BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE RECIPE CHALLENGE
Our Mom Crush Judge, Baking Expert & Cookie Scientist: Carrie Steed, 🍪 mom of 4 (she seriously is amazing) conducted the most delicious experiment where she tested 9 different cookie recipes (she started out with way more but got rid of duplicates, etc.) to decide upon the best one. We will share all 9 recipes with you, the process and all the deets but if you just want to see who won, scroll to the bottom. :)
If you happen to have a Cookie Exchange coming up (or if you really love cookies), this was written for YOU.
9 CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE RECIPES THAT WERE COMPARED:
(click on each title to take you to the recipe)
1. My Big Fat Chewy Chocolate Chop Cookie Recipe
2. Best EVER Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
3. Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
4. Basic, Great Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe by Seven Spoons
5. Tried and True Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
6. Crisco Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
7. Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever by Betty Crocker
8. Cori's Moms (image of Carrie's family recipe below!)
9. Nikki's Cookies (Carrie's neighbor)
All recipes were prepped at the same time, using the same ingredients the night before the Saturday bake off.
THE CRITERIA
1. Must be basic that anyone can make with simple ingredients most people will have on hand.
What I was looking for was a great, basic recipe that anyone could make with basic ingredients on hand. I got a lot of recipes that were duplicates, a lot that were similar but maybe had a couple extra tablespoons of flour, several with pudding, cornstarch, oats and other ingredients not necessarily traditional to the chocolate chip cookie.
2. Delete any duplicates.
I sifted through the recipes and weeded out duplicates. I was left with NINE different recipes which I made, following them exactly and measuring precisely. I bought good quality ingredients and used the same exact ingredients across the board. No variations except for the one cookie that used chopped chocolate versus chips. I made all the dough on Friday evening and let them sit overnight in the fridge. Baked them all on Saturday.
3. The taste test must be blind (no bias!).
HERE'S CARRIE'S RESULTS:
After a blind taste test, we have a winner. Actually, we have a winner and a second place that blew the competition out of the water.
Here's what we found when comparing them side by side: the very basic cookies seemed to have better flavor than those with extra ingredients. That is not to say any of these recipes were bad. They were all pretty good. However, real butter tastes better and more natural than crisco. Vanilla pudding has a great texture in a cookie but the flavor is compromised and it tasted more "processed" than the cookies with just vanilla.
Again, there were no bad recipes. Just preferences. We had only 3 recipes marked as testers favorite (1 vote each). The top recipe won by a landslide. Carrie found this one about 2 years ago and it has been her go-to ever since. The second recipe is SOLID.
WINNER: Basic, Great Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe!
RUNNER UP: Cori's Mom's Cookies (her family recipe!!)
Almost everyone loves chocolate chip cookies. So, next time you are baking some, try out some of the recipes above!
WHAT'S NEXT?
Carrie is currently taking tips for her next taste test! Write what she should try next in the comments! Share your favorite below too & which ones you try!! Happy Baking and Happy Holidays!
THANK YOU CARRIE!
Feeling lucky to have friends that do fun things like this and share it with us. Make sure to check her out on Instagram - she's also a great photographer (obviously). Find her HERE.