Recipe: The Dancing Baker’s Chocolate Chip Cookie

Source: The Dancing Baker

In the kitchen, many people like to experiment with recipes in cooking, by adding a little of this and a little of that, until they are satisfied with a desirable flavor. I on the other hand, like to experiment and create my own recipes in baking. Because baking is a science, and you must have certain ratios of ingredients in order for a recipe to work, creating baked good recipes is a little more difficult than just adding a little of this and a little of that. I have always been a creative person, and whenever I get an idea for something, I am determined to put to the test. As the Dancing Baker, I have spent many hours in the kitchen creating and testing recipes, and through trial and error have come up with several of my own recipes that are now apart of my repretoire. One of them is The Chocoalte Chip Cookie! Unfortanetely, I am not going to post my recipe here, but I will tell you that I created a chocolate chip cookie that is thick, fluffy, and very soft in texture, with a rich brown sugar taste. While it may not be a perfect chocolate chip cookie or the “BEST” recipe, I like it, and it has a slightly different taste than many chocolate chip cookies that have been tested so far.

*When having the Taste-Testers try this recipe, I did not tell them that it was my recipe, because I wanted honest opinions and scores.

Total Taste-Testers: 26

Average Scores: on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the highest

Taste: 4.4
Texture: 4.3
Amount of chocolate chips: 4.7
Quality of chocolate: 4.6
Overall: 4.5

Taste-Tester comments:

* “This is the best one hands down! Perfect! Lots of chocolate, perfect thickness.”

* “This is a solid cookie.”

* “Yummy. Loved it.”

* “This is absolutely decadent! Perfect!”

* “A great overall cookie. Solid on all counts. Still find the King Arthur most distinctively great, but this a great straightforward chcolate chip cookie.”

* “This cookie was just middle of the road. Nothing exceptional.”

* “This was a really good cookie.”

* “I like this cookie because it’s nice and cakey and chocolaty. Amazing!”

* “Perfect.”

* “Love the amount of chocolate chips. Very enjoyable, but not out of this world.”

* “Looks good, but the texture is cakey/fluffy for a cookie.”

Recipe: Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie

Source: www.neimanmarcus.com As I explained in my previous post, Neiman Marcus has a “famous” Chocolate Chip Cookie, which for some time the recipe had been kept a secret. The “Urban Legend” of the famed Neiman Marcus Cookie that has been circulating the internet, claims to have the Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe from the chef. However, in response to the “Urban Legend”, the store posted the actual recipe on their website, and the Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe that they declare is theirs, is completely different than the “Urban Legend” recipe. Who knows what the real recipe is? Is the Urban Legend true and Neiman Marcus is lying, or vice versa?

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon instant espresso coffee powder
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300º. Cream butter with the sugars using an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy (approximately 30 seconds).

2. Beat in egg and the vanilla extract for another 30 seconds.

3. In a mixing bowl, sift together the dry ingredients and beat into the butter mixture at low speed for about 15 seconds. Stir in the espresso powder and chocolate chips.

4. Using a 1 ounce scoop or a 2 tablespoon measure, drop cookie dough onto a greased cookie sheet about 3 inches apart. Gently press down on the dough with the back of a spoon to spread out into a 2 inch circle. Bake for about 20 minutes or until nicely browned around the edges. Bake a little longer for a crispier cookie.

Yield: 2 dozen

Total Taste-Testers: 22

Average Scores: on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the highest score

Taste: 3.7
Texture: 3
Amount of chocolate chips: 4.5
Quality of chocolate: 4
Overall: 3.6

My review: This recipe couldn’t be more different that the “Urban Legend” Neiman Marcus recipe. This recipe produced a much more classic chocolate chip cookie; however, the espresso powder threw a lot of people off. While the recipe only calls for 1 1/2 teaspoons of instant espresso powder, it permeates the dough and gives the cookie a very strong aroma and taste. This is a very thick cookie with a crisp outer edge and a very chewy center, not a gooey chewy, but a tough chewy. Again, with only 1 egg, the cookie was slightly grainy. While this cookie had a very different taste, I neither loved it or hated it. This is a very middle of the road chocolate chip cookie for me, and from the scores, the Taste-Testers agreed. Even though the “Urban Legend” recipe is not a classic chocolate chip cookie recipe, I thought it was ten times better than what Neiman Marcus claims as their Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.

