A long day of fun at Kennywood amusement park had drained the energy from my daughter and me about five years ago before we walked into a DoubleTree hotel in the Pittsburgh area.
Memories had been made on roller coaster rides while enjoying the industrial and hilly vistas. Square-shaped vanilla ice cream, draped in chocolate and adorned with sprinkles, had been enjoyed earlier that day, but our stomachs now were empty.
Instantly we were greeted by a hotel employee bearing complimentary DoubleTree cookies — warm and packed with chocolate chips, walnuts, rolled oats, brown sugar and other ingredients. Compared to other chocolate chip cookies I had devoured over the decades, the DoubleTree version was exceptional.
A few bites of the popular sweet treat and we were smiling again, our sluggishness gone. Ever since, I've been a fan of the signature cookies DoubleTree introduced in 1986 as part of nightly turndown service before the cookie was made part of front desk check-in 1995.
DoubleTree by Hilton describes the cookies as a "simple gesture ... (that) has become synonymous with the brand's commitment to providing guests with a warm welcome and memorable stay."
When I learned DoubleTree by Hilton was opening a hotel in downtown Canton late last year, my tastebuds immediately salivated with thoughts of the hallmark cookies, which have garnered legions of fans, as evidenced on social media.
And I also was determined to learn a few key points:
What makes DoubleTree cookies so scrumptious?
Can you walk into a DoubleTree hotel and purchase them without staying overnight?
And is the secret recipe still a secret?
First off, the cookies are not currently sold at the downtown Canton DoubleTree by Hilton, but they might be in the future.
Secondly, the "official bake-at-home recipe" was released in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic as a gesture to provide comfort and happiness to the public while encouraging families to spend time together baking.
As for what makes the cookies a savior for the sweet tooth, I'll get to that later.
How much does a tin of cookies cost?
To determine if the cookies were as yummy as I remembered — or possibly inflated in stature by the accompanying memories of a father-daughter outing — I had to acquire one.
A DoubleTree stay wasn't planned. So I searched online and uncovered two revelations — The Christie Cookie Co. sells tins of six individually packaged cookies online at https://www.christiecookies.com/doubletree.html for $15.50, plus $9.75 for shipping. The tin arrived within a few days. Additionally, the recipe is now accessible online for home baking, and it revealed a few surprise ingredients — lemon juice and cinnamon.
Copycat recipes had been shared online for years, according to DoubleTree by Hilton. And select bakeries previously had guarded the recipe around the world to ensure consistency in the quality of the cookies served at the hotels.
The mail-order version of the cookie is outstanding and clearly echoes those served at DoubleTree sites. Warming the cookies in the oven at 300 degrees for five to eight minutes is recommended.
Waiting inside the core is an almost continuous layer of chocolate chips — the burst of sweetness and richness is a distinguishing characteristic. Chopped walnuts enhance the cookie with a nutty undertone. And rolled oats add another dimension — hinting at traditional oatmeal cookies — without obscuring any of the chocolate chip-infused bliss. Together, the ingredients sing.
A notch below
I deemed the preordered cookies to be a notch below those I munched on that long-ago summer night when I first discovered the hotel-served version in Pennsylvania.
Same for those I baked at home, with the full disclaimer that it was only the first or second time I had ever wielded an electric mixer in my life. That batch was undeniably good, loaded with Nestle Toll House semi-sweet chocolate chips. They just weren't as mind-blowingly great as those sampled years earlier at a DoubleTree.
Maybe it's the nostalgia attached to the memory of a now 15-year-old daughter who no longer clutches plush toys that I won for her in a carnival game.
Or because the hotel version is baked fresh daily on-site with premade dough. An effort to sample a cookie baked at the downtown Canton DoubleTree via press credentials was unsuccessful prior to the publication of this article.
So I'm left to ponder whether the front-desk version is as superior as I recall.
And I look forward to the next DoubleTree stay ... while reminiscing over the cookie that was nearly as memorable as Kennywood's Jack Rabbit coaster, vintage Turtle ride and fresh-cut fries at the Potato Patch.
Reach Ed at 330-580-8315 and ebalint@gannett.com
On Twitter @ebalintREP
By the numbers
DoubleTree chocolate chip cookies given out to date: More than 400 million
Average number of DoubleTree by Hilton guests welcomed each day with cookies: More than 75,000
Number of chocolate chips in the average two-ounce cookie: 30
Pounds of chocolate chips used annually to bake DoubleTree cookies: 1.2 million
Source: DoubleTree by Hilton
DoubleTree cookie trivia
DoubleTree by Hilton has celebrated National Cookie Day since 2016 on Dec. 4 with an invite to both guests and non-guests to stop into any U.S. location to pick up a warm chocolate chip cookie.
In 2019, the DoubleTree cookie became the first food baked in orbital flight during experiments aboard the International Space Station inside a prototype oven designed to make long-duration space travel more hospitable.
From 2017 to 2019, the brand introduced a cookie recipe book around National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day (Aug. 4) featuring DoubleTree chocolate chip cookie-inspired recipes from its hotels around the world.
In 2018, the first Chief Cookie Officer, Roger Maune, was appointed. Maune also was the executive chef at the DoubleTree by Hilton San Jose in California.
Source: DoubleTree by Hilton
The Link LonkApril 14, 2021 at 04:03PM
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DoubleTree hotel cookies gain cult status, now baked fresh in downtown Canton - Canton Repository
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