I started baking chocolate chip cookies when I was a
tween. For years I relied on what Phoebe Buffay would call the Nes-lay Too-loose version (not very creative, though I would double the vanilla). No doubt you've had these cookies -- they are the recipe on the back of a popular brand of chocolate chips, after all -- but they left me wanting.
After arriving at Wired a few years ago, I realized I should take advantage of being in an office populated by people who like cookies and appreciate science. Thus began a series of bake-offs against myself (hey, I never claimed not to be a dork). The first few confirmed the winningness of Cook's Illustrated's chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe [subscription required]. Among the losing recipes: a family favorite from my cousin Rita (sorry, Rita); a Martha Stewart recipe (note to Martha: you cannot bake cookies for 17 minutes at 375° without regretting the consequences); a recipe described as the perfect chocolate chip cookie [TimesSelect required] from the New York Times. I even took a cooking class dedicated solely to the perfect chocolate chip cookie., where we experimented with three Alton Brown recipes, but none won my heart.
Someone has no doubt forwarded you the utterly fictitious email from a poor schlub who claims to have accidentally paid $250 to a ritzy department store for a chocolate chip cookie recipe. More than a decade after said rumor began to circulate on the Internet, said ritzy department store decided to release its real cookie recipe to the world.
Which is better? I baked both and asked the Wired staff to decide. The real recipe -- which tosses in a bit of instant espresso powder -- was preferred 6 to 1. (The fake Neiman Marcus recipe adds oat flour and grated milk chocolate to the mix.) But the Cook's Illustrated cookies, pictured here, remain my favorite. Meg Hourihan's recent thread about her quest for the ideal cookie has lots more recipes for me to try. I smell a bake-off coming on...
