Ask Sophia: Is This Cookie Moldy?
After the four-month-long month that was January 2024, lots of us are entering February in a treat ourselves kinda mood. Luckily, I’m quite the baker and can whip up quite the treat.
Not to brag, but I have an impressive portfolio of baking projects under my belt. This is much to the benefit of the straight male I live with, who requires an IV of chocolate chip cookies in order to function properly.
Another straight male in my life survives by the same medical (or emotional, I’m not certain) principal, but unfortunately has less access to homemade baked goods. As such, he recently purchased a store-bought chocolate chip cookie in a sorry attempt to cure his January blues.
He used this sweet treat as his sole motivation to make it through a particularly brutal week. He said he was banking on this little cookie to keep his shit together. His exact phrasing, actually, was that this cookie was “keeping [him] from having a mental breakdown.”
Which is why, after unwrapping some bunched-up cellophane only to discover the harrowing image you’re about to see, he fell into a state of panic. Rationally, he phoned a friend (me) who has some expertise on the subject of cookies:
This isn’t so much a baking question as it is a “my girlfriend is on a work call and my mom is out of the country right now so I’m asking the only other known baker in my life because she’s a woman and women know more about baking than my guy friends do” question. And props to him for thinking to reach out, because I have the scientific knowledge to provide a thorough answer.
Despite the troubling nature of this query and its supporting image, no — this cookie is not moldy. What you’re seeing, I believe, is known as “sugar bloom” or simply “blooming.”
Basically, if you leave a chocolate chip cookie somewhere humid or exposed to condensation, the moisture condenses on the cookie’s surface and dissolves the chocolate chips’ sugar crystals. Then, once the moisture evaporates, you’re left with a weird, dusty, re-crystalized form of sugar on the cookie’s surface. That’s what those white “moldy” speckles are.
So rest assured, dear friend, that your week will not be ruined by a mold colony taking over your store-bought cookie. That cookie was simply made with copious amounts of sweetener, as store-bought cookies tend to be, hence the excessive sugar bloom.
Also, thank you for giving me the chance to channel my inner Bill Nye this week. Here’s to hoping that someone will bake a less problematic looking treat for you in the near future.
