Dark Brown Sugar for Chocolate Chip Cookies

Our answer

Nigella's Chocolate Chip Cookies (from Kitchen and on the Nigella website) is a wonderful cookie that is crisp on the outside yet slightly soft and chewy on the inside. This soft centre partly comes from the baking of the cookie but also comes from using brown sugar in the cookie, as soft brown sugars add moisture to baked goods. The slight acidity in the brown sugar will also react with the bicarbonate of soda in the cookie dough to help the cookies to rise a little.

Most brown sugar available in supermarkets is refined white sugar that has molasses added after refining. And the main difference between light and dark brown sugars is the amount of molasses that has been added, dark brown sugar having a higher amount. So in baking they act the same way in the dough, but the taste and colour will be slightly different. You can substitute dark brown sugar for the light brown sugar in the cookie recipe, however the cookies will be slightly darker in colour and will have a slightly more caramelly/toffee taste to them.