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The Pancake Princess

The Pancake Princess

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The Great Houston Cookie (C)rumble of 2015

by erika 14 Comments

What do you get when you add a large group of food enthusiasts + a love of chocolate chip cookies + a universal penchant for over-the-top events?

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The Great Houston Cookie C(Rumble) of 2015
Left: Lisa, the loveliest Aussie you will ever meet and insanely talented custom cake-baker. Right: Isabel, Tastemade goddess and fellow Urban Swank blogger.

The Great Cookie C(R)umble // The Pancake Princess

 

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Left: The lovely and talented Jenna of Starving Foodist. Right: Jared and Ashley, the crazy-talented duo behind Sugar & Cloth.


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The Great Houston Cookie C(Rumble) of 2015
Left: Abby, model and triathlete of ShopGirl Blog.

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The Great Houston Cookie C(Rumble) of 2015
Left: Megha, the gorgeous writer and photo snapper at Houstonia and Hot Pink Houston with Julie, the super sassy social media mastermind behind Aces of Taste. Right: Morgan, the entrepreneurial superstar at The Foodie Chef.

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The Great Houston Cookie C(Rumble) of 2015
From left to right: coordinating superstar Erin of Tidbits, Claire, amazing co-founder of the Houston Food Blogger Collective and blogger at The Petite Professional, and nutrition superstar Lauren of How to Eat, R.D.

 

Left: Kim of Adventures in a Newish City.
Left: The bubbly and all-around wonderful Kim of Adventures in a Newish City.

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The Great Cookie C(Rumble) of 2015 to find Houston’s best chocolate chip cookie! Like cookie RUMBLE?! Cookie crumble? I wish I could take credit for that, but alas. That was all Jenna, I think.)

Which essentially means a bunch of awesome blogger friends got together at Ashley’s light-filled studio one Sunday afternoon to do a blind taste testing of a CRAPton of cookies from around Houston to find the Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie.

It was as epic as it sounds.

We started by compiling an extensive list of nominations of Houston establishments likely to have a promising chocolate chip cookie. We were very lucky to receive generous donations from many of the bakeries and after picking up dozens of cookies, we converged for the sampling. Each cookie was rated for taste (on a scale of 1-10) and appearance, texture and chocolate (all on a scale of 1-5). At the end of the tasting, all individual scores were combined for the final overall rankings.

If there was one underlying theme we all took from the event, it’s this: there is a HUGE diversity of chocolate chip cookies in Houston. Ultimately, we did come up with a ranking of all the cookies that we tasted, but after the top, say, 5, there entered a level of subjectivity that I believe can’t be fairly quantified to all palates. A.k.a to each his own. Just because a cookie was ranked #15 over #7 doesn’t mean I wouldn’t choose it in a heartbeat over another if I was in a doughy, gooey cookie mood over a crunchy-edged, salty cookie, you know?

I can honestly say 98% of these cookies are worth every buttery-tasting calorie. Whether you live in Houston or will visit at any point, GET TO THESE BAKERIES! And if you think we missed a spot, let me know!

Okay here’s the list:

TOP FIVE:

1 // Tiny Boxwood’s
2 // Common Bond
3 // Michael’s Cookie Jar
4 // Brown Bag Deli
5 // Red Dessert Dive

ALL THE OTHER UNIQUELY DELICIOUS COOKIES:

6 // Barnaby’s
7 // The Chocolate Bar
8 // Ooh La La
9 // Fluff Bake Bar
10 // Tout Suite

11 // Weights + Measures
12 // Smoosh
13 // French Gourmet Bakery
14 // Siphon Coffee
15 // Tiff’s Treats

16 // Revival Market
17 // Pondicheri
18 // NY Bagel
19 // Petite Sweets
20 // Mongoose vs. Cobra

(Photos + descriptions of all the cookies will be in an upcoming post on the Houston Press.)

As you’ve probably noticed, this is a departure from my normal recipe posts. I thought it would be fun to share these scenes and how blogging has parlayed itself into my social life/real life. It was a complete blast hanging out with so many completely sugar- and fun-loving ladies, many of whom belong to the Houston Food Blogger Collective (which just launched in January!). If any of you blogger readers live in a city without a blogger collective, can I recommend starting one? Connecting with all of the interesting, intelligent, fun people who belong to this group completely made my summer, and made my love for Houston reach greater heights than I would have ever imagined.

In other news, it took a shockingly short period of time before the sugar rush kicked in and we all felt like we were dying from cookie over-consumption, and so our cookie extravaganza ended with a cookie photoshoot on the floor (of course).

The Great Houston Cookie C(Rumble) of 2015The Great Houston Cookie C(Rumble) of 2015


The Great Houston Cookie C(Rumble) of 2015The Great Houston Cookie C(Rumble) of 2015

For more cookie shenanigans,  search #cookiecrumblehtx on Instagram!

Repurpose kindly sent me some of their sustainable tableware to try out (pictured in above photos) and it was awesome! Through their exclusively plant-made, 100% compostable products, they aim to reduce the amount of plastics in the environment, which I whole-heartedly support. I loved the durability and high-quality feel to their plates, cups and cutlery.

