Chocolate Chip Cookies: Buy It Vs. Make It
10 Comments | Written on March 22, 2012 at 9:00 am, by Amy Keyishian
courtesy of Amy Keyishian
One time, I was at a friend’s house when she announced she was going to make some chocolate chip cookies. She scooped some flour out of her jar, she grabbed some butter from the fridge—and at no point did she consult a book, not even the back of the package of chocolate chips. “Don’t you need the recipe?” I asked, amazed. “Duh,” she said. “I’m just making the Toll House ones.”
I felt like I was in the presence of Mrs. Walton. Or, at least, Mrs. Fields. Memorizing a recipe? Who does that?
I do, it turns out. Though it also turns out I’m not necessarily a fan of the plain Toll House cookies. Poking around online, I found that many people had the same problem I did—the standard Toll House recipe, which uses 2 sticks of butter, doesn’t turn out cookies that taste or feel like bakery-bought ones.
A little more poking around told me that people got the best results from a combination of butter and shortening. Butter has more liquid and more flavor, but shortening has a different melting point, so used together they create a cookie with the right spread and texture. (Nice news: Crisco now has only 50 percent trans fats and no hydrogenated oils, though the stuff I get, Spectrum Organics, has no trans fats. And is gross. But so is Crisco; you knew that.)
Anyway, luckily enough, I found the perfect basic chocolate-chip cookie recipe with the right combination of shortening and butter. For comparison’s sake, I bought the ol’ breakup-night favorite, a tube of refrigerated cookie dough. Om nom NOM. The things I do for you people!
Cost: This time, it’s actually cheaper to buy the refrigerated dough. It’s hard to say how much it comes out to per cookie, because I never get the right amount of cookies for a recipe. But per recipe, it comes out to about $4.50 (before the chips) for my fancy-pants variety (organic eggs and butter and white whole-wheat flour), and about $2 (before the chips) even with nonorganic ingredients. I specify “before the chips” because people are unbelievably snotty about their baking chocolate, and like to buy Ghirardelli instead of Hershey’s. ‘Scuse ME!
Meanwhile, the tube is on special at my local Safeway for $2.50 a tube. Not much of a savings to make them yourself, unless you’re feeling picky about your ingredients.
Effort: These are not hard to make. If you’re going to open and slice a tube, you can throw some ingredients in a bowl. You don’t even really need to take out the electric mixer—it all goes in there pretty easily, though I’ll cop to using the Cuisinart because I am just that lazy and have a dishwasher.
Taste: Well, I’m sorry. I find the supermarket variety to be too salty. I like mine much better.
The Verdict: Buy it if you are going to eat it raw (yeah, I’m looking at you, woman at her desk at 3pm on a Tuesday feeling like the week is never going to end, and also you, woman who got dumped and worries that she will be alone forever and also wonders if that’s really such a bad thing, and oh my god, is that Theresa from RHONJ on Celebrity Apprentice?). Also, buy it if you just want warm cookies and really don’t care to either health ‘em up or upgrade your chips. Otherwise, just make it, because it’s EASY.
Get more chocolate chip cookie recipes!
Categories:
Save Money, Save Time | Tags: Chocolate Chip Cookies, Chocolate Desserts, Cookies, Snacks
10 Comments | Post Your Comment
10 Responses to “Chocolate Chip Cookies: Buy It Vs. Make It”
how about a GOOD c.c. cooky that is vegan. No eggs or butter. Any good recipes floating around out there. I’m pre- heating the oven!! Thanks!
I have been making the toll house recipe for many years. I could make these with my eyes closed. My boys have made many friends with these cookies and raw cookie dough! I use 1 stick butter and 1 stick margarine. I chill the dough for several hours or over night. The cookies are nice and soft and do not spread out! The perfect cookie, in my humble opinion.
To make chocolate-chocolate-chip cookies,,can I just add
A half cup of baking cocoa or do I have to make another
Ajdjustment? Thanks for any help.
My mom used half butter and half Crisco back in the 60′s and I have been doing it that way ever since. One time I didnt have any Crisco and used all margarine or butter and what a disaster. Tasted good but spread flat. My kids and grandkids says grandma makes the best chocolate chip cookies. Have even sent them to Iraq and Afghanistan to my son and his fellow soldiers with wonderful results as well.
I have made these cookies for years, and also have memorized the recipe. I used to use a combination of butter and shortening(1 1/2 c. butter and 1/2 cup shortening). This proved to be too bland, and not enough flavor. I have gone back to using all butter. I put the mixed dough in the frig for a couple of hours and use a cookie scoop. The cookies are marvelous, nice and round, with lots of flavor and NO spreading.
I have used half crisco and half butter for many years and find that it makes a good cookie, but a bit too flat. So I add about an extra 1/4 cup of flour to the recipe and I roll the dough into balls instead of dropping from a spoon. These cookies are great! I use Nestle’ semi-sweet chips or mini-chips.
In the 30 years I’ve been making chocolate chip cookies, I’ve only had to make one alteration to the recipe given to me by my youngest sister, and that was using Ghirardelli 60% cacao chips. I tried using butter with the poorest results. I changed from butter to Blue Bonnet margarine. Pre-packaged dough contains far too much salt. All my gourmet cookies come out the same. Soft, chewy mouth texture, and delicious. My specialty is a 14 inch round in a pizza box. Friends from several countries and many of these United Sates have enjoyed my gourmet cookies for decades. Milk and cookies anyone?
I love Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies but I agree that the butter recipe melts and makes for flat cookies. 1/2 Butter and 1/2 Butter flavored Crisco makes for a yummy
cookie. You must eat them warm with the chocolate chips melting right off the cookie cooling rack with a large cold glass of milk.
I ,make all my
cookie recipes with smart balance sticks. They are half butter and half smart balance. Less fat and better cookies.
I found the pre made packages of cookie dough are too dry in comparison to homeade… I have been doing the basic Toll House recipe for years and tried different variations but my kids all want to go back to the “original” recipe..