Cookies: Soft or Crispy?
Believe it or not it’s all in the butter, shortening and sugar ratios! All butter recipes tend to produce a thin and crispy cookie. All shortening recipes tend to yield a soft and plump cookie. Brown sugar also helps to produce a soft cookie. If you want a crisp cookie on the outside and a chewy/soft cookie on the inside use a mix of butter and shortening as well as a combination of brown and white sugar. If you want a super soft cakey cookie then skip the butter and use all shortening and all brown sugar. It has to do with the fact that butter melts faster than shortening so, in a hot oven, buttery cookies spread more quickly so they are thinner and crisper than shortening based cookies.
