I baked 104 chocolate chip cookies to perfection on Friday night. Why? Because I’m curious like a cat.
And cray-cray.
Before I explain the madness, I want to begin by saying that I have been completely and thoroughly satisfied with the chocolate chip cookie recipe that I’ve used over the years. I secretly sneered at other’s cookies, because in my heart I felt mine were better. I prided myself on perfect cook time (oh wait. still do). But in the last couple of months I’ve stumbled across various CCC recipes that have piqued my interest. They all had some special little twist, some little extra step or key ingredient that made them, supposedly, the best. And I was sucked in. So I gathered the ingredients little by little (because we’re poor, not because they’re super weird), and on Friday I performed my experiment. For like, um, three hours.
Four different recipes. Loads of butter. LOTS of dirty dishes. (In my haste, I failed to shoot a single photo of the epic event.)
The testing venue was my brother Cory’s house where we had a family get together (to watch Inception on their SWEET home theater with my little bro Adam who just got home from his two-year LDS mission in Chile). There were 12 adult taste-testers who willingly scrutinized the competition. Here were the contenders:
CCC#1: The (famous) Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie aka my staple cookie recipe for the last five years.
What makes this cookie special is the blended oatmeal which adds a wonderful depth of flavor (almost nutty), without any weird texture or having Oatmeal jumping up and down waiving her arms frantically trying to ruin Chocolate Chip’s glamour shot. It bakes chunky, soft and substantial, every time. MANY people have complimented me saying it was the best CCC they’d ever had. I’m just saying…
CCC#2: The Only Chocolate Chip Cookie I Will Ever Need To Know How to Make For the Rest of my Life from For Me, For You.
This cookie definitely wins a badge for being most different. It requires bread flour, cake flour, kosher salt inside and sprinkled on top, as well as a 24 (at least) chill time before baking. My tasters noted the salt (not any special texture or flavor), and that’s what drew them to it. This made my favorite dough (the finer texture of the flours stood out more then), and I had to agree with my family that the salt really did make the sweetness sing.
*soon after posting this I realized that this is the famous New York Times cookie recipe; the only difference is that this calls for chocolate chips rather than chopped baking chocolate. That’s it. I’ll also add that I’ve tried this recipe again since the showdown, and the second time I let it chill for about 30 hours as a matter of happenstance. My husband and I both thought the flavor was exceptionally exceptional–really remarkable actually. So I think there really is something to chilling your dough, but I think that you may have to do a little longer than 24 to get that almost caramely flavor. Definitely worth trying every once in a while, but a little unreasonable for those of us who want a cookie NOW.
CCC#3: The Chewiest Chocolate Chip Cookies from Can You Stay For Dinner and adapted from Cooks Illustrated
Although this cookie delivers in the chewy department, it was the least popular with my tasters. I suspect it had something to do with the fact that it was my flattest cookie. It doesn’t call for baking powder (just soda), and the cook time was way off for me. I would have to play with the temp and bake time more, because I felt like although it had a relatively low baking temp (350), it was cooking the outsides too quickly, while the center remained wetlooking. I enjoyed the flavor (it also requires chilling), and the chewiness was great (she says it’s a result of melting the butter).
And CCC#4: The Classic Chocolate Chip Cookie from Dana at Made.
This is your pretty basic recipe, except it has Crisco (a little worrisome, right?). She says that it gives the outside a slight crisp, and leaves the insides soft. I support this claim. Everyone agreed that this cookie had awesome texture.
So do you want to know who won?
Nobody. It was a three-way tie between CCC#1, #2, and #4. Anti-climactic, I know.
But I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. Once I can look at a chocolate chip cookie again (which will be sooner than I ought, I’m sure) I’m going to combine my favorite aspects of each cookie, and come up with the best CCC recipe. Hey, I’m serious. Can’t help myself from trying…
and I’ll take a few pictures.
So what’s your favorite CCC recipe that you’ve boasting of for years? Wanna go against me in a showdown?
17 Comments
I ADORE oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. You’ve got me craving them like crazy right now. I’m going to try the NM recipe today. Today. Right now. Ok, not right now, but today. Yes!! Can’t wait. YUM!!!!
Have you tried the ones with pudding mix in them? Makes them stay chewy no matter what forever (if they last that long.) Yummy! FYI, I think your originals look and sound the best of the bunch here.