Taste-Tester comments:

* “I love the coffee flavor of these, and they are packed with chips- yum! They are a little tough texture wise, but overall delicious.”

* “This cookie tasted a bit weird, and it’s also a little too hard around the edges.”

* “Chocolate chips taste like coffee, and their is a weird dry texture.”

* “I felt this cookie was hard and tasted like coffee.”

* “A little sweet.”

* “Seems a little dry and crunchy on the edges.”

* “The texture of this cookie is too tough. It doesn’t feel comfortable in the mouth.”

* “Too coffee flavored for me and a bit chewy and tough.”

Recipe: “Urban Legend” Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie

Source: I’m sure many of you have heard about the Urban Legend of the famed Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie. If you haven’t, please click one of the links below, because while it may or may not be true, it is a fascinating story. From what I could find, this story has been circulating the internet since 1996 and the funny thing is, that there are two different recipes. This post is dedicated to the “Urban Legend” recipe. The recipe makes appx. 112 cookies, so many of the recipes that you will see on the following links have already been halved. www.urbanlegends.about.com www.tastebook.com, www.recipezaar.com, www.family.go.com, www.whippedtheblog.com, www.snopes.com

Ingredients:

4 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups brown sugar
5 cups blended oatmeal (measure oatmeal and blend in a blender to a fine powder)
24oz. chocolate chips
1 tsp. salt
1 8oz. Hershey bar (grated)
4 eggs
2 tsp. baking powder
3 cups chopped nuts (your choice)
2 tsp. vanilla

*recipe may be halved*

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375º. In an electric mixer, cream the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs, and vanilla; mix well.

2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Slowly add to sugar mixture. Add chocolate chips, Hershey bar, and nuts.

3. Roll into balls and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes at 375º.

Yield: 112 cookies

Total Taste-Testers: 22

Average Scores: on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the highest score

Taste: 4.2
Texture: 3.9
Amount of chocolate chips: 4.5
Quality of chocolate: 4.5
Overall: 4.3

My review: This is a delicious cookie; however, in my opinion, it is not a classic chocolate chip cookie, which makes it difficult to compare to the other recipes. While the only non traditional classic chocolate chip cookie ingredient in this recipe is oatmeal, there is so much of it that it completely changes the quality and texture of the cookie. The blended oatmeal gives the cookie a very nice flavor, and yields a very thick soft center, but it also makes the cookie very grainy. The cookie is bursting with chocolate and overall is a very satisfying cookie! Different, but tasty!

Taste-Tester comments:

* “The chocolate quality and quantity in this cookie are perfect in my opinion. However, the texture was quite grainy which kept me from enjoying the taste as much as I could have.”

* “Yummy. Slightly grainy texture, but I liked it a lot.”

* “This is a wonderful cookie! The oatmeal is really nice with the shaved chocolate.”

* “Too sugary. The oatmeal in it turned me off. Soft but not moist.”

* “This cookie tastes so good! I love it.”

* “Very weird taste.”

* “Amazing!”

* “Yum!”

Source: www.foodnetwork.com

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 (8-ounce) block dark chocolate, coarsely chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

2. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.

3. Place the butter, sugar, and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer; cream together on medium speed until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Beat in the vanilla and eggs. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and continue to mix until a smooth batter forms. Turn off the mixer and fold in the chocolate chunks using the spatula.

4. To form the cookies, scoop about 1/4 cup of cookie dough into your hands and roll it around into a ball; place them about 3-inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets; you should get about 4 cookies on each pan. Press down the tops of the dough slightly and bake until the cookies are light brown, 12 minutes for chewy cookies, or about 15 minutes for crispy cookies. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.

