NYT Chocolate Chip Cookie Challenge: FINAL RANKINGS

It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for - my crack team of cookie tasting experts have submitted their lists. Here are the rankings:

First Place

Recipe #1, the Jacques Torres cookie, had some close competition. But its chewy texture, the chocolate and salt, combined with recipe size (makes 4 dozen cookies!) and storability (doesn’t dry out quickly and freezes very well) edged out the other contenders.

Second Place

Recipe 10, The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie, came very close to knocking Recipe #1 out of the lead. Lighter texture but still chewy, you can’t go wrong here. It makes a small batch, so you won’t need to freeze them (although they do freeze just fine) or worry that they will get stale. Because you will eat 5 at a time.

Third Place

Recipe 5, Gluten Free, was the shocker of the series. I mean, a gluten-free cookie? Isn’t that just a poor substitute for the real thing, for all those poor gluten-intolerant folks? What starts out as a gritty unappetizing dough bakes into a delicious cookie that gets gobbled up everyone, gluten-free or not. Fun fact: I took these to a party and as soon as I removed the “gluten-free” sign, they were gone.

Fourth Place

Recipe 7, Salted Chocolate Chunk Shortbread, landed in 4th place, despite - IMO - needing some fine-tuning. But the dense shortbread-like texture, the chocolate and the salt offer an interesting and tasty twist on the traditional chocolate chip cookie. Look for an update on this one as I play around with the recipe.

The Best of the Rest

Fifth Place: Recipe 2, Salted Tahini

Sixth Place: Recipe 6, Vegan

*Seventh Place: Recipe 9, Quintessential

*Eighth Place: Recipe 8, Nieman Marcus $250 Cookie

*Ninth Place: Recipe 4, Giant Crinkled

*Tenth Place: Recipe 3, Tollhouse

Eleventh Place: Recipe 11, Banana Everything (note: placed last mostly because reviewers did not consider it a cookie. It does taste good though.)

*would not bother to ever make these again