These 3-Ingredient ‘Lazy Cookie’ Recipes Require Zero Work, but They’ll Absolutely Shine at Your Next Holiday Event (2024)

FAQs

What are the three ingredient soft chocolate cookies? ›

These easy, three-ingredient cookies are like flourless chocolate cake in cookie form. When you look at the simple ingredients in this cookie recipe, you're going to scratch your head: unsweetened cocoa powder, powdered sugar and egg whites. That's it!

While there may be countless variations, each cookie at the core has four ingredients – butter, sugar, flour & eggs. The proportions of ingredients and the methods of mixing are what define our cookies. Dough spreads – Inside the hot oven, the butter starts to melt and the dough gradually starts to spread out.

Final answer: The crispness of a cookie is influenced by the ingredients, their proportions, and the baking conditions. Too much sugar and butter can cause a cookie to be too crisp, while too many eggs or insufficient baking time can make it too soft.

The air pockets from the escaped gas give the cookie the light and airy feel. As the cookie continues to warm, some of the remaining water evaporates, which starts to dry out the cookie. And now it's time for one of the most important reactions — the maillard reaction.

Soft-baked cookies are often made using a solid fat with a higher melting point, which prevents the cookie from spreading while baking. The result is a thicker, softer, chewier cookie. Another simple trick for softer cookies is to use chilled dough.

It's not the egg, all-purpose flour, or even the vanilla extract. The simple, yet oh-so-necessary component is cornstarch. That's right, the flavorless thickening agent used for soups, stews, and curries is also the secret weapon for baked goods that boast a silky-smooth mouthfeel.

Brown sugar, meanwhile, is dense and compacts easily, creating fewer air pockets during creaming—that means that there's less opportunity to entrap gas, creating cookies that rise less and spread more. With less moisture escaping via steam, they also stay moist and chewy.

A lower oven temperature will give your cookies more time to spread before they start to rise, resulting in a crispier cookie. I recommend baking your cookies for a bit longer at a lower temperature to achieve the texture you're looking for. You can also play around with the type of pan you're using.

Use Melted Butter

If the goal is a chewy cookie, then you absolutely need to be using melted butter. The technique of creaming softened butter and sugar together is often used for making cakes. And for good reason! The process of creaming incorporates air into the butter which results in a more airy and cakey cookie.

The only difference between crisp and cakey chocolate chip cookies is a slight modification to the recipe measurements. Simply adjust the amounts of butter, white sugar, and brown sugar. Begin by measuring out the butter and sugar amounts for your favorite cookie texture, then proceed with the rest of the recipe below.

What does adding milk to cookies do? ›

The moisture contributed by the milk will also increase spread and hydrate more of the starches in the flour.

Room temperature butter is just the right consistency to incorporate air when it's creamed with sugar. These trapped air pockets result in risen, fluffy cookies. If the butter is any warmer, it won't incorporate enough air and your cookies will have less rise.

3-Ingredient Shortbread Cookies

Buttery, crumbly, and delicious, shortbread cookies are a perennial favorite. This recipe requires only three ingredients: butter, sugar, and flour. Plus, they only require 15 minutes in the oven before you can enjoy them alongside a hot cup of tea.

To keep it simple, cookie recipes that contain a lot of butter, brown sugar or egg yolks are going to yield soft and chewy cookies, because those ingredients add moisture and retain it for a longer amount of time.

Creaming softened butter and sugar together incorporates air into the dough, helping cookies rise, puff up, and become lighter as they bake.

Baking cookies quickly in a hot oven – at 375 degrees F as opposed to a lower temperature – will make for soft results. They'll bake fast instead of sitting and drying out in the oven's hot air. Ever so slightly underbaking your cookies will give you softer results than cooking them the full amount the recipe says.