Yield: 1 dozen 5-inch cookies

Total Taste-Testers: 22

Average Scores: on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the highest score

Taste: 3.2
Texture: 3.5
Amount of chocolate chips: 3.8
Quality of chocolate: 3.7
Overall: 3.3

My review: This is a very interesting cookie, and I can’t figure out based on the ingredients, how it got the texture it did. The cookie was very soft and fluffy, but was dry and had an almost a bread-like texture. This cookie was very bland and nothing stood out to me except the dark chocolate, which I am a huge fan of. It says to coarsely chop the chocolate; however, when you chop chocolate, you end up with a bunch of chocolate shavings. Because of the chocolate shavings, it looked like there was more chocolate than dough in the cookie, but it did not taste chocolaty at all. I can’t exactly pinpoint what this cookie tasted like, because there wasn’t much flavor. Overall, I thought this was a horrible cookie, and I think the Taste-Testers agreed with me because this is now the lowest scoring cookie. While it is tied with the Martha Stewart recipe with an overall score of 3.3, the Martha Stewart recipe beat out this recipe in taste. I do not recommend this chocolate chip cookie recipe.

Taste-Tester comments:

* “I would have liked the dough of this cookie to be a bit sweeter. I liked the chocolate, but it’s not my favorite. The consistency of the chocolate was interesting. Each bite seemed to either have tons of chocolate or almost no chocolate at all. I would like it if it was more consistent throughout. Still a tasty cookie overall.”

* “Tasted doughy and while mottled with chips, got no distinctive chocolate taste.”

* “Really soft, but sort of dry.”

* “Weird texture, almost bready, but yummy.”

Recipe: Paula Deen’s Three Chocolate Cookies

Source: www.pauladeen.com, & www.foodnetwork.com

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teasopoon salt
1 (12oz.) package semisweet chocolate morsels
1 cup milk chocolate morsels
3 (1-ounce) squares bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup almond brickle chips (Heath Bar Baking Bits) *omit for classic chocolate chip cookies*

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375º. Lightly grease baking sheets.

2. With an electric mixer, beat butter and shortening at medium speed until creamy; gradually add sugars, beating until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, beating well.

3. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt; gradually add to butter mixture, beating until blended. Stir in chocolate morsels and almond brickle chips, if using.

4. Drop cookies by 1/4 cupfuls about 3-inches apart onto prepared baking sheets. Bake for 11 to 12 minutes, or until lightly browned. Let cool for 2 minutes on baking sheets. Remove to wire racks to cool.

Yield: 3 dozen

Total Taste-Testers: 23

Average Scores: on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the highest score

Taste: 4.4
Texture: 4.4
Amount of chocolate chips: 4.7
Quality of chocolate: 4.5
Overall: 4.5

My Review: All I can say is Paula Deen knows what she’s doing in the kitchen, because these cookies are amazing! If you have ever watched her show on the Food Network,”Paula’s Home Cooking,” you know her favorite ingredient is butter. These cookies exude butter in aroma and taste, and are very rich and slightly greasy. The texture is perfect with a crisp outer edge and a soft, kind of gooey chewy center. I loved the flavor of these cookies, and was happy to finally try a recipe that called for more than one type of chocolate. With semisweet, milk, and bittersweet chocolate, I thought these cookies would be too chocolaty, but surprisingly, they weren’t. The balance of all the ingredients was perfect. This is now one of my top three favorite chocolate chip cookie recipes! It blows the Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie out of the water. This is a cookie that you would expect to find at a gourmet bakery.

Taste-Tester comments:

* “I love the soft texture of this cookie.”

* “Nice soft to crunch ratio.”

* “I loved this cookie!”

* “Amazing!”

* “Initial aroma is enticing.”

* “Nice buttery smell and taste.”

Recipe: King Arthur Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies

Source: www.Kingarthurflour.com

Ingredients:

2/3 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, right from the fridge, or at room temperature
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract, optional
1 teaspoon vinegar, cider or white (I used cider)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 large egg
2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375º. Lightly grease (or line with parchment paper) two baking sheets.

2. In a large bowl, combine the sugars, butter, shortening, salt, vanilla and almond extracts, vinegar, and baking soda, beating until smooth and creamy.

3. Beat in the egg, again beating till smooth. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl with a spatula to make sure everything is thoroughly combined. Mix in the flour, then the chips.

