# How does bread soften cookies?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-bread-soften-cookies/104594>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 19, 2002, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-bread-soften-cookies/104594 "2002-04-19T23:04:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Palaas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e480ec/32.png) [@Palaas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palaas)\
**Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-bread-soften-cookies/104594/1 "2002-04-19T23:04:06Z")

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At work, a pal of mine brought in some cookies, but they got hard/stale after a few days. So he tossed in one slice of white bread, and the cookies were very _soft_ the next day.

In pursuit of the answer, I learned that a slice of bread will also soften those terrible bricks of brown sugar that form over time. But how does it happen?

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**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\
**Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-bread-soften-cookies/104594/2 "2002-04-19T23:19:33Z")

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- 
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    - I’m not quite sure of the exact chemistry, but it’s something about that the yeast in bread has a weaker attraction/bond with water than the sugar does.

- It works to soften old marshmallows also. - DougC

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**Author:** ![happyheathen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5e925/32.png) [@happyheathen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happyheathen)\
**Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-bread-soften-cookies/104594/3 "2002-04-19T23:22:30Z")

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or,

you could place the stale cookies in the microwave (beside **NOT** in) a saucer of water and nuke them for about 10-20 seconds.

works well