The Cookie Crumbles

The 2012 Family Day Weekend Cookie Cook-off is over! A new tradition that started earlier this week came to a conclusion on Saturday. My wife and I decided to bake a few cookies and see who could come up with the best recipe. Our judges would be 2 kids, their friend and whoever else we could sucker into eating our cookies. My recipe was inspired by a reader (although I did alter it slightly) and my wife’s came from somewhere else that I am not 100% sure of. Regardless of their origins (although a big thank you to someone I will call “Wesley’s Mum” is in order) we made a lot of cookies. My cookies came out pretty well and as you can see from the photo they look delicious. But since there is nothing that I do that is half-assed (I do everything whole-assed) I decided to make peanut butter cookies, sugar cookies and peanut-butter-chocolate cookies. And as you can see from the other photo, I think we had too many cookies.

But you must all want to know who won the cook-off. With a vote of 7 – 3, my cookies came out on top. The big vote came from my wife who conceded victory at the taste of my cookie which I may call Wesley’s Delight. I also got votes from her parents which were the clinchers. I only lost 3 votes due to a treacherous friend, his aging grandmother and my youngest son who must hate flavour.

Here is the winning recipe:

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 .5 tablespoons applesauce

Cream margarine and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla, mix. Then add flour, soda, and salt. Once a soft dough is formed, mix in chocolate chips and applesauce. Drop formed balls on ungreased cookie sheet, bake at 375° for approx. 10 minutes.

The submitter of the recipe may notice a few subtle differences that may have pushed me over the edge, however, I think the applesauce is the ingredient that makes it work. Seriously bake these cookies and see. They are fantastic.

Side note: These are not Dooku friendly at all and I only got to eat 2 or 3 of them. Of course I also had to sample the plethora of other cookies I baked on Saturday.

I am also still waiting to be declared “SWEET GENIUS”. I think I deserve it.