4. Use a spoon (or a tablespoon cookie scoop) to scoop 1 1/4″ balls of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving 2″ between them on all sides; they’ll spread.

5. Bake the cookies for 11 to 12 minutes, till their edges are chestnut brown, almost blonde. Remove them from the oven, and cool on the pan till they’ve set enough to move without breaking. Repeat with remaining dough.

Total Taste-Testers: 22

Average Scores: on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the highest score

Taste: 4.3
Texture: 4.5
Amount of chocolate chips: 4.5
Quality of chocolate: 4.3
Overall: 4.5

My review: I loved this cookie. The texture was perfect with a slightly crisp outer layer and a nice soft center. There are a couple ingredients in this recipe that are not typically used in classic chocolate chip cookies, but I think they are what give this cookie it’s nice texture and flavor. I opted to use the 1/4 teaspoon of almond extract, and I loved the flavor in the cookie; however, some people thought that the chocolate tasted weird, when what they were really tasting was the almond extract. I don’t like the fact that there is vegetable shortening in this recipe, but sometimes you just have to sacrifice health for taste. And besides, butter really isn’t all that much better for you when it comes down to it. Again, I found that with only 1 egg, the texture was slightly grainy. Overall though, I though this was a pretty perfect chocolate chip cookie.

Taste-Tester comments:

* “I like the chocolate in this cookie a lot! The dough has an interesting flavor. I feel like the unique flavor of the dough would stand out more if there were a few less chocolate chips. Overall – DELICIOUS!”

* “Was yummy but a little too rich and not a standout cookie.”

* “Very sweet first bite, almost too sweet, but after, the cookie was near perfect! Very soft – had a fresh right out of the oven taste.”

* “Great texture, slight crunch then soft. A really tasty, different cookie.”

* “Delicious! Maybe a tad more crunch as texture would be even better.”

* “I didn’t like the chocolate, but I loved the cookie.”

Recipe: Cooks Illustrated Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Source: www.cooksillustrated.com (Unfortunately, you need a membership to view recipes on Cooks Illustrated’s website, but below is the recipe for their Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies.) Cooks Illustrated tested 40 chocolate chip cookie recipes and this is their version of the ultimate recipe.

Ingredients:

2 1/8 cups bleached all-purpose flour (about 10 1/2 ounces)
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), melted and cooled slightly
1 cup brown sugar (light or dark), 7 ounces
1/2 cup granulated sugar (3 1/2 ounces)
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 -2 cups chocolate chips or chunks (semi or bittersweet)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 325º. Adjust oven racks to upper and lower middle positions. Mix flour, salt, and baking soda together in a medium bowl; set aside.

2. Either by hand or with electric mixer, mix butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Mix in egg, yolk, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients; mix until just combined. Stir in chips.

3. Form scant 1/4 cup dough into ball. Holding dough ball using fingertips of both hands, pull into two equal halves. Rotate halves ninety degrees, and with jagged surfaces exposed, join halves together at their base, again forming a single cookie, being careful not to smooth dough’s uneven surface. Place formed dough onto one of two parchment lined lipless cookie sheets, about 9 balls per sheet.

4. Bake, reversing cookie sheets’ positions halfway through baking, until cookies are light golden brown and outer edges start to harden yet centers are still soft and puffy, 15 to 18 minutes (start checking at 13 minutes). Cool cookies on cookie sheets. Serve or store in airtight container.

Total Taste-Testers: 20

Average Scores: on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the highest score

Taste: 4
Texture: 4.2
Amount of chocolate chips: 4.3
Quality of chocolate: 4.2
Overall: 4.1

My review: I loved this cookie! It is becoming difficult to pinpoint a “BEST” recipe, because while some recipes just aren’t good, others produce amazing cookies each with a specific perfect quality. This one for example, produced the best thick and chewy cookie I have ever tasted. It had a nice crisp edge with a thick and chewy center, which is created by the forming of the dough technique used. This recipe also calls for bleached flour, which in my baking experience, tends to yield thicker fluffier textures. This is the first recipe that directs you to melt the butter instead of creaming it, which also gives the cookie it’s chewy texture. In my opinion this cookie had the perfect dough to chocolate ratio. The one bad things is that after the cookies sit around for a day or two, they harden and lose their out of the oven texture. I will definitely make this recipe again; however, I will try it using unbleached four, because I don’t like to use bleached flour due to the chemical process it goes through.

