Why do soft cookies go stale by becoming harder, but hard cookies go stale by becoming softer?
Regression to the mean.
I would think that the change in softness of either kind would be tied into temperature and humidity.
I prefer a softer cookie so whenever I buy “hard” cookies, I open the package and place them in a kitchen cabinet for a couple of weeks to hasten the softer “freshening process”.
Who says that this is a truism?
Both tend towards a moisture level consistent with the humidity of the air. So soft cookies tend to dry out, and crisp cookies tend to soften. And of course, cookies that are soft because they are fresh and warm harden as they cool. But that happens very quickly, and probably isn’t what you were thinking of.
In general, I prefer crisp cookies, but I sometimes make ginger snaps that are really too hard when they cool from the oven, and I like to cook them a couple of days in advance and let them mellow at bit. They get a little softer and the flavors seem to intensify, I think because the flavors are less “locked up” within the hard structure of the cookie.
Assuming that
Soft cookie = UK cake; and
Hard cookie = UK biscuit
Then the UK government does:
It’s a modestly famous case over here. See the seventh bullet.
j
Chemistry.
It’s not temp. Hot will always go to cold. Higher humidity will always go to lower humidity. Nature always seeks to equalize. The hard cookie accepts moisture (water vapor); the soft cookie gives up moisture.
Are stale hard cookies still harder than stale soft cookies?
Thanks for the link, that was interesting.
Two things I’ve learned from watching the Great British Bake Off are that
- standard baked goods are different in the UK than in the US
- biscuit (UK) <> cookie (US), but is a subset of cookie (US)
However, I don’t think our soft cookies would be considered cakes in the US, I think they would just be considered odd, soggy, possibly stale or undercooked, biscuits.
There’s a whole industry here devoted to making cookies that stay soft, and most commercial cookies introduced after, i dunno, 1970 or so, are soft, not crisp. They are very similar to their crisp brethren in appearance and flavor. They are produced by using ingredients that attract and hold moisture, having a bit more fat, and also by slightly under-cooking the dough.
For instance, a really common standard US cookie is the chocolate chip cookie, which debuted as a toll house cookie. If you follow the recipe for toll house cookies (printed on every bag of Nestle’s chocolate chips) you get a crispy cookie, which would be a buiscuit in the UK. Well, it’s soft when you take it out of the oven, but it gets crispy when it’s cool, perhaps 15 minutes later.
I’ve read tons of recipes with instructions on how to make something that’s almost a toll house cookie but stays soft for a day or three. They are MUCH closer to biscuits (UK) than to cakes (UK).
Similarly, we make brownies and other “bar cookies” that probably are considered small cakes in the UK, but most are undercooked compared to a traditional cake so they can be served “gooey”. I happen to prefer cakey brownies with crispy edges, but I am in a minority.
Also, the only place I’ve seen a jaffa cake in on that show, and I’m not sure what I would call it if I saw one in real life. I’d probably consider it a small cake, like many petit fours.
I’m curious, what would a macaron be called in the UK?
Because soft cookies are “wetter” than the surrounding air so they give up moisture as they age and become harder.
Hard cookies are less “wet” than the surrounding air so they absorb moisture from the air and become softer.
Basically the cookies are reaching a equilibrium with the ambient humidity.
Cookies can get stale? Who knew?
…neither cake nor biscuit, I would guess. At least in relation to the great Jaffa Cake debate - out of scope?
Are you expecting the buttercream to go hard as the meringue goes soft? Unaddressed by case law.
j
Similar reason to why when you leave out your coffee it gets stale by getting cold, but when you leave out your beer it gets stale by getting warm.
As I recall, if it gets softer it’s a “biscuit”, if it gets harder it’s a “slice” Aus. Country Woman’s Association. A slice is… well I guess it’s sort of like a brownie, it’s eaten like a cookie but it’s baked in a tray and sliced, which allows it to be softer and thicker than a typical cookie, but not much softer and thicker, because if it was obviously a cake, there wouldn’t be any point to the distinction between a cookie and a slice.
In answer to the original question, it is the ration of sugar isn’t it? Sugar is hygroscopic. If it’s got a lot of sugar, absorbed water will soften it. If it’s not got a lot of sugar, drying out will harden it.
Have you tried parking them in the driveway while you drive on the parkway?