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I like soft chocolate chip cookies.

Unfortunately, even in an airtight container, cookies will go stale after a couple days.

Is there a way I can prevent this from happening? Not necessarily indefinitely, but at least keep them fresh for more than a couple days.

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  • Also are you open to recipe adjustments or are you just asking about storage?
    – apaul
    Jan 1, 2015 at 23:52
  • @apaul34208 Both I guess? I was thinking just storage but if there's a way to do it while cooking that would work then I don't see why not.
    – GimmeTehRepz
    Jan 2, 2015 at 2:13
  • In some recipes you can get away with replacing some of the water with cream or oil. It makes for a much softer chewier cookie and they tend to stay soft longer, a lot more fat content though.
    – apaul
    Jan 2, 2015 at 2:18
  • It depends on the recipe, not sure if it would make a complete answer.
    – apaul
    Jan 2, 2015 at 2:20
  • I am also facing the same problem. I am a very small baker in India. I bake cookies, pack them in air tight container but after a month cookies go stale. Inspite of several precautions in baking process I failed to prevent staling. Still waiting for the solutions
    – user7581
    Jul 22, 2015 at 14:52

3 Answers 3

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I find that freezing them in an airtight container/freezer bag works great. I often pull 2-3 month old cookies out to take somewhere, and people don't even notice. They'll even ask for the recipe sometimes. Just make sure you thaw them slowly in the bag, so that they don't dry out.

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The cookies are going stale because of a change in moisture of the starches in the cookies. It's something along the lines of processing the moisture in the cookies to crystallize the starches, which is what leaves the cookies with that dry, hard, staleness. The solution to fix this effect, is to provide another source of moisture, so that the starch can process that moisture instead of taking it into the cookies.

So what you need to do, is to provide the cookies with a source of moisture. If you place a couple slices of bread into the container with the cookies, and by some sort of magic the moisture from the bread will transfer to the cookies.

  • I've even used this to soften cookies I accidentally over baked, making them nice and soft after a day of re-moisturizing.

  • I don't know how long you can keep cookies fresh with this method, but I've definitely kept them for over a week by replacing the bread slices as they became stale.

I have heard that apple slices will do the same thing, but I've never tried it because I don't like the idea of apples rotting in the same container as my cookies.

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    Your answer is incorrect. Staleness is not caused by drying out. In fact quite the opposite. Additional moisture changes the starch causing crystallization. That is what causes staleness. Science rules.
    – Timothy Winters
    Jan 1, 2015 at 4:38
  • @Timothy Winters: Perhaps we first need to define exactly what is meant by "staleness"? Your description of staleness as a chemical process could well be correct, but personally I think that sort of staleness, achieved by letting them sit several days in a fairly moist environment, actually improves most cookies. Staleness defined as drying out doesn't (IMHO, of course), and is fixed by keeping them moist.
    – jamesqf
    Jan 1, 2015 at 18:33
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Put about a half a dozen or so in small freezer bags, and put them in the freezer. Take one out at a time for a couple of days of munching.

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  • 1
    That answer has already been given.
    – Chenmunka ♦
    Sep 24, 2020 at 13:01

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