Taste-Tester comments:

* “Chocolate chips seemed really sugary to me. Maybe just too many for my taste. Liked the crisp crunch to the cookie.”

* “I loved this cookie!”

* “I liked the slight crunchiness to the texture.”

* “These are almost perfect. The chips taste a bit strange though.”

* “This cookie was too greasy.”

Recipe: Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

Source: www.allrecipes.com (This recipe is all over the internet with over 5,000 reviews)

Ingredients:

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups butter, softened
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 (3.4oz.) packages instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 cups semisweet chocolate chips
2 cups chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Sift together the flour and baking soda, set aside.

2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips and nuts. Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

3. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Edges should be golden brown.

Yield: 6 dozen

Total Taste-Testers: 26

Average Scores: on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the highest score

Taste: 4.5
Texture: 4.6
Amount of chocolate chips: 4.6
Quality of chocolate: 4.6
Overall: 4.7

My review: Well, we have a new leader in the race to finding the “Best” Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe. These are the softest most tender chocolate chip cookies I have ever tasted. The name “Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies,” says it all. While I love the soft almost cake-like texture, there are a couple things I would change to make this the “Best” chocolate chip cookie recipe. First of all, this is the first recipe that I have tested that doesn’t call for salt, which makes the cookie almost too sweet. I would definitely add at least 1/2 teaspoon of salt to balance out the flavor. Also, this recipe calls for 4 cups of chocolate chips, which I felt was too much. While I love chocolate, I wanted a little more cookie. Who knew that adding instant pudding mix to cookie dough could make such a delicious cookie? They were so soft, that it almost tasted like I was eating raw cookie dough… and who doesn’t like eating raw cookie dough? I will definitely make these cookies again, with a few alterations.

Taste-Tester comments:

* “A really nice cookie, but I wanted a bit more crisp. Good for a soft cookie.”

* “Almost too creamy as if it were more cookie dough than a finished cookie, but very delicious.”

* “This tastes great! Not too sweet and very rich, but they are a bit too soft. A little more crispiness would make them perfect.”

* “I loved this cookie! It was nice and soft.”

* “So soft and tasty!!! One of the best cookies I’ve ever had.”

Recipe: Martha Stewart – Lexi’s Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies

Source: Martha Stewart’s Holiday Cookies 2001, Special Issue Magazine

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon table salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter at room teperature
3 cups packed light-brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375º. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, and set aside. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixture fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until smooth. Add the sugars, and beat until combined and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla until well blended.

2. Add flour mixture, and beat on low speed until combined. Add the chocolate chips, and beat until combined.

3. Drop 2 to 3 tablespoons of batter at a time onto baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Bake until golden brown, about 8 minutes, rotating halfway through. Remove the cookies and the parchment paper from the baking sheets and let cool on a rack.

Yield: 30 four-inch cookies

Total Taste-Testers: 25

Average Scores: on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the highest score

Taste: 3.7
Texture: 2.9
Amount of chocolate chips: 3.4
Quality of chocolate: 4.0
Overall: 3.3

My review: This is a Chocolate Chip Cookie you will either love or hate. It is a very specific cookie, with an interesting look and a distinct taste. I personally, did not care for this recipe at all. The cookies spread when baking to a paper thin consistency with all of the chocolate chips staying in the center as the dough spread around them. Because the cookie is super thin, the edges start to burn as the center of the cookie continues to bake, giving the cookie a burnt sugar taste. The cookies are extremely greasy with the four sticks of butter, and they are extremely delicate, making them hard to handle. Also, this recipe says to remove the cookies from the baking sheets on the parchment paper to cool, which is a waste of parchment paper. I did try removing the cookies from the cookie sheets to wire racks to cool, and it was impossible. The cookies did have a very good flavor, but the texture was horrible. I will never make this recipe again.

