rrr: chocolate chip cookie winner!
I’m back! Didja miss me? Vacation was vacation, I won’t bore you with details, but I did meet Steffany from Dinner Love, and she’s a dear.
But hey check it out, while I was glutting myself daily on hotel breakfast Danish, there were 45 Tastebuddies trying out 11 different recipes in a valiant effort to determine which would qualify as THE BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES there are. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, welcome to Omnomicon! Here’s where you can read about our monthly Recipe Round-Robin contest.
And here, let me show you what the best looks like, beginning to end.
That up there is all the stuff that goes into these suckers. It’s hard to tell, but there are a couple secret ingredients in there.
The white stuff is ground oatmeal, and the brown crumbs are grated Hershey bars. Specifically Hershey bars. Except instead of grating, I thought I’d try getting the job done with my food processor.
And what do you know, it totally worked.
And then stir that into all the other stuff with some nuts and, naturally, chocolate chips.
The batter is extremely tempting, but be sure to save some for the cookies, they’re worth it.
So do you recognize these? They were Bubbe’s Fantastic Chocolate Chip Cookies, code named Recipe L, and many big thanks to Hallie for letting us give them a try! Here’s what she had to say about ’em:
Here is my bubbe’s fantastic recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies. They’re definitely not low-fat, but they’re the best I’ve ever made (and I’m a pastry chef!).
So these are both pastry-chef and Tastebuddy approved. I knew you’s guys had great taste. My guess is that the groundedness of the oatmeal gives these more texture without being so suggestive of oatmeal cookies. I also have a theory on how the Hershey bar plays into things: usually a chocolate chip cookie is a sugar cookie with bitter chocolate chips here and there, but little to tie these two elements together. Maybe the grated chocolate creates a gentler transition from cookie to chip? Even if my theory is right (and I’m open to the alternative, I know what I don’t know), my word choice is not even remotely technical, so Hallie, please feel free to jump in with your expertise.
Here’s the word I got via email results:
- Our house votes for recipe L. It had lots of chocolate and grinding the oatmeal was a great idea because it made for flatter and less dry cookies. Recipe L was nice and chocolaty! After we made our decision we did our own taste test with friends and recipe L definitely won hands down.
- Far and away, I and my 3 co-tasters chose Bubbe’s Fantastic recipe as the best of the two. The finely ground oatmeal added a nice substance to the cookies without giving it the graininess of an oatmeal cookie. They baked up nicely–no flat cookies here–and the ground Hershey’s chocolate gave the cookies a beautiful brown color and a little extra chocolate kick. I used hazelnuts since it said you could add your choice of nuts–not a huge fan of nuts in cookies, but they tasted great in this recipe.
- The texture was very nice; the oatmeal provided more substance to the cookie and even though some of us had hesitations about whether oatmeal belonged in a traditional chocolate chip cookie, it was quite good.
- So good. If you’re including technique suggestions, rolling these guys into balls really helped.
- Who knew oatmeal could help so much?
And here’s the word on the web (leave a comment with a link if I missed your post!):
- Domestic Ambitions has a writeup
- Steph of Obsessed With Baking goes into great detail as well!
- Natalie at Oven Love reviewed her favourite of the two she tested.
And here’s what they looked like in other people’s kitchens:
Ruth made Bubbe’s
And Jeff also made Bubbe’s
Then Domestic Ambitions made the Friendly Choco-Chippers . . .
. . . and also Sheila’s (nice collage-work, btw).
Next up are the Kitten-Free (calls for exactly 0 kittens in the ingredient list, and the cleverness was simply adorable) as compared to the Family Secret recipe, the latter which did not seem to work out for Carly, who may have been too busy with Sunday’s NYTimes crossword to care.
And lastly, there was the recipe that ended in “Mmm. Eat.” and Ruby’s Plan ahead cookies. I want to give Lisa mad props for this photo, it’s gorgeous.
And there you have it! Yet another Recipe Round-Robin, now with 200% more reader participation. Hooray! So I’m announcing a savoury recipe for July . . . any suggestions? I’m thinking summer-time BBQ dishes—pasta salad, seasoned hamburgers, probably not potato salad because there’s a huge tendency toward grossness and grossed-out taste-testers—but I bet comfort food will work regardless of the time of year. We’ll save fruitcake for December.
