One Classic Boxed Ingredient Creates The Softest, Chewiest Cookies

Chewy cookie lovers everywhere, rejoice! If that soft, almost-underbaked texture is what you crave, there's a simple baking hack that almost always yields beautifully chewy results: instant Jell-O pudding mix. Many of us have fond memories of whisking a packet of sugary, flavored powder into cold milk to create a creamy, refreshing dessert that we still crave as adults. The great news is that there are also lots of clever ways to use instant pudding in baking, so you can enjoy a nostalgic treat while also upgrading the texture of your favorite style of cookie.

The reason Jell-O instant pudding mix gives homemade cookies a lovely, decadent texture is that these blends are made to absorb and retain moisture, creating a soft, dense bite even after the cookies have completely cooled. That's why Jell-O instant pudding is perfect for stabilizing whipped cream: common ingredients like cornstarch and xanthan gum take on a velvety texture rather than a watery one when combined with moisture. Not only does this process render your cookies soft directly after baking, but they also remain that way for one to two days afterward — though let's be honest, they're probably not going to last that long.

This is an especially fun hack if you enjoy mixing and matching flavors in your baking. While classic vanilla will yield a fairly traditional-tasting chocolate chip cookie or snickerdoodle, you can change things up seasonally with packets of banana, pumpkin spice, or even lemon, depending on the time of year.

Consider baking a version of these treats that specifically calls for Jell-O instant pudding mix — like the brand's Easy Pudding Cookies, which flip the script with a chocolate pudding base and white chocolate chunks — rather than modifying your favorite recipe from the get-go. This way, you can get a feel for how the dough forms and how well the mix melds with the other ingredients. Bakers online have found that cookie dough fortified with instant pudding mix can be crumbly and harder to shape, likely due to the added thickeners. Keeping this in mind can help when incorporating instant pudding mix into an existing recipe.

When adding instant Jell-O pudding mix to a recipe that doesn't explicitly call for it, weigh your ingredients rather than measure by volume, since you'll need to do a little ingredient substitution by weight to get the right ratios (a 3- to 4-ounce box of instant pudding can replace 2 ounces each of flour and sugar). So, even if you normally use measuring cups to make your tried-and-true recipe for bakery-style peanut butter cookies, you'll want to break out the food scale for precision.

It's also probably a good thing this hack calls for reducing the recipe's sugar, given that Jell-O instant pudding mix is plenty sweet on its own. As such, you may want to avoid finishing your cookies with crystal sugar or sprinkles, as they may become too sweet. Stick to things like dark chocolate shavings and sea salt, instead. Edible glitter is another option that will add luster — minus any unwanted additional flavor.