure to let the eggs come to room temperature before using them. In a pinch, I’ll soak the eggs in a bowl of warm water to get them to room temperature faster.

Enjoy!

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