Introduction
Sugar cookies
The first cookie batch is done! I tested four different sugar cookies (recipe in lab notes) in four categories: aesthetics, chew, thickness, and taste. Below is a summary of results. Each category was ranked 1-5 (1 is low, 5 is high) based on the taster's ideal conception of a sugar cookie. Tasters were primarily college students.
| White (average) | stdev | Corn syrup | stdev | Brown | stdev | Stevia | stdev | |
| Aesthetics | 3.9 | 0.9 | 4.0 | 0.6 | 4.2 | 0.8 | 1.8 | 0.8 |
| Chew | 1.7 | 1.3 | 3.9 | 0.7 | 1.9 | 0.8 | 2.6 | 1.8 |
| Thickness | 3.8 | 0.4 | 3.0 | 1.3 | 3.6 | 0.8 | 4.0 | 1.6 |
| Taste | 3.9 | 0.8 | 3.8 | 0.8 | 3.7 | 0.9 | 2.2 | 0.8 |
Winners:
Aesthetics: Brown sugar
Chew: Corn syrup
Thickness: Stevia
Taste: White sugar
Overall: none
When making the cookies, the brown sugar dough was easiest to cream while the stevia simply dissolved into the butter. The brown sugar dough was softest, followed by the corn syrup, then the white sugar cookies. The stevia dough was very dry and crumbly. The brown sugar dough also tasted the best.
Creaming: clockwise from bottom left: white sugar, corn syrup, brown sugar, stevia
Dough:
When baking, the stevia cookies did not spread at all, baked fastest, and burned on the bottoms while the tops were still pale. The white sugar cookies did not spread very much, puffed slightly, and baked fairly quickly. The corn syrup cookies spread quite a bit and did not puff very much. The brown sugar cookies spread a little and baked almost as quickly as the white sugar cookies.
White sugar:
Corn syrup:
Brown sugar:
Stevia:
Chocolate chip cookies
The second cookie batch is done! I tested four different chocolate chip cookies (recipe in lab notes) in four categories: aesthetics, chew, thickness, and taste. Below is a summary of results. Each category was ranked 1-5 (1 is low, 5 is high) based on the taster's ideal conception of a sugar cookie. Tasters were primarily health care professionals.
| White | Brown | Normal | Corn syrup | |
| Aesthetics (average) | 4.2 | 3.0 | 3.7 | 3.9 |
| stdev | 0.8 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 0.7 |
| Thickness | 4.3 | 4.1 | 3.5 | 3.1 |
| 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.9 | |
| Chew | 2.7 | 3.9 | 4.3 | 4.4 |
| 1.2 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 0.7 | |
| Taste | 3.8 | 4.1 | 4.2 | 3.5 |
| 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.8 |
Winners:
Aesthetics: White sugar
Thickness: White sugar
Chew: Corn syrup
Taste: Normal
Overall: White sugar
When making the cookies, all doughs were easy to cream and had similar textures after cooling, although the white sugar dough was surprisingly the softest after cooling. The white sugar dough also tasted the best raw, although all were good. There was a definite split between people who liked the white sugar cookies and those who liked any of the ones containing brown sugar. Unsurprisingly, the white sugar cookies did not keep as well as any of the brown sugar ones, becoming hard and stale after a few days. The corn syrup cookies kept the best, retaining their chew and taste for over two weeks. The normal cookies kept second best, retaining their softness and chew, though not quite as well as the corn syrup cookies. The all brown sugar cookies also kept well, though they did become slightly hard after a week.
Dough: clockwise from top left: normal, brown sugar, corn syrup, white sugar
White sugar:
Brown sugar:
Normal:
Corn syrup:
Chocolate shortbread:
The last cookie batch is done! I tested three different chocolate shortbread cookies (recipe in lab notes) in four categories: aesthetics, chew, thickness, and taste. Below is a summary of results. Each category was ranked 1-5 (1 is low, 5 is high) based on the taster's ideal conception of a sugar cookie. Tasters were primarily college students and faculty.
| White | Corn syrup | Brown | |
| Aesthetics | 4.13 | 4.11 | 3.33 |
| stdev | 1.0 | 0.8 | 1.3 |
| Thickness | 4.08 | 4.05 | 3.67 |
| 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.8 | |
| Chew | 3.38 | 2.36 | 3.58 |
| 1.2 | 1.1 | 1.0 | |
| Taste | 4.31 | 3.39 | 3.60 |
| 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.7 |
Winners:
Aesthetics: White sugar
Thickness: White sugar
Chew: Brown sugar
Taste: White sugar
Overall: White sugar
When making the dough, all the doughs were easy to cream, but the brown sugar dough was easiest. All the doughs were quite soft, even after chilling, and all baked for roughly the same amount of time. The brown sugar cookies seemed to spread the most. Warm, the white and brown sugar cookies were almost indistinguishable, being buttery, soft, crumbly but not crisp, and generally extremely good. The corn syrup cookies were flavorless and crisp, almost crystallized in texture. Cool, the same pattern was seen, with the corn syrup cookies tasting even worse. All cookies kept well, retaining their crumbly/crisp texture, although I imagine this would not occur in a more humid environment.