Taste-Tester comments:

* “This cookie is very greasy and weird looking. It’s very thin and chewy.”

* “Tasty, but don’t like the texture.”

* “OMG… Amazing!”

* “I think this appeals to a very specific set of “likes” in terms of texture and taste. It just happens to fit my preferences. Yum! Crispy, sweet, flat, chewy… not enough chips though.”

* “I actually liked the flavor of this cookie despite the weird texture. Nice and buttery.”

* “Flavor is delicious, but it is really thin.”

* “Too fragile and greasy, not crispy though, which is odd. Nice buttery taste and good chocolate, but crumbly like a lace cookie without the crunch.”

* “Love the toffee-like taste, but a bit too greasy and chewy for the thinness of the cookie. It would be better if it were crispier.”

* “Too chewy, flat, and thin. Doesn’t look good.”

* “The taste was ok, but the texture was really off.”

Recipe: Mrs. Fields Blue Ribbon Chocolate Chip Cookies

Source: Mrs. Fields Cookie Book (100 Recipes from the Kitchen of Mrs. Fields)

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup salted butter, softened
2 large eggs
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 cups (12oz.) semisweet chocolate

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300º. In a medium bowl combine flour, soda, and salt. Mix well with wire whisk. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl with an electric mixer blend sugars at medium speed. Add butter and mix to form a grainy paste, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Add eggs and vanilla extract, and mix at medium speed until just blended. Do not over mix.

3. Drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto an ungreased cookie sheet, 2 inches apart. Bake 18-22 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer cookies immediately to a cool surface with a spatula.

Yield: 2 1/2 dozen

Total Taste-Testers: 25

Average Scores: on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the highest score

Taste: 3.7
Texture: 3.6
Amount of chocolate chips: 4.1
Quality of chocolate chips: 3.8
Overall: 3.6

My review: Overall, I would have to say this is just an average chocolate chip cookie. Not bad, but not great. This recipe produced a chocolate chip cookie that tastes different than the Mrs. Fields cookies you can buy at the mall or on her website. While Mrs. Fields claims that the cookies you buy on-line are “Mrs. Fields very own recipes, using real butter, whole eggs, pure vanilla, and her special blends of flour and chocolate”, what she doesn’t tell you is that the cookies are pumped full of chemicals and artificial flavors, making it a different recipe than the one here from her cookbook. I found this out by looking at the nutritional values of her Chocolate Chip Cookies that can be purchased on her website. The recipe in her cookbook is different than most chocolate chip cookie recipes, in that the cookies are baked at a lower temperature 300º for a longer time 18-22 minutes, instead of at 375º for 8-10 minutes. Also, her recipe calls for salted butter, whereas in most baking, recipes call for unsalted butter. The longer baking process, causes the cookies to come out very dry and airy. They had a nice flavor, but the texture was not as desirable.

Taste-Tester comments:

* “Texture is cakey and breaks down into a strange grainy consistency as you chew. Taste is strange, almost “store-bought” prepackaged aftertaste reminiscent of preservatives”.

* “Just an OK cookie”.

* “Cookie looks good, but too dry & airy with a cake-like texture. Not moist at all.”

* “Chew quality, very good, but a bit of grainy texture”.

* “Too many chips for my taste and yet consistency of a “soft Chips Ahoy!” Not a special cookie, a bit overly sweet”.

* “Too sweet for me. An average cookie, not spectacular”.

* “Too dense… and sort of wet tasting.”

Recipe: Good House Keeping Chocolate Chip Cookies

Source: The Good House Keeping Cookbook

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup backed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 package (6oz.) semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375º. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt.

2. In a large bowl with a mixer at medium speed, beat butter, and brown and granulated sugars until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat until well combined. Reduce speed to low and beat in flour mixture until just blended. With a wooden spoon, stir in chocolate chips and walnuts, if using. Drop dough by rounded tablespoons, 2 inches apart, onto ungreased cookie sheets.

3. Bake until golden around the edges, about 10 to 12 minutes, rotating cookie sheets between upper and lower oven racks half way through baking. With a wide spatula, transfer cookies to wire racks to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.