Thanks again to everyone for participating. Really, I mean it! I’m so psyched that this works out every month because people are saying they had fun and because I like reading about it, and giving stuff away is fun too.
And last but not least, here’s Hallie’s winning recipe.
Bubbe’s Fantastic Recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies
yields about 3 dozen cookies
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
2 cups oatmeal, ground to mealy texture
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
12 oz chocolate chips [2 cups]
4 oz grated hershey bar [this amounts to 18.5 rectangles from the Big Bar, but use your algebra to figure it out if you can manage . . . I food processored those suckers, and it seemed to do the trick. If grating by hand, however, one Tastebuddy recommends freezing the bar first so it doesn’t melt in your hand.]
~1 cup chopped nuts of choice (I usually use pecans or walnuts) [editor used pecans, and they were fabulous]
Cream the butter and sugars together.
Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until fluffy.
Mix the dry ingredients and add to egg mixture.
Stir in the chips, nuts, and hershey bar.
Drop by rounded tablespoons onto a lined cookie sheet and bake at 375 for 6-8 minutes. [editor’s note: mine took about 10 minutes, and one Tastebuddy had reported 11-12 minutes. Final recommendation is check in at 6 minutes, and then every two minutes after that until you can see a little bit of browning happening on top].
nom nom nom!
nutrition summary (1 of 36 cookies yield): 220 calories, 12g fat, 1.5g fiber; ~5 weight watchers points
I agree with the fact that these are the BEST chocolate chip cookies ever! My Granny also makes hers this way, but says they’re Mrs. Field’s cookies and, in fact, the recipe can be found online all over the place as such. Most places I’ve see have the recipe posted here doubled, though. These are truly the most amazing chocolate chip cookies hands down!
Looks like a fun variety of cookies from those pics!! Sorry I didn’t have time to be a tastebud this time! Hopefully I’ll have more time next month!! I love that they use ground oats, love using that in cookies 🙂
Yay, you’re back! These look so good.
I have been making this recipe for years. They are absolutely the best chocolate chip cookies. I got my recipe from a chain email saying that it was recipe from Neimann Marcus. I’m sure you’ve all heard the story. Mother and daughter are out shopping and stop in the cafe at Neimann Marcus. There they partake in some yummy cookie eating. The waitress says that they can buy the recipe for two fifty. The mother discovered after the bill came the the waitress meant $250 not $2.50! The mother wanted her money back but the store said that since she has already seen the recipe they can not give her the money back. So she tells them that she will make sure everyone she knows (and many people that she doesn’t know) has this recipe.
I don’t know if that story is true, but the cookies sure are yummy!!
welcome welcome welcome back! Totally missed you – funny how I’ve come to rely on blogs for my source of inspiration, motivation, communty & entertainment!
ok, this may be my most favorite post of yours, of all time. All the pictures of chocolate chip cookies, totally YUMMY!!!!!!
Thank you for the pictures of the other recipes. I had the plan ahead cookies as one of mine to try and I thought I did something wrong twice because they were so flat and thin….seeing them in this picture makes me feel better that someone’s turned out that way too! Guess thats how they are supposed to be. I am a big fan of the ewwy gooey chewy cookies. I will have to try the winning recipe, I think I have one like this…..does anyone have a good classic chewy chocolate chip recipe (no oats)? Thanks
I’m sooooooooooo glad you are back!! Was having Omnomicon withdrawal – seriously. Not pretty.
Janice
Your cookies look absolutely devine! Everytime I make cookies from scratch, they’re not edible. I can’t bake for the life of me -=(
I also want to say that your pictures are gorgeous! How do you take such beautifully sun kissed pictures?
What about macaroni salad? Chicken salad? I’ve seen so many recipes for these…
Or better yet, what about some kind of casserole? I’m thinkin’ LEFTOVERS.
OOooh! So yummy.
This is my favorite challenge yet.
Now — how about some good old fashioned grilling recipes for the summer months? Or maybe icecream?
Ha! You have the same itsy-bity food processor that I do!
