Soft Treats No Tough Cookies

How do those packaged soft cookies sold at supermarkets stay soft in the middle while crunchy on the outside?

Basically, a soft cookie--like Almost Home, Duncan Hines or Soft Batch--is a cookie baked within a cookie. The outer cookie dough includes regular granulated sugars, which crystallize and harden--giving the cookie a crunchy texture. The inner cookie uses dough with a different type of sweetener--corn syrup or high-fructose syrup--that produces a softer and moister center.

The cookies are sealed in a package with a foil-like liner to help keep them fresh. Most packaged soft cookies can sit on the shelf for six months before turning stale.