The Chocolate-Chip Cookie Journey

As a chocolate-chip cookie lover, I'm always on the quest of finding the best recipe on earth. Every time I think I found it, there comes a new recipe to try, with better taste and appearance than the former best. Perhaps recipes don't matter too much, there are many, many versions of them that make great cookies. Maybe it's the experiences that you gain from trying so many slightly different recipes that shape the best cookies.

After all, every people have their own preferences. One prefers slightly crisp cookies whilst other prefers gooey under-baked ones. There are fans of super thick and fluffy cookies as well as the flatter ones. Some people don't mind with the generous amount of sugar used in the recipe, others prefer to reduce it and get lesser-than-expected texture.

However best a recipe someone claims to be, you always have to tweak it a bit to your own preference.

This picture is from 2008. The cookies were made using the very first chocolate-chip cookie recipe that I've ever tried, circa 2002. They are crisp, slightly chewy.

Also from 2008, these ones are more chewy. I think this is the most widely circulated recipe on the net, one slightly different from others, rooted from the famous Toll House Cookie Recipe.

From 2009. This Jacques Torres' cookies recipe is one of my favorite up until now. Perfect texture and taste to my liking.

From 2011. A different variant from usual chocolate-chip cookies, with generous amount of peanut butter in the dough. Also one of my favorite. For me it's a cookie that resembles brownie, and a brownie that resembles cookie. Confusing I know, in a very good way.

From 2013. Grammy's Chocolate Cookies. Somewhat out of category, without any chocolate-chips in the dough. But it's chocolate anyway.

Another one from 2013. About the time I realize that the generous amount of sugar makes the nice chewy texture.

Sugar always becomes an issue. I personally don't like anything too sweet. Bittersweet is better. Whenever I'm trying new recipes I always reduce the amount of sugar, sometimes drastically. It works generally well in cakes, but not in cookies. The flavors are okay, but I could never get the texture I wanted. So then I compromised. Let the cookies be tooth-aching sweet as long as I could get them a bit cracky-crisp on the surface but very chewy and gooey on the center. That's how I like my cookies done.