The next time you make chocolate chip cookies, remember: you’re baking with a lie—a beautiful, delicious lie. That brown sugar is a white imposter wearing a molasses coat. But it works. The molasses adds acid, which helps the cookies spread, and it keeps them soft. Without it, your cookies would be sad, flat crackers.
And if you want to sound smart at a party, drop this: “Brown sugar is the only food that gets its color from being re-dirtied after being cleaned.” Then eat a cookie. You’ve earned it.
