Quest for the Best

I love love love cookies.  More than any normal person should.  I remember going to friends' houses and they would have cookies and they would ask if I would like one.  In my head I would be thinking, "ONE?  Do most people only eat one cookie at a time?"  A nice half dozen always sounds like a good number to me.

I am always on the hunt for the best chocolate chip cookie recipe and I've always thought it would be fun to have a bake off.  It was actually on my bucket list for last year, but never accomplished.  This year I had to check it off.  On May 15th, which happens to be National Chocolate Chip day, I hosted a little bake-off of my own with 12 very bakery-minded friends (this is my sneaky way of getting free chocolate chip cookies).  I had so much fun shopping for prizes and my sister made really cute printables for me (if you ever want to host your own -- let me know!).

Everyone brought their best recipe and I placed them on the judging table.  Then we all went around with our little knives and glasses and milk and went to town.  Can I just tell you that even a small portion of 12 different chocolate chip cookies is still a lot of cookie.  Especially when you had to go back to taste test again to decide between a few cookies.  It was hard work, but somebody had to do it.

 I didn't end up taking too many pictures because for the most part my house looked like this:

And that doesn't even begin to cover all the little mini judges running around (although they seemed to not care which cookie it was, as long as it was a cookie).

We had two categories: traditional chocolate chip cookies and non-traditional (you know, the ones with oatmeal/nuts/cocoa powder. . .).  Ironically in the end the winners for both categories happened to be recipes I already used as my "best."

 Rickie, our GRAND PRIZE winner, whose cookie recipe is loved by pretty much everyone in our group.  Although, I did come up with a few more recipes that I really liked.  Can you have too many chocolate chip cookie recipes?

I was so sick when it was over, but somehow this did not stop me from snacking on all the cookies people left at my house for the rest of the day.

I made up a little quiz for the party, but I never got around to giving it because we were all so busy chatting, so here it is.  See how much you know (answers in the comment section).

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE QUIZ

1. 2 states have chocolate chip cookies as their official state cookie.  Name one.

2. Where did the Toll House name come from?

The chef who invented the cookie.

The inn where the cookie was created.

The company that first published the recipe.

3. Which hotel gives out approximately 29,000 chocolate chip cookies each day?

4. What company bought the original chocolate chip cookie recipe?

5. What was the first chocolate chip cookie called?

It's always been called the Chocolate Chip Cookie

Chocolate Crunch Cookie
Butter Drop Cookies with Chocolate Chunks

6. T OR F
One day the inventor had to substitute semi-sweet chocolate for baker's chocolate in a cookie recipe. She chopped the chocolate in bits, but when she took the cookies from the oven, the semi-sweet chocolate had not melted into the dough as the baker's chocolate had.

7. Within 20 calories, how many calories are in a classic Nestle Tollhouse recipe chocolate chip cookie?
8. The inventor of the chocolate chip cookie received:

	$10
	$100
	Nothing
	Free Nestle chocolate for life

9. Which store is featured in an urban legend about a $250 chocolate chip cookie

10. On a list of The top 10 selling commercial cookies in the U.S. -- what number is the Nabisco Chips Ahoy Chocolate chip cookie?