the cook stack

My ADHD brain strikes again!

First, I was trying to cook my way through two cookbooks this year.

Next, I was trying to decide what cookbooks from 2009 I should keep in my collection.

Now, I am testing two chocolate chip cookie recipes.

Hear me out.

My books from 2009 felt so … old? dated? un-inspiring? That’s not completely accurate, since they have so many wonderful recipes that taste just as good now as they did back then. But, in this human era of short attention spans and overconsumption, I gravitate towards the new and exciting (I’m working on this, okay!?). So, while I browsed my shelves for books from 2009, I stopped on the lone book I bought in 2025 – Sally’s Baking 101.

I decided to make the first recipe out of it to balance all the recipes I had been making from 2009 – something old, something new, right? Well, the very first recipe in the book is for “Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies.” Not exactly new and exciting, but the picture is gorgeous. Besides, I am a mom now – shouldn’t I have a delicious, warm chocolate chip cookie recipe in my back pocket that I can give to my kids on a plate with a glass of milk after a rough day at school?

I think so.

The problem is that ever since cooking the entire Dining In cookbook (how my ADHD brain accomplished that is the subject of this blog post), I have been extremely loyal to the “Salted Butter and Chocolate Chunk Shortbread, or Why Would I Make Another Chocolate Chip Cookie Ever Again?” recipe. It’s, simply, delicious.

So which recipe should I have in my back pocket for that I-need-a-chocolate-chip-cookie kind of day? It’s bake-off time.

The Ingredients and Preparation

Dining In

The cookie from Dining In has fewer ingredients in the dough – *salted* butter per the title, white sugar, brown sugar, vanilla extract, flour, and bittersweet chocolate. I used a 70% bittersweet chocolate baking bar from Central Market (their own brand, which I consider high quality). The cookies also have an egg wash, are rolled in demerara sugar, and topped with flaky salt. Overall, these cookies are expensive to make, especially since they contain two ingredients not usually stocked in my kitchen. I bought $9.68 worth of Kerrygold salted butter (two packages) and $9.98 worth of chocolate (also two packages). That’s $19.66 for cookies, yikes!

Compared to Sally’s version, the ingredient prep is also quite laborious. Cutting those chocolate bars into chunks takes a bit of time and hand power with my sharpest knife. The butter also has to be cut into tiny, half-inch chunks which of course greases up my knife, hands, and cutting board. Together, it’s a lot of chopping.

After the ingredients are prepared, the cookie dough comes together quickly in a stand mixer. First, the butter and sugar are creamed together. Second, the flour and chocolate are added. Lastly, the cookie dough is divided into two portions and rolled into logs wrapped in plastic wrap. This last step is not as messy as I feared. All the rolling is contained in the plastic wrap, so it does not get on the counter or hands.

The dough is refrigerated until firm, brushed with egg wash, rolled in sugar, sliced (you’ll need to get that sharp knife out again), and topped with flaky salt before baking.

All together, it’s a lot of work. I will note that I did not *think* it was a lot of work until I made Sally’s version, which is a two-bowl and no stand mixer affair. Alison Roman also does not provide weight measurements in her cookbook, so there are more dishes to do – every little measuring spoon and measuring cup must be washed. Sigh.

Sally’s Baking 101

The chewy chocolate chip cookies from Sally’s Baking 101 have a longer ingredient list, but they are all pantry staples. I only had to buy the chocolate chips. I went with Ghirardelli 60% bittersweet, which I ended up regretting. The chocolate tasted almost artificial compared to the baking bar I used before.

Because Sally provides weight measurements, most of these ingredients can be poured straight into their mixing bowls. Dry ingredients go in one big bowl, wet ingredients go in another, and then the bowl contents are mixed together. The chocolate chips are folded in, and the dough goes into the refrigerator to chill a bit.

The dough is then rolled into cylinders, a unique trick that Sally claims helps with cookie spread in the oven. I did encounter a problem while baking my first sheet pan worth of cookie dough. I put too many cookies on the sheet pan, and they all collided into each other as they spread. The tray ended up being one raw cookie dough blob that I threw away. My second batch was much better, and the cylinder trick worked to give perfectly round cookies. Next time, I would need three sheet pans to use up all the dough and have the cookies spaced far enough apart.

The Results (A Very Detailed Discussion of Chocolate Chip Cookies)

Below are the cookies on the cooling racks, ready for judgment by myself and my children. Spoiler alert: we had different preferences!

By appearance alone, I think the recipe from Sally’s Baking 101 produced more aesthetically pleasing cookies (although she does include a trick of pressing extra chocolate chips into the tops of just-baked, warm cookies). They were consistent in shape and size and just *look* like that perfect chocolate chip cookie. The cookies in Dining In are hard to make uniform. My cookie dough logs inevitably have thinner and thicker sections, and my slicing skills cannot make perfect half-inch slices.

The texture of the Dining In cookie is softer than expected based on how they feel and hold their shape in the hand. Sally’s cookies are very soft and truly chewy. They break and tear easily and melt in the hand.

The taste of the Dining In cookie is far more complex. There are crunchy Demarara sugar edges, the taste of flaky salt (which is easy to overdo), the large and small chocolate chunks, and of course the buttery shortbread. They almost risk having too much going on, but fortunately have just enough to be balanced interesting instead of crazy and overwhelming. These are a cookie that makes you need just one more to figure out all the nuanced flavors. I think these cookies stand alone as a dessert, with a cup of coffee or a glass of wine. They are grown-up cookies.

The cookies from Sally’s Baking 101 are also very good. They are very, very sweet and very, very chewy. They have less chocolate than the Dining In version, so some bites are filled with the taste of brown-sugary, caramel-like cookie and other bites are chocolate explosions. These are the kind of chocolate chip cookies I would want in a brown paper lunch bag, to go with a turkey sandwich and an apple. They are kid cookies and an extremely good version of classic.

Unsurprisingly, I preferred the Dining In cookies, and my kids preferred Sally’s Baking 101. But, I do feel both cookies have a place in my cookie repertoire depending on the audience.

Millennial foodies playing mahjong? Dining In

After school playdates? Sally’s Baking 101

Some Final Thoughts and What I Learned:

My kids declared Sally’s Baking 101 “a winner”, and I have no objections to making them again. Especially because of their relative ease to prepare, these will likely be my go-to cookies for a while. Honestly, both cookies are extremely good and have unique strengths.

I did, however, reaffirm my preference for chocolate chunks in my cookies, rather than chocolate chips. I think the chocolate quality is better, and the shape is pleasant in my mouth.

So, in my recipe notes for my cook stack, I would make Sally’s “Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies” with an equal weight of chopped chocolate chunks instead of chips. I think the extra work is worth it for my own personal tastes, and I do not think my kids would object – a happy compromise!

The Winner: Sally’s Baking 101 “Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies”, with a modification

I hope you enjoyed this bake off! I sure did!