Dough: white, corn syrup, brown
White:
Corn syrup:
Brown:
Conclusion
Sugar cookies
I was not surprised that the stevia cookie was unpopular. The chemical aftertaste was almost nauseating, although some people did not seem to mind it. I was surprised, however, how highly the normal (all granulated sugar) cookie ranked when most people commented on liking the brown sugar or corn syrup cookie more.
There was a general consensus that the cookies were too crispy, which may be due to too little fat or liquid in the dough. The normal cookies were indeed the crispiest, followed by the brown sugar cookies. I thought brown sugar would make the cookies moister, so I was surprised at how crispy they turned out. Corn syrup did increase the chewiness though, which I suspected.
My personal favorite varied depending on cookie age and temperature. Fresh out of the oven, the corn syrup cookies had the best taste, while cool the normal cookies and corn syrup cookies were equally tasty. By the next day, however, all cookies with the exception of the stevia one were equally good. The brown sugar cookie tasted initially very strongly of molasses, but that flavor dulled over time. The corn syrup cookie's flavor also dulled, though not to the same extent, over time. In contrast, the normal cookie lacked flavor initially but tasted better with time.
Chocolate chip cookies
I was very surprised at how popular the white sugar cookies were. I personally found them very plain, although they did not taste of baking soda as I feared. I was also surprised at how high they rose given the lack of acid in the dough. They were ranked the thickest of the cookies yet should have had no leavening effect apart from the eggs. I would have hypothesized that this might be due to the dough becoming harder than the other doughs during the cooling step, yet just the opposite was seen.
Like with the sugar cookies, the brown sugar chocolate chip cookies had a strong molasses flavor while warm that mellowed over time. I personally found the brown sugar and corn syrup cookies to have the best flavor warm, cool, and the next day, but others liked the white sugar cookies or normal cookies better.
The normal cookies are a typical chocolate chip cookie recipe, so that might be why they scored the best in taste as they would most closely match tasters' expectations of what a chocolate chip cookie should taste like.
Once again, corn syrup won chewiest, just barely edging out the all brown sugar cookie. This corresponds with the results from the sugar cookies, in which corn syrup also made cookies chewy.
In conclusion, if you are looking for a thick and aesthetically-pleasing cookie, using all white sugar (at least in this recipe) might be the way to go. If you want a chewy, long-lasting cookie, use corn syrup. And if you want a cookie that tastes like an ordinary chocolate chip cookie, make no alterations to the recipe whatsoever.
Chocolate
I was absolutely stunned at the results for the corn syrup cookies. With both other cookie types, corn syrup had resulted in a soft, chewy cookie that had slightly less flavor. While the chocolate cookies also lacked flavor, they were crunchy as though the sugar had crystallized in them. Corn syrup, being an invert sugar, is supposed to prevent crystallization. I would guess that corn syrup reacted with the acidic cocoa powder and caused crystallization. I used natural cocoa powder, which is acidic, so perhaps Dutch cocoa powder, which is treated with an alkalizing agent to counteract the acidity, may yield more favorable results.
Both the white and brown sugar cookies were nearly indistinguishable to me, although fresh out of the oven I preferred the brown sugar. Some tasters commented that the brown sugar cookies were intensely buttery, which a few people did not like. In general, as with the sugar cookies, people preferred the white sugar cookies.
Summary
To tasters, white sugar seems to be a key ingredient in producing, in general, the best cookie, with white sugar winning evaluation categories far more than any other sugar type. I think this might be because the most common type of cookie we eat is the, often packaged, supermarket cookie, which tends to contain a large amount of white sugar. Therefore, our cookie reference is one made with white sugar, and thus when comparing cookies made with different sugars, cookies made with non-white sugars taste unusual while white sugar cookies are familiar and thus tend to score higher marks, particularly on taste. The brown sugar-white sugar mixture won best taste for chocolate chip cookie because, I suspect, brown sugar is so closely associated with the flavor of chocolate chip cookies, but almost all typical recipes include some white sugar, and the white sugar chocolate chip cookie was a strong favorite for some tasters.
I'm leaning towards corn syrup as a magic ingredient in cookies. With only two tablespoons it turned a cookie from rock-hard to being slightly bendable. If you like chewy cookies, consider switching out some of the granulated, or even brown, sugar for corn syrup.
The exception to this appears to be in cookies containing natural cocoa powder, in which corn syrup turned the cookies brittle and crunchy. I hope to try that recipe again using Dutch process cocoa powder and see if the acid is the culprit or if some other factor is at play.
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