Why do you need sugar in cookies?

Sugar plays a crucial role in cookies, contributing to their texture, flavor, and browning:

1. Texture:

* Tenderness: Sugar helps create a tender crumb by interacting with gluten in flour, preventing excessive gluten development. This results in soft, chewy cookies.

* Spread: Sugar helps cookies spread during baking, creating a flatter, more even shape. However, too much sugar can lead to excessive spreading and thin cookies.

2. Flavor:

* Sweetness: Sugar provides the obvious sweetness that cookies are known for.

* Caramelization: As cookies bake, sugar caramelizes, contributing a complex, toasty flavor. This is especially noticeable in cookies with a higher sugar content.

* Enhancing other flavors: Sugar enhances and balances other flavors in cookies, like chocolate, nuts, or spices.

3. Browning:

* Maillard Reaction: Sugar participates in the Maillard reaction, a chemical process that creates brown pigments and contributes to the appealing aroma and flavor of baked goods.

4. Other benefits:

* Moisture retention: Sugar helps retain moisture in cookies, contributing to a soft, chewy texture.

* Preservation: Sugar acts as a natural preservative, helping cookies stay fresh longer.

In summary, sugar is essential for creating delicious and well-textured cookies. It contributes to tenderness, spread, sweetness, flavor development, and browning.