Yield: 3 dozen

Total Taste-Testers: 21

Average Scores: on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the highest score

Taste: 4.5
Texture: 4.5
Amount of chocolate chips: 4.2
Quality of chocolate: 4.2
Overall: 4.3

My review: I loved the cookies that this recipe produced. Overall, this is my favorite recipe so far, and the Taste-Testers agreed based on their scores. Out of the five recipes that have been tested, the Good House Keeping Chocolate Chip Cookie is now in the lead. This cookie is extremely soft, chewy, and tender, with a perfect balance of all the ingredients. While this recipe calls for 1 egg like the Pillsbury recipe, this recipe has 1/2 less tsp. baking soda, creating a better texture. I loved the taste of these cookies, and would definitely make this recipe again.

Taste-Tester comments:

* “I loved this cookie! The texture was nice and fluffy and the chocolate was great. It was sweet and salty at the same time.”

* “I usually like more crisp than moist, but this was a great overall cookie. This cookie with the Ghirardelli Chocolate Chips would be sensational.”

* “I liked the taste of this cookie, but it wasn’t a great looking cookie.”

* “My favorite recipe out of the five so far.”

Recipe: Pillsbury Chocolate Chip Cookies

Source: Pillsbury Complete Cookbook – Recipes from America’s Most-Trusted Kitchen

Ingredients:

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 (6oz.) pkg. (1 cup) semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped nuts or shelled sunflower seeds, if desireed

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375º F. In a large bowl, combine brown sugar, sugar, butter, and shortening; beat until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and egg; blend well.

2. Add flour, baking soda, and salt; mix well. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.

3. Bake at 375ºF. for 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets.

Yield: 3 dozen cookies

Total Taste-Testers: 21

Average Scores: on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the highest score

Taste: 3.8
Texture: 3.6
Amount of chocolate chips: 3.9
Quality of chocolate: 3.9
Overall: 3.7

My review: It’s very hard to turn your nose up at a chocolate chip cookie, especially if you’re someone like me who loves sweets, but, as I’ve been tasting numerous recipes, I can really taste the difference, and I know what ingredients or lack there of in the recipes cause the cookies to turn out and taste differently. That being said, I did not care for the Pillsbury recipe. First of all, it calls for 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup shortening, which gives the cookie a very buttery taste. Although Crisco shortening has reinvented itself and is not as bad for you as it used to be, I still try not to use it when baking due to the higher fat content. Also, whereas most chocolate chip cookie recipes call for 2 eggs, the Pillsbury calls for 1, which causes the cookies to bake up very crispy and grainy. Eggs play a very important roll in cookie dough by providing structure to the cookie as it bakes, as well as lending to a desirable taste and texture, and they help with the leavening process. Baking soda and baking powder need moisture to do their jobs, and I don’t think the egg to baking soda ratio is right in this recipe. Because the Pillsbury recipe only had 1 egg for the 1 tsp. of baking soda, the cookies had a very odd and grainy texture. I thought the flavor of the cookie was pretty good, and the appearance of the cookie was great. Unfortunately, it looked a lot better than it tasted.

Taste-Tester comments:

* “This cookie has way too much butter in it.”

* “Very buttery.”

* “Too sweet for me, but I liked the appearance.”

* “A fine cookie, but a little too much sugar in the mix for my taste.”

On a score of 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest possible score, here are the results from the Taste-Testers on the “BEST” quality of chocolate chips:

Nestle Toll House: 4.1
Ghirardelli: 3.8
Hershey’s: 3.6

The Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chips were the favorite among the majority of the Taste-Testers, baking into the cookies with a silky smooth texture and the perfect balance of chocolate and sweetness. While the chips melted into the cookie, they still kept their form, and when bitten into after completely cooling, still had the melted just out of the oven quality.

The Ghirardelli Chocolate Chips in 2nd place, had the purest, richest chocolate taste, but were too chocolaty for some people, with not enough sweetness. In my opinion, this is a better quality of chocolate then the Nestle Toll House, but did not bake into the cookies as well as the Nestle Chocolate Chips.

