For people whose cookies turn brick hard after a day or so. [View all]

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I tried all the web based ideas, apple slices, bread in with the cookies, ect. Nothing worked.

Then I decided to use my training as an engineer. First I tried food grade diatomaceous earth and it worked, but I was concerned about sustainability given that the organisms that became the earth were from millions of years ago, once it is dug up, it is gone.

I looked in my kitchen cabinet at the cornstarch that I keep in a sealed container to reduce clumping from moisture collection. Perfecto. Adding just less than one teaspoon per cup of flour produced wonderful cookies that retain most of their as baked softness for days. You can try natural preservatives to hold the as baked flavor, I tried one that works, but my guess is any do.

I discovered something else about cornstarch in cookie dough. A little less that a teaspoon per cup of flour keeps the cookies from hardening as they sit. Three tablespoons per cup of flour gives a hard, snappy shortbread like cookie. I thought the contrast was interesting and believe that it comes from a water-bonding dynamics change as the amount of cornstarch is changed.