No Brown Sugar Cookies (2 ways)

I have made these no brown sugar cookies many times and it comes out moist, chewy, crisp from outside and soft from inside every single time.

Usually, chocolate chip cookies do have brown sugar as one of the main ingredients. The brown sugar is nothing but regular sugar mixed with molasses. Have you ever wondered, what is the use of brown sugar? Brown sugar makes the cookie extra soft, chewy and gives them caramel flavor.

Is it mandatory to make the cookies without brown sugar? Absolutely, not. But if you craving for cookie and you ran out of brown sugar, will you not make a cookie? Absolutely, not as these no brown sugar cookies is what you will need to satisfy your sweet tooth and that too with easily available ingredients in any household.

Now, why did I try these cookies without brown sugar ? We (me and my son) wanted to have cookies when it was covid time and we ran out of brown sugar but we still needed freshly baked, straight out of oven cookies and that is the reason I have come up with this recipe.

Why these are the best no brown sugar cookies ?

1. Can be made with easily available ingredients.
2. No chilling required.
3. Easiest recipe ever.
4. As the name suggests, doesn’t contain brown sugar.

Ingredients needed

• Unsalted Butter – Use your favorite unsalted butter to make these delicious cookies. If you do not have unsalted butter then you can use salted butter too but just skip the salt mentioned in recipe or it will taste too salty. I try to use unsalted butter since I can control the quantity of salt that goes in to the recipe.. You can also use dairy free or vegan butter or dairy free butter as a substitute.

• Sugar – Use regular caster sugar, nothing fancy here. You can also use coconut sugar if you have.

• Vanilla Extract – You can use vanilla imitation or pure vanilla extract, whichever is available in your pantry. I prefer to use pure vanilla as it enhances the test with intense vanilla flavor.

• Egg – Use large free range eggs. Please make sure they are at room temperature. Forgot to take the egg out? don’t worry, just put it in bowl of tapped hot water for just 5 minutes and you are good to go.

• All-Purpose Flour – I have used regular unbleached all-purpose flour here. Do not replace it with self-rising flour as it contains additional raising agents.

• Baking Soda – This plays the role of leavening agent. It reacts with acidic ingredients which are our chocolate chips here. Carefully measure the baking soda as lot of it will ruin the cookie taste.

• Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips – These no brown sugar cookies are incomplete without chocolate chips. I have used regular great value’s (Walmart brand) semi sweet (55 % Cocoa). You can also use Hershey’s or Nestle. PS – I am not getting paid for mentioning any brand names. These are just my personal favorites :).

• Salt – Use regular table salt. There are two main advantages of using salt. First, it enhances the flavor, balances the sweetness of sugar and chocolate used in cookie. Second, helps to increase shelf life by acting as natural preservatives.

List of tools

1. Mixing bowls
2. Measuring spoons
3. Weighing scale
4. hand mixer / stand mixer
5. Measuring cups
6. Parchment paper
7. Cookie sheets
8. Cookie scoop

Overview – chocolate chip cookie without brown sugar

I am going to show you two different ways to make these no brown sugar cookies. First, bake the cookies without freezing the cookie dough and second, bake the freezed cookie dough. I have given all the step-by step instructions below but let’s quickly go through overview.

Sr. No	Overview (Bake without Freezing)
1	Sift all dry ingredients.
2	Cream butter and sugar.
3	Add wet ingredients followed by dry ingredients.
4	Place on cookie sheet and bake.

Sr. No	Overview (Bake Freezed Cookie Dough)
1	Sift all dry ingredients.
2	Cream butter and sugar.
3	Add wet ingredients followed by dry ingredients.
4	Place on cookie sheet and freeze.
5	Place freezed cookie dough on cookie sheet and bake.

Step-by-step recipe (with pictures) to make the cookie without brown sugar

Method 2 – No Chilling required

1.Preheat the oven at 350F(180 C). Line up your baking sheet with parchment paper and keep it aside.

2. In a bowl, sift in all purpose flour, baking soda and salt. Keep it aside.

3. Take unsalted butter and sugar in a bowl. Cream it until it is pale in color and fluffy. You can do it using hand mixer or stand mixer, whichever you are comfortable with.

4. Now add wet ingredients eggs and vanilla to the butter + sugar mixture. Beat in until it is just combined.

5. Add all of the dry ingredients at once and mix until it is just combined. DO NOT OVERMIX.

6. Fold in chocolate chips (keep some aside so that you can use them at top).

7. By using cookie scoop, drop the cookies on prepared sheet around 3 to 4 inches apart. Each cookie will weigh approximately 22.5 gms. One cookie sheet will contain 6 cookies.

