The best-tasting cookies: Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies
Methodology:
Three brands of chocolate chip cookies were tested from ready-to-prepare tubes of dough. The Cub brand and Pillsbury brand were baked at 350 degrees, while the Nestle brand was baked at 375 degrees, as indicated on the package. The cookies were all roughly the same size, and were all cooked for about 11 minutes. Nobody complained about any of the cookies being either burnt or undercooked, which is remarkable, given my limited experience with baking. This taste test was done at work, and each taste tester had one half cookie of each type. We had 30 people participate as taste testers. It was fairly easy to find people willing to eat free cookies.
Here's how people's top choices ranked:
Nestle Toll House= 12 people
Pillsbury= 11 people
Cub Foods (store brand)= 7 people
This taste test was a very close race. Pillsbury did very well, and had more second-place votes than Nestle did. The store brand also did not do too badly. The two name-brand cookies were polarizing, with those who liked one not generally liking the other.
Teresa and I both picked Nestle as our top choice, with Pillsbury last, so we'll be buying Nestle in the future. I'm actually quite fond of cookie dough right out of the tube. I think it's as good that way as when it is baked.
Those who preferred Nestle often did not like the consistency of the Pillsbury cookie, saying it was "dry" or "not as chewy." Teresa's comment was that it had too much shortening in it. Those that preferred Pillsbury said that Nestle tasted "generic" or has a "blah" flavor.
