Easy Brown Sugar Cookies

This post may contain affiliate sales links. Please read my disclosure policy.

These Easy Chewy Brown Sugar Cookies are made with plenty of brown sugar for a soft and chewy cookie that’s a delicious spin on the classic! Perfect for when you want an easy, simple cookie – with a twist!

I love how chewy these cookies are! You can also try these Soft and Chewy Sugar Cookies for a more classic recipe, or these Cut Out Sugar Cookies if you’re looking to do some cookie decorating.

Easy Brown Sugar Cookies

After sharing my Soft and Chewy Sugar Cookies earlier this year, I decided it’d be a fun twist to try a sugar cookie with all brown sugar. Brown sugar is amazing for a couple reasons – it adds moisture to baked goods and has molasses in it that adds great flavor. When you’re talking about a sugar cookie, brown sugar is a great way to spice things up a bit and add even more greatness to an already great cookie.

So naturally I started off by testing my regular sugar cookie with a straight swap for brown sugar. As I expected, the added moisture from the brown sugar had the cookies spreading until they were far too thin. Adjustments had to be made.

What makes brown sugar cookies chewy?

To keep these cookies soft and chewy, but not have them be too thin, I needed to make sure there was a balance of moisture and dry ingredients. In the end I reduced the butter a bit, reduced the flour but the added some cornstarch, added an extra egg yolk and then added a touch more brown sugar and a little less baking powder.

Reducing the butter a bit helped with the cookies not spreading too much. You want to have enough butter to add flavor, but since the brown sugar is the most important flavor I reduce the butter a bit in favor of the brown sugar. There’s still plenty of butter, but just a little less than my classic sugar cookies.

I then needed to potentially add more flour to the dough. The problem with adding too much flour is that it will actually dry out your cookies if you add too much. To keep the amount of flour down, but still have the controlling powder of the ingredient, I added cornstarch instead. Since cornstarch acts as a thickener, it works well in place of the flour. You can add less and get the same result, meaning your cookie doesn’t spread too much in the oven or get too dry. You get a nice, chewy, soft cookie.

Egg yolks add tenderness, structure and moisture to cookies, so I decided to add an extra one to these cookies. They not only build the structure of the cookie, but helped to make them extra chewy. The final bit of adding less baking powder helped to ensure that these cookies didn’t end up too cakey and dry.

The final Brown Sugar Cookie was total perfection. Soft, chewy with crisp edges – just like you’d expect. And of course all that good brown sugar flavor! It was tough looking over at them on the counter and not just eating them all. I’m trying to lose my extra baby weight after all!

How long do brown sugar cookies last?

These sugar cookies should last for up to a week when stored in an air tight container. To store them for longer, you can freeze them for 2-3 months.

Tips for brown sugar cookies

– Make sure your butter is the right temperature. Room temperature can be a little misleading if your house is too warm or too cool. Your butter shouldn’t be so soft that your finger goes right through it if you press on it, but it should also be able to make an imprint. If it won’t, or it barely does, it’s likely too cold still.

– I rolled my cookie dough in course sugar, but you could also roll it in sprinkles for a fun look or celebration.

– Be sure to make balls of cookie dough that are 1 1/2 tablespoons in size for the baking time to be correct. If you make larger or smaller balls, you’ll need to adjust the time.

More great cookie recipes:

Soft and Chewy Sugar Cookies
Classic Chewy Snickerdoodles
Cutout Sugar Cookies
Coconut Sugar Cookies
Butter Pecan Cookies
Banana Oatmeal Cookies
Gluten Free Toffee Almond Cookies

Print