8. Bake in preheated oven for 8-11 minutes. Remove the cookies from oven when they are just brown from the edges. Do not overbake. It is very important to remove them at right time so that cookies will stay soft.

PS, even if it is looks like not baked fully or not completely brown in color as most the cookies would, Don’t worry. Cookies will continue to bake on baking sheet.

9. Once they are out of oven, Keep the cookies on baking sheet for 10 minutes and then transfer them to cooling rack.

10. Enjoy !

Method 2 – chilled cookie dough

Follow the same steps from 1-6 as mentioned above.

7. Drop cookies on parchment paper using cookie scoop with 1/2 inch distance.

8. Cover the cookie sheet with plastic wrap and keep it in freezer for an hour or two.

9. Remove from freezer and place them in air tight container or zip log backs. Make sure to remove the excess air from Ziplock.

10. At the time of baking – remove from freezer, place them on cookie sheet and bake in preheated oven until the edges are slightly brown. PS – this method might take couple of minutes more.

11. Once they are out of oven, top it up with chocolate chips and keep the cookies on baking sheet for 10 minutes and then transfer them to cooling rack.

12. Enjoy !

Substitutes to make chocolate chip cookie without brown sugar

1. Vegan or Dairy free butter – Replace vegan or dairy free butter in 1:1 proportion.
2. Coconut Sugar – Use coconut sugar as a replacement for regular sugar. Use 1:1 proportion.

I have not tried substituting eggs or flour. Please let me know in the comments section below if you give it a try :).

No brown sugar cookies – storing and freezing instructions

You can store and freeze these cookies for weeks. Please find all the details below:

Storing instructions – no brown sugar cookies

You can store the no brown sugar cookies at room temperature or in refrigerator or in freezer.

1. Room Temperature – 4-5 days
2. Refrigerator – 2 weeks
3. Freezer – 2 months

However you keep the cookies, make sure they are stored in air tight container and stored in cool and dry place.

Sr. No.	Storing Methods	Days/Weeks/Months
1	Room Temperature	4-5 days
2	Refrigerator	2 weeks
3	Freezer	2 months

Freezing instructions – no brown sugar cookies

These no brown sugar cookies can be freezed in two ways.

1. Freeze the uncooked cookie dough
2. Freeze the baked cookies –

• Freeze the uncooked cookie dough – Once the cookie dough is ready, take a cookie scoop and drop the cookies on parchment paper with 1/2 inch distance. Cover the cookie sheet with plastic wrap and keep it in freezer for half an hour. Once the dough is freezed remove it from freezer and place in air tight container or freezer friendly zip lock bags. I use zip lock bags as it occupies less space in freezer :).

• Freeze the baked cookies – Once cookies are cooled down after baking, you can keep them in air tight container or zip lock bags (same as above).

Thawing instructions – no brown sugar cookies

There is no need to thaw uncooked dough. Just remove it from freezer and put it on baking sheet. PS : that it will take few mins more to bake.

For baked cookies, just take them out of freezer and microwave them for 10-15 seconds. Make sure you relish them right away as it will become hard after some time as they are microwaved.

Watch us to make these delicious cookies

Tips to make perfect no brown sugar cookies

Read recipe – Do you want to start mixing ingredients and realized one ingredient if missing or your cookie dough is ready but you forgot to preheat the oven? I am sure none of you want that to happen. So, It is important to read the recipe before you start. I highly recommend to follow this step irrespective of what you are baking.

Best ingredients – Since this cookie recipe is made without using brown sugar, please make sure to use high quality ingredients like fresh eggs, good quality chocolate chips, pure vanilla extract to boost the flavors.

Weight ingredients – Although, I have mentioned the recipe by using measuring cups /spoons and in metric form, I would highly recommend to invest in good kitchen weighing scale. Trust me, your recipe will never fail if you weight the ingredients.

Baking time – This is very crucial in baking these cookies. As you are not using brown sugar. It is difficult to identify if cookies are done since they will not turn brown. Keep a watch and take them out immediately when you see they have turned little brown from edges.

If you follow above tips, I will guarantee you that your cookies will turn delicious every single time.

No brown sugar cookies – FAQ’s

Do all cookies have brown sugar?

The answer is No. Not all cookie recipe uses brown sugar. Most chocolate chip cookie recipes use combination of brown sugar (for additional moisture) and regular sugar (for crisp edges). This chocolate chip cookie recipe is made without brown sugar and it is just mouthwatering.

Do I need to chill the cookie dough?

No, this recipe works perfect without chilling the cookie dough.

Request

Please let me know how this recipe turns out for you in the comments! I really love hearing from you, and your feedback is very much important to me.

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