A chocolate chip cookie is a staple treat that is hard to mess up. Although they are hard to get wrong, perfecting one is a challenge. There are many factors that go into a perfect cookie: the proportion of chocolate to batter, the type of chocolate chips used, and the time in the oven. In order to find the “Best In Texas,” I have decided to try out cookies from Crumbl, Paradise, and the Dallas classic – JD’s Chippery.
Crumbl Cookies:
The first cookie I tried out was Crumbl. The Crumbl chocolate chip cookie was an overpowering, large cookie filled with milk chocolate chips. I have not been a fan of Crumbl’s cookie style before, and this one was no different. They purposely undercook their cookies, which causes a sticky, batter-like texture to occur. The cookie was extremely sweet, and there was no break in the chocolate flavor. Because of the unbalanced amount of chocolate, and the undercooked texture, I would give the Crumbl chocolate chip cookie a 5/10.
Cost: 5/10, efficiency 3/10, overall rating: 4/10
Paradise Bakery and Cafe:
Next up is Paradise Bakery and Cafe. Paradise is known for their famous chocolate chip cookies, and I had to consider them for the “Best In Texas” title. They were definitely a step up from the undercooked, overpriced cookies of Crumbl. They were smaller in size, which allowed for them to be a little crunchier, which I prefer. The proportion of sweetness to batter was also less overwhelming which allowed the flavors to be more pronounced and detectable. Because of the varying sizes and slight imperfections in shapes, the cookies were reminiscent of a homemade cookie, which is preferable again.
Cost:10/10, efficiency: 10/10, overall rating: 7/10
JD’s Chippery:
Finally, I tried a Southern Methodist University famous bakery, JD’s Chippery. Although this bakery is definitely a drive, as it is right across from the SMU Campus, the notoriety of this establishment was worthy of a trip. The selection of JD’s Chippery was limited, it was the basic flavors of chocolate chip, sprinkle, sugar and a couple others. Although the array of cookies wasn’t as gourmet as Crumbl or Paradise, since I was only there for their chocolate chip cookies, it was not a problem. They had two versions of chocolate chips: semi-sweet and milk chocolate. I prefer less sweet cookies, so my initial response was to just get the semi-sweet. I ended up getting both, so I could capture which one was better. Both cookies were a relatively small size, even smaller than the Paradise Cafe cookies. The chocolate was melted and extremely gooey, but the proportions were right in this cookie. They were small, and I could tell they were homemade. These cookies also had the right amount of crunch, and were perfectly cooked throughout the middle.
Cost: 8/10, efficiency: 10/10, overall rating: 9/10
All of these bakeries tried their own interpretation of the perfect chocolate cookie. The one that stood out to me the most and who I am awarding the title of “Best in Texas,” is JD’s Chippery. Although there are thousands of different chocolate chip cookies in Texas, and I could only try three, the crunchy, small sizes with the proportional amount of chocolate to batter made a great cookie.
