It's difficult to find a more widely known food package recipe than that of the Original Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies. (Except for maybe Campbell's green bean casserole come late November.)
Sure, Crisco's pie crust is a permanent fixture on the shortening manufacturer's cans, but if you buy packages of the sticks, there's also a recipe promising the Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Let's see if we can stir up some corporate warfare by pitting these two recipes against each other.
That's right, it's a No Budget Cooking Series first. Two recipes. One week. No regrets. Until the next time I step on the scale.
But first, the recipes.
Original Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes: About 5 dozen
2¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
¾ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups (12-ounce package) semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
Heat oven to 375 F.
In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt.
In a large mixing bowl, beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract until creamy.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Gradually beat in flour mixture.
Stir in morsels and nuts.
Drop onto ungreased baking sheets by rounded tablespoon.
Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.
(Recipe from Nestle)
Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes: 3 dozen
¾ cup vegetable shortening
1¼ cups firmly packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans (optional)
Heat oven to 375 F.
Beat shortening, brown sugar, milk and vanilla in large bowl with mixer on medium speed until well blended. Beat in egg. Stir flour, salt and baking soda in medium bowl. Gradually beat into creamed mixture until just blended. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.
Drop by rounded measuring tablespoonfuls 3 inches apart onto baking sheet.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes for chewy cookies, or 11 to 13 minutes for crisp cookies. Cool 2 minutes. Remove to wire rack to cool completely.
(Recipe from Crisco)
TASTING NOTES: A No Budget Cooking Series tenet is to focus on taste over appearance. Making food that's tasty, not a Pinterest fail waiting to happen. That's why I don't put much stock in how a dish looks. But we're already breaking rules this week so let's get nuts.
Visually, Crisco produces a pleasing profile of crags and mounds surrounding the chocolate chips and maintains good height. These cookies provide a toothsome, satisfying bite. As far as texture goes.
However, when it comes to taste, the Nestle recipe gets a flavor boost from butter that shortening can't match. Still, the butter works in a supporting flavor role to the sugary chocolate flavor that exceeds cookies made with regular Crisco. In hindsight, perhaps I should have used the butter-flavored shortening.
There's more to the flavor disparity. Nestle's uses about the same amount of flour as Crisco, but mixes in an extra quarter-cup sugar and double the chocolate chips.
EQUIPMENT: Both recipes use two bowls, beaters, a wooden spoon and a baking sheet. I used a spatula to scrape down the sides. Five measuring devices are needed for Crisco's recipe while you can get away with four measuring devices for Nestle. Of course, all measuring cups could be set aside by converting volume measurements to weights. But that's a rant for another column.
PRACTICALITY RATING: Even the most ardent uncooks have probably made, or assisted in the making of, a batch of chocolate chip cookies at least once. Neither recipe requires special cooking skills or kitchen gear. It's easier to work with the Crisco, dough. It easily slides from scoop to baking sheet. The Nestle dough is stickier, but not to an off-putting level. Besides, who's going to complain about getting a little cookie dough stuck to fingers? I mean, other than a food safety scientist warning us that it's unsafe to consume raw eggs.
COST: Crisco recipe, $5.60 ($0.16/cookie if 3 dozen made). Nestle recipe, $6.69-$9.90 ($0.11-$0.17/cookie if 5 dozen made). Butter is the most expensive ingredient and I used Kerrygold for the Nestle recipe, based on the results of cookie recipe tests with various butters for a previous story.
HACKS/INSIGHTS: Crisco's parent company, J.M. Smucker, doesn't have a controlling interest in any chocolate chip making brands — I'm amused by parent companies of these brands sneaking product placement into the ingredient lists, like Pillsbury flour in this Crisco recipe, as if we don't know what they're doing — so I used Nestle Toll House chocolate chips for both recipes.
Crisco's dough can also satisfy both chewy and crispy cookie fans. Just adjust the bake time. Cookies baked following Nestle's recipe get crispier around the edges with longer bake times but the difference between chewy and crispy isn't as pronounced as with the Crisco version.
The first batch of Nestle dough, baked for 9 minutes, turned into chocolate chip cookie pancakes. Subsequent batches with longer bake times gained a little more volume, especially those formed with a melon ball scoop.
I got 24 cookies from the Crisco recipe and 42 cookies from the Nestle recipe. Both fell short of the promised 3 and 5 dozen cookies, respectively. I took Crisco's direction of "rounded measuring tablespoonfuls" as to use an actual measuring tablespoon. Or maybe I'm zealous with my scooping. I did use a melon baller that made smaller scoops for the last two batches of Nestle cookies.
Buying the Crisco sticks makes measuring much easier. Cut and dump into the bowl without the need to scrape shortening out of a measuring cup.
Crisco's online version of the recipe notes that, if omitting the nuts, add an additional half-cup of chocolate chips. That would likely shrink the flavor gap between Crisco and Nestle.
Also, I'm curious what percentage of home bakers add nuts to their chocolate chip cookies.
There's no shortage of advice on how to bake chocolate chip cookies to your liking. Use baking powder in place of baking soda for more lift or chill dough with butter before baking to reduce spread. Allowing the dough to chill 24 hours before baking boosts flavor. Of course, that assumes you don't live with raw cookie dough fiends who will clean out the bowl long before the oven reaches 375 F.
More: Meatballs made from this Kraft recipe is easier than pie | No Budget Cooking Series
More: Easy recipes tested and reviewed here. Follow these links to past No Budget Cooking Series stories
ABOUT THIS SERIES: I test recipes found on food packages in my very average kitchen with my moderately above average cooking talent and meh presentation skills. I'll provide some insights and basic cooking tips. If you don't find these stories useful, hopefully you find them entertaining.
Contact Daniel Higgins dphiggin@gannett.com. Follow @HigginsEats on Twitter and Instagram and like on Facebook.
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The Link LonkAugust 05, 2020 at 01:47AM
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Chocolate chip cookie recipes: Nestle vs. Crisco. Which is better depends on what you want - Green Bay Press Gazette
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