Cookie Battle 2012: The Results!

Last month, I implored readers to submit their favorite cookie recipes in the hopes of winning a Good Cookie spatula from OXO. Well, I since narrowed the field down to two contenders, baked them off, and shared them with friends. The winner was unanimous.

So who are our finalists? In one corner we have Alyssa and her Salted Oatmeal White Chocolate Cookies. In the other corner Tanya with her Brandied Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies. Yes, two cookies with white chocolate chips — kind of shocking. There were some other fascinating entries, but they had to be DQ’d for being bars, not cookies. Read the directions, people! (There was also an intriguing cookie sweetened with banana that I wanted to try, but the ingredients — almond meal, coconut oil — would have cost $17, which is entirely way too much for cookies, especially because I don’t know what else I’d do with almond meal and coconut oil).

Anyway, after the jump, check out pics of the cookies and learn who the winner will be!

First cookie up: the brandied cranberry white chocolate chip cookie. Here are the cranberries, ready for a brandy bath.

A little soaking action.

I let the cranberries soak for many hours — probably more than necessary.

Finally, it’s time to start the batter process. Here’s some butter and sugar, creamed to spectacular effect by my new hand mixer.

Enter the brown sugar.

And now two unassuming eggs and some vanilla extract.

BUT WHERE DID THE EGGS GO? Absorbed into the murky depths of the batter, that’s where.

The dry ingredients arrive: flour, baking soda, salt.

With spatula in hand, I form the unholy union of dry and wet.

Here come the white chocolate chips. Full disclosure: this is my least favorite type of chocolate. I’m semi-devastated that both cookie recipes feature it.

And now the brandied cranberries (as well as about a tablespoon of the brandy). Smells like a wino up in herre.

The colors are very festive.

The cookies go into the oven. I forgot to take a pic of them, but as consolation, here’s a blurry shot of the spatula.

Twelve minutes later, we have several lovely looking specimens.

Cookie spatula in action!

On to cookie number two. This time, we begin with the dry stuff. Flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt.

And here’s the wet bowl: butter, brown sugar, white sugar. I’m happy to report this cookie requires less butter than the last one.

Once again, my hand mixer creams like a BOSS.

Next, some vanilla extract and a solitary egg.

After mixing in the egg, I then begin incorporating the dry ingredients. Blah blah blah. You’ve all seen this before.

Now comes more white chocolate and oatmeal. Lots of it.

Batter of champions.

Nine perfectly scooped cookie balls, thanks to the cookie scoop that SpecialK bought for me. Thanks SpecialK!

Next, I flatten each mound into a disk and sprinkle each with sea salt. The cookies go into the oven for about thirteen minutes.

Voila!

The cookies cooling adjacent to the spatula. These bad boys were actually too big for the Good Cookie spatch; so I had to upgrade to my always-reliable Williams Sonoma spatula instead.

The Verdict:

Both cookies turned out very nicely. The brandied cranberry cookies had a perfect size, texture, and consistency for a non-oatmeal offering. Really spot on. Flavor-wise though, it was a solid triple, not a home run. While the brandied cranberries added a tangy, boozy kick, the white chocolate simply didn’t do the heavy lifting required to make this AWESOME. Semisweet chocolate chips would have added a layer of decadence that would have been so much more satisfying. Plus, as fellow tasters IndianJones and Sly noted, the batter could have used some orange zest as a counterpoint to the cranberries. Overall, this was a very good cookie, but none of us found ourselves clamoring for more and more.

As for the salted white chocolate oatmeal cookie, it too suffered from employing white chocolate. Why hold back with mere white chocolate? Dark chocolate would have sent this cookie through the stratosphere. Still, despite the white chocolate, this cookie was surprisingly addictive. I generally prefer non-oatmeal to oatmeal cookies, but this texture was sensational. Chewy, flaky, crispy, soft. It was like a tactile wonderland! Plus, the sea salt really helped give this cookie a unique flavor pow that more than compensated for the shortcomings of white chocolate. The proof is in the pudding: we all couldn’t stop quietly going in for more — often crumbling off small pieces of additional cookies as if we weren’t actually going to eat the whole thing (which we did).

Therefore, the winner of the spatula is Alyssa for her Salted Oatmeal White Chocolate Cookies! It really is a great recipe, and I can’t wait to make it again with semisweet chips. On the plus side, if you’re not a big chocolate fan, the white chocolate is a perfectly subtle flavor.

And by the way, don’t overlook the brandied cranberry cookie either. It was certainly VERY delicious too!

Great work everyone. Thanks for the submissions!!

Next week, I take on the cake contest. Feel free to submit your recipes here if you want to win a cookbook!