Pudding mix?! I’m interested! I could do this whole experiment over again, there are so many more recipes I would love to try…
The “Neiman Marcus” cookie recipe is also circulated as “Mrs. Fields Original Recipe” with a similar, “she ripped me off and so I’m giving away the recipe to retaliate.” All that balony aside (and balony has no place in chocolate chip cookies,) My ultimate recipe is like your #1, but calls for half butter flavored shortening, instead of all (REAL) butter. As far as your health is concerned, it’s pretty much a toss up anyway. AND if you have MEXICAN vanilla, that adds a fabulous favor. . .but I can’t find anyone to brave being shot in the streets to bring me home some vanilla. (The good stuff comes from the Mexican colonies area). Oh dear, these are not good conversations to enter in to right before my son’s wedding a.k.a. “fit in to the cream color suit that has never fit me since I bought it for some future wedding two years ago” day.
Check out my slimfast knockoff recipe at http://www.chocolatecreamcenters.blogspot.com. It’s right below the decadent toffee recipe and a couple of Christmas stories.
fyi, the next time you’re on the Wasatch Front you can buy Mexican Vanilla in the Mexican Food Section of Macey’s (Grocery Store, of course) at an amazingly reasonable price–much cheaper than a trip to Mexico!
I definitely think you should keep trying recipes and needing testers ; }
My ultimate recipe is similar to yours, and I guess maybe the same since it it originally labeled as Mrs. Fields recipe. I love it for the blended oats for the same reason as you (love the flavor without the in your face or texture). But, we added coconut, and pecans. SO delicious.
This is not the thing to talk about while trying to stay on the diet. But the one recipe we like at our house is on the back of the Western Family brand of chocolate chips. Nothing fancy, just easy peasy chocolate chip cookies. But you are right, it all depends on the baking time!
Hey Miriam! It’s Courtney from the book club. I absolutely love your site– ingenious and adorable.
I HAD to comment on this post. This has been a search of mine for the past few years; I have been looking for the perfect CCC for soooo long. This article is what got me started: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/09/dining/09chip.html?pagewanted=all which shares the same recipe as #2, and you’re right–it is definitely delicious.
Currently, I use a recipe that combines margarine and butter (I was a bit nervous about that, but I can’t help lovin the fluffy-softness it creates), I am excited to give these others a try though, #1 sounds especially tasty.
Courtney! I’m so glad you commented, because I was trying to find your blog the other day, and I couldn’t remember your address! I popped on over and read your first couple of posts—great stuff! I look forward to delve a little deeper when I have a moment. And about the cookies, what an obsession its becoming! So you think that the margarine adds a special texture? Interesting! Let me know if you strike gold!
America’s Test Kitchen has the best CCC recipe ever! They call for you to make GIANT cookies (1/4 cup each), and they bake up perfectly soft in the middle and crisp on the outside. Also, they taste the most like cookie dough of any cookie I’ve tried. SOOOO good.
You know, I’m going to have to try their recipe exactly. I tried one adapted from theirs, so I wonder what their’s is like…..1/4 cup cookies sound awesome to me!
It’s funny that people are saying the Mrs. Field’s recipe is the same as Neiman Marcus because I have a type-writer typed recipe card from a long since passed away woman we used to live with that has the title Mrs. Field’s chocolate chip cookes, but it doesn’t have blended oats in it. However, it makes a HUGE batch and I normally half or even quarter the recipe. And in my opinion, I think it makes the best CCC (even better than the recipes my mom or my m-i-l make.)
yeah, and there are several different recipes for the Neiman Marcus cookie too, so that makes even more suspicious. I would love to get that recipe, Becca!
So the crisco thing is what I do, but I use butter flavored kind. It adds the yummy flavor of butter, I find the regular crisco to make he cookie a little flavorless.
I hear you on never wanting to look at cookies again… my mom and I baked together for farmer’s markets for over 4 years, and by the end I NEVER wanted to turn on an oven again, ha ha.
When I got over my baking burnout, I tried for years to get the perfect recipe too… turns out I had it all along, I just had to substitute an ingredient or two in my original recipe!
http://swamphollowdesigns.blogspot.com/2011/10/treat-bag-tuesday-best-chocolate-chip.html
Bakes up soft and tastes like cookie dough, yum!
These look so awesome! Great story too…