I Baked Nearly 400 Cookies to Crack the Code Behind The Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
It was all in the name of scientific research.
For the past couple years, this Time.com article about the science behind baking the most delicious chocolate chip cookie ever has been popping up in my newsfeed. In it, they offer various hacks to alter the classic Nestlé Toll House recipe (the one of the back of the package) to your specific tastes. You know, add more of this to make a chewier cookie or a little bit of that to make it crispy. We all have our preferences, but what I wanted to know was, what kind of cookie is the absolute best?
In order to figure that out, I decided to try out nine of the hacks suggested by the article and have my colleagues take a blind taste test and vote for the best cookie. I got about 40 some-odd cookies out of each recipe—so yes, I baked almost 400 cookies in my tiny kitchen. But it was worth it!
Curious to see if people prefer crispy to chewy or cakey to something that tastes like a store-bought cookie? Read on for the results.
This is what a fraction of roughly 360 cookies looks like.
Not pictured: Me figuring out how to get them all to the office without getting crushed under the weight of all these cookies. Who knew flour, sugar and butter could weigh so much?
Here's a closer look at all of the different recipes I baked. In order to determine the best chocolate chip cookie, I invited about 35 coworkers to do a blind taste test of each type and fill out a survey with their rankings on a scale of 1-5 for categories like texture, taste and appearance.
While not the largest survey group, it was a vocal crowd that was very opinionated about chocolate chip cookies. One even told me, "This is my Olympics." I trust in their cookie-judging abilities 100 percent.
THE WINNER: The Chewy Cookie
The Method: Substitute bread flour for all purpose flour for the ultimate chewiness.
The Results: THE WINNER! This cookie took the top spot in every category that people voted on by a large margin. People raved about it and even took a few home with them (even though they just ate nine different types of cookies). Be sure to keep this easy hack in mind to take your cookies to the next level.
Overall Score: 4.18
2nd Place: The Nestlé Toll House Cookie
The Method: Use the recipe straight from the back of the Nestlé Toll House package as the control of this experiment. All of the other cookies on this list were modifications to this basic recipe.
The Results: Turns out the original really is pretty great. You know what they say, if it ain't broke don't fix it.
Overall Score: 3.66
3rd Place: The Butterscotch Cookie
The Method: Replace the granulated sugar in the recipe with an equal amount of brown sugar to give the cookies a rich butterscotch flavor.
The Results: People liked this one for the same chewy texture that the previous two winners also had. While the butterscotch flavor wasn't super obvious to all, this is a very solid cookie.
Overall Score: 3.55
4th Place: The "Cakey" Cookie
The Method: Double the baking soda to release more carbon dioxide when baked to make the cookies puff up more like a slice of cake.
The Results: While this cookie got low scores for its thin and uneven appearance people were surprised by the taste and the soft texture.
Overall Score: 3.53
5th Place: The "Just More" Cookie
The Method: Chill the dough from the basic Toll House recipe for at least 24 hours to let the ingredients come together and deepen the flavor.
The Results: I found this cookie to be much richer and more developed than all the other cookies. However, my colleagues didn't feel as strongly as I did and ranked it right in the middle of all the categories except for appearance (where it came in second place).
Overall Score: 3.41
6th Place: The "Store-Bought" Cookie
The Method: Swap out one stick of butter for the same amount of shortening for something that tastes more like a grocery store cookie.
The Results: This cookie places in the bottom end of all the categories. While one or two people raved about this cookie, this cookie put most people off with its crispy texture and less buttery taste.
Overall Score: 3.17
7th Place: The "Uniform" Cookie
The Method: Add one ounce corn syrup and one ounce granulated sugar to uniform and better-looking cookies.
The Results: This hack didn't really work. In fact, this cookie ranked dead last among tasters for appearance, which is pretty much the opposite of what was supposed to happen. To get a more uniform cookie, it seemed chilling the dough for longer is what helped the most.
Overall Score: 3.07
8th Place: The "Ooey-Gooey" Cookie
The Method: Add two additional cups of all purpose flour to the dry ingredients to make ooey-gooey cookies.
The Results: This hack didn't work either. Instead of being ooey-gooey, these cookies were dense and dry. This recipe scored second to last in every category except for appearance (some people thought they looked store-bought or even like "something grandma would bake.")
Overall Score: 2.57
9th Place: The Crispy Cookie
The Method: Add 1/4 teaspoon baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon baking soda to the dry ingredients for an extra crispy cookie.
The Results: Sorry, crispy cookies. Turns out people really, really don't like you. This cookie ranked dead last in every. single. category. Except appearance. People thought these looked a little bit better than others.
Overall Score: 2.5
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