On another note, NOM! I love chocolate chip cookies! I am totally going to try these.
Oh, and I AM a dear, thanks!
what about taco dip! everyone has a different recipe. and all of them are so so delicious.
I love your blog – it consistently cracks me up. This is really exciting…I will perhaps try these as my next cookie recipe!
This cookie looks great. I’m sure it will taste as good as it looks. I would love to try it myself. May i know what kind of Hershey’s chocolate bar did you use?
amazing job everyone!
the winning recipe look fantastic. it’s an perfect *looking* cookie too bc of the grated bar + chips.
I really like the sound of using the ground oatmeal in ccc’s. I have used it in muffins and pancakes before with good results.
i wonder why ruby’s plan-ahead cookies came out so flat, they’ve never been flat like that for me!!
i am definitely going to try this winning recipe though!
How many sticks of butter make a cup??
Oh, I can’t wait to try them – it was super fun to be a tastebuddy 🙂
I made these ccc the other day and it was a success! Again, out of neccessity, I was forced to punt a few times. We get a lot of imported products here in Jordan, but they are never available when they are needed! And I wasn’t going to wait to try these cookies. I food processored Hershey brand milk chocolate chips instead of the Hershey bar and I was forced to use an inferior semi-sweet chip. I thought I had enough oats, but upon measuring, realized I was a 1/4c short, so I just added axtra flour. I also ommitted the nuts, as a personal preferance. I used a medium ice cream scoop to portion the cookies and baked some on parchment and some on a Silpat. Everything turned out fabulous. Yum!
Aleta mentioned that the grated milk chocolate created a transition from dough to semi-sweet chip. I think this is a valid theory, however some of my reviewers mentioned that they missed the jump from sweet dough to bitter chocolate. Not so much though that they didn’t mind eating every single cookie off the first and second trays! I stuck the rest in the freezer. Thanks for this blog, I love it!
Hi There
Apologies for contacting you through the comments instead of email but I couldn’t spot yours. Just wanted to say that loving your photos here on the blog and would love to get some of them featured on http://www.foodandfizz.com and hopefully send you some traffic back here.
Look forward to seeing some of them 🙂
Cheers
Ben
What a fantastic cookie! Looks really yummy!
Can I use steel cut oats?
[…] Cookies from the winning recipe: […]
How do you grind up the oats? Or do you buy them that way?
Sophie: 2 sticks = 1 cup of butter
McKay: You can use a food processor or a blender to grind up the oats. Both work well in my experience.
And yeah, I’ve seen this recipe passed around for ages, being called the “Neiman Marcus cookies”. Either way, they’re probably some of the BEST chocolate chip cookies EVER!
I made these and I was SORELY disappointed! Either it was me or my oven, but it burnt the bottom on some and the ones that didn’t burn were rock solid and dry. I even did a second batch with extra moisture and they STILL were rock solid and dry. Could it be the oats I was using? Are there any specific ones you should use?
Awwwwwwwwwwwwww! Sooooooooooo cute!!!- Pam
I’ve made these three times now. Each time they get rave reviews. I wanted to mention though – the first time I made them they were big and on the flat side [which I loved!]. The second and third they didn’t spread out quite so much. Any idea why this is? I’ve followed the recipe to a tee each time.
Either way – they are fabulous and I cant help but want to mash my face into them.
-Kely
[…] Chip Cookies From Omnomicon.com Makes approximately a zillion […]
im writing a review on this for my school paper
Hmm, so yummy and look delicious!! thanks for the recipe ;))
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I know that this recipe thread was from 10 years ago…but I just want to thank you for this recipe!! I always make them with crushed Heath Bars instead of nuts and they are amazing!! They are my family’s very favorite cookie!! Thanks again!!!! For those who have trouble with flat cookies, mine are NEVER flat!! I always cream the sugars with butter in a mixer until very fluffy. I also refrigerate the dough usually overnight, but at least one hour before baking….hope that helps those having trouble with flat cookies!
I have been doing this recipe for the last decade! I always win when it comes to cookies with friends, and I ALWAYS been asked about the recipe.
Truth be told, I HOPE you never take this site down. Its filled with amazing info.
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