The Great Chocolate-Chip Cookie Competition

A widely known fact about me: my favorite food is a chocolate chip cookie. However, like all cuisine, I want to eat something that’s good. That’s exciting. That checks all the boxes for something amazing. So when I say that chocolate chip cookies are my favorite food, I don’t mean some measly, store bought disc that is an abomination to cookie-kind. 

I mean a real, freshly baked chocolate chip cookie. I want it to be crisp on the outside but soft and gooey in the center. The dough itself has to stand out in flavor, but also must be LOADED with chocolate chips. If it has flaky sea salt on top, that’s just a bonus…because we all know flaky sea salt makes everything better.

I like to think I have the ultimate chocolate chip cookie recipe…I combined The Baking Chocolatess’ Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe with my own add-ins and twists. I beat the butter and sugar into oblivion and make sure to chill the dough…and add flaky sea salt ofc. The result? A crisp cookie with a molten chocolate center; truly the best of all worlds.

While I obviously take a strong liking to my cookies, I am always on the quest for the ULTIMATE chocolate chip cookie. So many recipes online claim to be the “best,” and since we are in quarantine, I figure what better time to test them out?

Every week (or few days…depending on how bored I get) I’m going to test out a popular, well-liked chocolate chip cookie recipe. I’ll judge them as they are, but also save some extra dough from each recipe so that I can taste them side by side at the end to determine which recipe is truly the best.

I’ve decided to rank each cookie with the following criteria:

• The look: It’s known we eat with our eyes, so these cookies have to look appealing. Enough said.

• Crunchy Chew: aka the texture. I want a baked outside, but a gooey, chewy inside. However, I don’t want an under-baked cookie either. Has to be juuuussst cooked enough.

• Chip to Dough Ratio: You need a dough that stands out in flavor, but is also loaded with chocolate chips. These are chocolate-chip cookies, after all.

• Overall Taste: Does it taste boring? Store-bought? Or classically delicious?

• Wow Factor: This isn’t a make or break, but is there anything that makes it stand out?? Brown butter, flaky salt…the list goes on.

So, let’s dive right in, shall we?

First up…Tasty’s Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies.

These cookies started off with brown butter, a technique I had somehow gone my whole life without trying. Basically, the butter takes on a deep color and a nutty flavor, elevating the flavors of the cookie dough. 

I combined the sugars, butter, egg and vanilla, sifted the dry ingredients separately, and then combined the two. Pretty self-explanatory. One unique factor was a mix of bread flour and all-purpose; this was meant to give the cookies some extra chew. Another stand-out for me was the combination of chocolate chips and chocolate chunks: this provides for a solid mix of chocolate distribution, earning extra brownie points in my book.

Once the dough was made, I scooped it out, let it chill for a few, and then baked them off.

Let me tell you…something. went. wrong.

What…happened??

These cookies were MEANT to be relatively puffy, maintaining their dough shape but still having a flat top. They were MEANT to have that crispy outside and gooey center.

Mine flattened like there was no tomorrow.

This resulted in a lacey, chewy cookie. 

So, uh…let’s review anyways!

• The Look: This was probably a user error…the brown butter made them a bit darker, and while they didn’t look how they were supposed to, they were still pretty(?) in a unique way. 6.5/10

• Crunchy Chew: Again, probably my fault…I will say though, they had a chewy texture! Because of the error of my ways, however, it was slightly off. 6/10

• Chip to Dough Ratio: I liked the unique distribution of different types and amounts of chocolate. While it could have done with a bit more, it was still pretty sufficient! 7/10

• Overall Taste: Despite the mix-ups, these actually tasted really good. The brown butter adds almost a toffee flavor, and the dough was a little bit saltier than traditional, making a really nice salty-sweet combo. 8.5/10

• Wow factor: The brown butter, different saltiness, different flours, and chocolate gave a LOT for this cookie to be able to stand out. Incredible. 10/10

• FINAL SCORE: 7.6/10

Not too shabby of a start! I would love to try making these cookies how they were intended…as I feel whatever I did wrong definitely swayed the overall results. However, they TASTED really good and I would definitely make again. But is there better out there? Well, we’ll just have to wait and see:).