The Hershey’s Chocolate Chips in 3rd place, were extremely sweet and did not taste much like chocolate at all. One Taste-Tester said “they taste like raisins in the cookie”. The Hershey’s chips baked into the cookie the same as the Nestle Toll House with a smooth, creamy texture.

*For the remainder of the chocolate chip cookie recipes to be tested, I will use Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chips since they were the winner, unless a recipe specifies a certain brand or type of chocolate.*

Recipe: Hershey’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

Source: back of Hershey’s semi-sweet chocolate chips

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks butter), softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs 2 cups (12oz.pkg.) Hershey’s Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375º.

2. Stir together flour, baking soda, and salt. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla in large bowl with mixer until creamy. Add eggs; beat well. Gradually add flour mixture, beating well. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts, if desired. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet.

3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely.

Yield: 5 dozen

Total Taste-Testers: 28

Average Scores: on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the highest score

Taste: 3.8
Texture: 3.9
Amount of chocolate chips: 3.9
Quality of chocolate: 3.6
Overall: 3.7

My Review: This recipe yielded a very soft, moist cookie, with no crispiness at all. The Hershey’s recipe is the exact same recipe as the Nestle Toll House, except it has 1/2 tsp. less salt and uses it’s own brand of chocolate chips. Although some people find the Nestle Toll House cookie too salty (using 1 tsp. of salt), the extra 1/2 tsp. of salt is what gives the cookie the slightly crispy coating. If you like a nice soft cookie, then this recipe will deliver just that. The Hershey’s semi-sweet chocolate chips, in my opinion, are too sweet and don’t have the rich chocolate taste that I prefer. I would like this recipe better with a different brand of chocolate chips, or with Hershey’s Dark Chocolate Chips.

Taste-Testers Comments:

* “This cookie is light, sweet, and salty all at the same time. I didn’t like the Hershey’s Chocolate Chips, they tasted like raisins to me in the cookie.”

* “This is a rich cookie with a good texture, chewy and just a little crispy. I don’t love the chocolate… maybe Nestle chips in this recipe would be better.”

* “Kind of a boring cookie.”

* “Cookie was nice and chewy. Chocolate was good, but there could have been more chocolate chips.”

* “Taste of chocolate seemed “fake”, or inferior. There was no crunch before the moistness in this cookie.”

* “Chocolate chips were classic “Hershey” taste.”

Recipe: Ghirardelli Chocolate Chip Cookies

Source: Recipe on back of Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375º.

2. Stir flour with baking soda and salt; set aside. In a large mixer bowl, beat butter with sugar and brown sugar at medium speed until creamy. Add vanilla and eggs, one at a time, mix on low speed until incorporated. Gradually blend dry mixture into creamed mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Drop by tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheets.

3. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown.

Yield: 4 dozen

Total Taste-Testers: 28

Average Scores: on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the highest score

Taste: 3.4
Texture: 3
Amount of chocolate chips: 3.9
Quality of chocolate: 3.8
Overall: 3.4

My Review: This cookie was a little too flat for my taste. The recipe calls for 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of brown sugar compared to the 3/4 cups that is used in most recipes. The higher quantity of sugar, causes the cookie to spread more when baking, creating a very thin cookie. Although the cookie was thin, it had a nice chewy texture, but was a little grainy as well, due to the amount of sugar. Compared to the Toll House recipe, this recipe calls for an additional teaspoon of vanilla, producing a richer more flavorful cookie. The high quality of the chocolate chips give this cookie a nice rich chocolate taste. Not the best cookie, but not the worst I’ve ever had.

Taste-Tester comments:

* “Normally not a Ghirardelli fan, but I liked the chocolate in these cookies. You can definitely taste the chocolate deliciously and perfect in this. I don’t care for the flatness of it though.”

* “There is an odd taste to these that I can’t quite place, and the texture is grainy. The chocolate is good, but I feel it would be better eaten alone.”

* “Cookie is a little thin and crunchy. The chocolate chips have a nice deep flavor and are higher in quality than other chips.”

* “Crisp but moist. Wanted a bit more cookie, less chocolate. Nice cookie flavor.”