The Paper Towel Trick That Keeps Cookies Soft For Days

From the cozy nostalgia of making the dough to the irresistible smell of them baking in the oven to finally being able to take a bite, homemade cookies are a thing of beauty. Whether you prefer snickerdoodles, a ginger molasses number, or whatever variation you consider your ideal chocolate chip cookie, nothing beats a fresh, soft treat made with your go-to cookie recipe. 

But if you've recently whipped up more than you can polish off in a single sitting (and no, that's not meant as a challenge), you might be worried about how to keep them from going stale. Well, according to Reddit users on the r/Baking subreddit, a simple trick can help: laying a dampened paper towel over the cookie container before sealing it. This trick works best on cookies that have already dried out a little and can revitalize them in only a few hours.

Why does it work? Well, it's simple science: The seal of the airtight container traps the moisture from the paper towel, and the sponge-like cookies absorb it. The best part is, you're unlikely to need to repeat the trick on the batch of cookies more than once. The airtight container will keep them fresh once you've done the paper towel trick, and you can simply dispose of the dried-out towel after the cookies have been refreshed.

While there are occasions when the main concern over a batch of cookies is getting your fair share before friends and family eat them all, sometimes you will need to ensure they stay fresh for more than, well, the few hours after you've removed them from the oven. Limiting their exposure to air is one of the most important things you can do to keep cookies fresh, which is why it's so important to stash them in your preferred tightly sealed food storage containers as soon as they've cooled.

However, a lot of the trick to enjoying soft, chewy cookies is in how you bake them rather than how you store them. Two important steps to make sure your cookies are soft out of the oven involve what kind of sugar you use and the temperature of your cookie dough. Using brown sugar, which has more moisture in it than white sugar, helps keep your dough moist and soft as it bakes. Moreover, chilling your dough for a few hours before baking hydrates the dry ingredients in the cookie dough and leads to softer cookies that bake up with minimal spreading.