Almost four years ago we published the first Chocolate Chip Cookie Project, a baking project undertaken during the height of the pandemic. The clear winner in 2020 was the Double Tree Signature Cookie. As 2023 closed out we noticed several articles touting the best cookie recipes of the year and it seemed like the universe was nudging us toward another unofficial taste-off.
The contenders
When selecting our recipes, we looked for recent articles/recipes that leaned toward a classic chocolate chip cookie, e.g. no crazy mix-ins or additions. We took advantage of other recipe developers going through rigorous testing to come up with their best chocolate chip cookie recipes. We hope we did these cookies justice. The five new recipes we tried were:
- King Arthur Baking Company’s 2024 Recipe of the Year, the Supersized, Super-Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Anthony Underwood’s Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies, a.k.a., The 10-Year Chocolate Chip Cookie
- Saveur’s Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Serious Eats’ The Food Lab’s Chocolate Chip Cookies
- BA’s (a.k.a. Bon Appétit Magazine) Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
The contenders mainly fell into two groups – big, soft, sharable cookies (think Crumbl-like cookies) or thin cookies with crisp edges and chewy centers.
The stats
For this challenge, we used approximately:
- 12¼ cups of flour
- 7¾ cups sugar (brown and white)
- One dozen eggs
- 3 pounds of butter
- 10¼ cups of chocolate chips
Common elements
- All but one recipe required the dough to be refrigerated. Some for as little as two hours, others overnight. One recipe formed cookie balls first before refrigerating.
- All but one recipe used chopped chocolate rather than chocolate chips (or a combination of chopped and chips).
- All but one of the recipes used brown butter.
And the winner is …
Unlike the unanimous winner in 2020, this year there was a small split. Everyone agreed that all the cookies were tasty. What it came down to was a preference of big, soft cookies vs. thinner, chewy-crisp cookies. The winner of this contest was …
Saveur’s Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies
And there you have it, a delicious conclusion to a fun and tasty (but unscientific) taste-off.
Double Tree Signature Cookie! I can see why. Reading this brought back a fond memory of being offered a warmed one upon check-in at Double Tree San Francisco. The ooey-gooey bliss remains unparalleled.
Inspired by that moment, I think Saveur’s recipe is a must-try for me.
Thank you for taking out all the guesswork for us in the quest for the best – And letting the chips fall where they may!
I’ll make sure you’re on the testing team next time we do this 🙂
I would love that!🍪