On Tuesday, January 26, 2016 at 9:48:32 AM UTC-6, Janet B wrote:
> On Tue, 26 Jan 2016 07:15:05 -0800 (PST), John Kuthe
> > wrote:
>
> >On Tuesday, January 26, 2016 at 5:20:54 AM UTC-6, Cindy Hamilton wrote:
> >> On Monday, January 25, 2016 at 6:22:28 PM UTC-5, graham wrote:
> >> > I made a batch of chocolate chip - hazelnut cookies this afternoon and I
> >> > reduced the sugar content. They didn't spread as much as I think they
> >> > should have. Most are domed and are almost an inch thick. I only reduced
> >> > the brown sugar by about 18% but halved the white sugar.
> >> > Does brown sugar affect the spreading?
> >> > Graham
> >>
> >> In baking, sugar is a "wet" ingredient. You decreased the ratio
> >> of wet-to-dry in your cookie, so it was effectively the same as
> >> increasing the flour. As a thought experiment, consider what
> >> cookies would look like if you followed the recipe, but increased
> >> the amount of flour.
> >>
> >> Cindy Hamilton
> >
> >Well, as a professional baker I've never heard of that!! Sugar being considered a wet ingredient, I mean!
> >
> >
> >John Kuthe...
>
> You're kidding! I want to say everyone knows that, but surely a
> professional should have picked that up years ago when they learned
> how to construct percentage recipes. Check Corriher and McGee for
> reference.
> Janet US

Well, I can kinda understand it, as sugar and water are "miscible" in any ratio. For example you can mix 1 drop of water in one ton of sugar all the way the other end of the continuum like one gran of sugar in an ocean of water. And every ratio in between! So I guess in this respect sugar might be considered a "wet" ingreedient, since any sugar will contain some water.

John Kuthe...