Chocolate Chip Cookie Bake-Off

While in Utah, my sister Kim and I both claimed to have the best chocolate chip recipe. We decided that only way to settle this argument was to put our cookies to the test, and have a cookie back-off!

One evening we went to the store to gather our supplies and went home and to start the baking. It was like being in a reality cooking show. We both had handicaps as we didn't have all the bake ware we were used to and I accidentally added 3x the amount of baking soda to my dough (WHOOPS!).

Surprisingly, our recipes were quite different, which just added more excitement to the process. We first had a cookie dough tasting test, as we had different people try the different doughs. After all the dough is just as important, or maybe even more important, than the finished product.

However, we still didn't have a definite winner, as some people liked her dough more and others like mine. But to be honest, I actually enjoyed her dough more than mine.

Next, was the actually cookie taste test. You see, my recipe only makes 12 cookies, since each cookie is 4 oz; my sister's recipe makes about 5 dozen. This means my cookies are a lot bigger than my sisters. So in order to have a totally unbiased judges we had to break up the cookies into bite portioned sizes.

Each judge had a different opinion, which left us with a cookie bake-off tie! My mom said that they tasted too similar; however, Kim was convinced she could tell which cookie was hers, after all, she had been making these cookies for over 8 years. So this time, we put Kim to the test.

We broke off each of our cookies into bite size portions. As Kim closed here eyes, my mom and I fed Kim my cookie to her first. Right away Kim said that it was my cookie. Pretty good, but we didn't tell her if she was right or wrong. Next as I grabbed her cookie first, my mom motioned for me to feed her my cookie AGAIN. In the taste test that Kim and I were doing before, we fed each judge each a piece of our cookie right after the other. However to really test Kim in her cookie knowledge we played a little trick and sure enough as soon as we fed her MY cookie again she said "That is DEFIANTLY my cookie." hahaha So apparently when eating cookies side by side they taste quite similar.

The Cookie Bake-Off ended in a tie. We determined that each cookie was delicious. If you want to have your own cookie bake-off against my 4 oz cookie, go for it, and let me know what you decided!

Levain Bakery Copycat Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies (**Yield-  1 dozen cookies)

Ingredients

• 2 sticks ‘cold and cubed’ unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar – not packed too hard. Just spoon it in the cup(s) and press down lightly when full, sweeping off any extra that runs over.
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp Vanilla
• 3 1/4 to 3 1/2 cups AP flour – Spoon and Sweep method. (feel the dough, it should be moist, kind of like cold cookie dough in a tube.. but not super sticky, so you can portion the cookies with your hands)
• 3/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 Tablespoon of cornstarch
• 1 cup good quality semisweet chocolate chips (Guittard brand)
• 1 cup good quality milk chocolate chocolate chips (Guittard brand)
• 1 cup walnuts (Toast the nuts for more flavor, if desired and/or use any kind of nut you like)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
1. In bowl of electric mixer fitted with paddle, cream together sugars until well blended
2. Mix in butter, straight from the refrigerator, until mixture is well blended and and fluffy, dont worry if there are still some little butter chunks. Add eggs, one at a time.. and beat until well incorporated.
3. Add Vanilla and mix until incorporated
4. Add flour, salt, baking soda, cornstarch, baking powder and mix until just combined. Gently fold in chocolate and nuts.
5. Transfer dough to clean work surface and gently mix dough by hand to ensure even distribution of ingredients. Divide into 12 equal portions, **about 4 oz each..
6. Place each on sheet pan lined with parchment paper and bake in the preheated oven 16-23 minutes depending on how gooey and raw’ish you like the middles until very lightly browned, taking care not to over-bake. Let cool on rack and store what you don’t immediately eat, in an airtight container.