And sometimes I bake lots.
Inspired by the excellent Felicity Cloake (of Guardian fame) article on how to make the perfect chocolate chip cookie, I set about no less than six batches of chocolate chip cookies on my delicious quest to crunchy, chewy, chocolaty, buttery, fatty perfection.
The contenders in this spectacular show-down are Felicity Cloake (recipe here), Dan Lepard's unconventional number (here), a recipe from Jamie Oliver's site (here), a representative from allrecipes.com (here), 'The Chewy' from The Food Network (here), and an all-American classic from Joy of Cooking.
2-3 hours of creaming butter and sugar, beating in eggs, chopping chocolate, sifting flour and baking soda, I had six carefully labelled bowls of cookie dough resting in the fridge.
24 hours later (resting the dough in the fridge improves the cookies) it was time for baking. The genius tip of flattening the cookies mid-bake for a denser, chewier centre was used on all batches. A couple hours of baking, some rather impatient waiting et voila! Cookies. Let the tasting commence!
Felicity Cloake - Too soft. Too spongy. Not the crispy, chewy texture I expect in a chocolate chip cookie. Tasted okay but all the cookies used the same ingredients so texture will be the decider here.
Dan Lepard - Good texture, love the oats. The almond essence, however, overpowered everything but the chocolate and put it out of contention for the top spot.
Jamie Oliver - Good. Oh so good. Maybe that sneaky extra egg yolk makes the difference, maybe not. Either way these have crispy edges, chewy centres, and are everything a cookie should be.
Allrecipies - Pretty good effort. Covers the bases but too consistent in texture. Either not crispy on the edges or crispy right through. Not the contrast required in a perfect cookie.
'The Chewy' - My old standby. Good, solid cookie but languishes in fourth place behind the Allrecipes version. Same flaw on the texture front but, unlike the Allrecipies cookie, these cookies are over-chocolated for my tastes.
Joy of Cooking - The winner by a hair. Chewy, crunchy, chocolaty goodness. Get the book.