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  1. laurasmess

    September 1, 2015 at 4:44 am

    Love this post. Ha! So awesome! Man, I think I would have totally lost my objectivity/taste buds after all those cookies. There are SO MANY (even AFTER the tasting!). Love the fact that you all got an opportunity to meet up and hang out though. I love meeting other bloggers, it’s so much fun to already have a ‘starting point’ in your friendship through both food and online communication. Great post (the light in these shots is gorgeous!) xxx

    Reply
    • erika

      September 1, 2015 at 8:38 pm

      Haha tasting all of them definitely diminished a bit of the joy that you would feel in eating just one. Wish you could have joined us, lovely! Thanks so much for the kind words, as always <3

      Reply
  2. Kristi @ My SF Kitchen

    August 28, 2015 at 11:15 pm

    OMG this looks like so much fun!!

    Reply
  3. Erica

    August 28, 2015 at 10:59 am

    OMG I love this!! And the lighting is so beautiful in all of these cookie party photos. SUCH a brilliant idea, might be bringing this idea to Indianapolis in the future 🙂

    Reply
  4. Kayle (The Cooking Actress)

    August 27, 2015 at 8:04 am

    LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! omg that’s so fun!

    Reply
  5. Alanna

    August 27, 2015 at 1:06 am

    I love everything about this!

    Reply
  6. Katrina @ Warm Vanilla Sugar

    August 26, 2015 at 1:48 pm

    I love absolutely everything about this post! That looks like the BEST time!

    Reply
  7. Morgan

    August 26, 2015 at 11:16 am

    Beautiful post, Erika! Very well said 🙂

    Reply
  8. Karen

    August 26, 2015 at 10:26 am

    I KNEW TINY BOXWOODS WOULD WIN. BEST COOKIE EVER.

    P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY <333

    Reply
  9. Michelle @ Hummingbird High

    August 26, 2015 at 9:40 am

    I love this. I’ve always wanted to do a bakeoff between all the famous chocolate chip cookie recipes! I just haven’t had the time yet.

    PS – know anywhere to get good chocolate chip cookies in SF? This city does not seem to have any!!!

    Reply
  10. Katie (The Muffin Myth)

    August 26, 2015 at 9:30 am

    This is amazing! I’m going to have to go home and make batch of chocolate chunk (since I live in a chipless land) cookies RIGHT NOW!!!

    Reply
  11. Kim @ Adventures in a New(ish) City

    August 26, 2015 at 8:57 am

    Best day of my life? Best day of my life. Thanks for sharing Erika – It’s been so awesome getting to be real-life friends with you this summer! 😉

    Reply
  12. Kathryn

    August 26, 2015 at 7:40 am

    Oh wow, this looks like a crazy amount of fun. Chocolate chip cookies are my absolute weakness so the idea of spending a day doing nothing more than eating + judging them sounds pretty much like my idea of heaven.

    Reply

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Best lemon poppy seed muffin bake off is live!! Li Best lemon poppy seed muffin bake off is live!! Link in profile and tap the photo to see all the participating recipes/bloggers 🎊🎊

I always love to hear your guesses—based on looks alone, who do you think won?! 

And excitingly there is a bonus recipe at the end! I love lemon poppy so much that when a certain blogger I love (ahem @ful.filled) reached out with her intriguing looking recipe after the fact, I immediately tried it and reported my thoughts at the end of the post 💕
#pancakeprincessbakeoff #muffins #lemonpoppyseed #bakeoff
New year, new profile pic surrounded by cookies ✨

For those of you who like to plan, here’s a very tentative guide to what I’m envisioning for this year’s bake offs (if the world doesn’t blow up). Thank you, as always, for your constant enthusiasm and support for the bake offs! 💕💕💕 

🍪Jan: lemon poppy muffins, Levain choc/pb cookies?
🍪 Feb: cream cheese kolaches, loft house copycat cookies, flourless chocolate cake?
🍪 March: carrot cake
🍪 April: liege waffles??
🍪 May: tres leches
🍪 June: key lime pie 
🍪 July: tiramisu
🍪 August: oatmeal cookies
🍪 Sept: doughnuts 
🍪 Oct: shortbread?
🍪 Nov: Mac n cheese 
🍪 Dec: ginger molasses or chocolate crinkle cookies

Photo credit: @juliejulez.jpg 👹💕
{HOUSTON GIVEAWAY} Hi friends! If you’ve been f {HOUSTON GIVEAWAY}

Hi friends! If you’ve been following me for a little bit, hopefully you know how obsessed I am with @happyearthcompost and their mission to make composting more accessible and easy for the Houston community! Here is just a sneak peek of all the eggshells and lemon peels from the lemon poppy seed muffin bake off that are going straight into my Happy Earth compost bucket instead of the trash 🎊

I’m thrilled to be partnering with @happyearthcompost to do a giveaway for one lucky winner! Here are the deets:

🌱 you will win 2 free months of monthly pick ups from @happyearthcompost! You’ll get a little counter top bin (pictured here) and a larger bucket to keep outside (in the second pic)
🌱 must be located in Houston or Bryan/College Station to win
🌱 to enter, just make sure you’re following me and @happyearthcompost and tag a friend in the comments! Each comment is a separate entry
🌱 giveaway will close this Saturday (1/16) at midnight! GOOD LUCK!!!
Thankful for another year of bake offs with you gu Thankful for another year of bake offs with you guys! Loving the appreciation for the coffee cake, blueberry muffin, pecan pie, gingerbread and Levain cookie bake offs (more Levain to come in 2021 hopefully!) 🎊💕

While on vacation, I’ve scraped a lot of recipes for future bake offs (thanks to your help) and I feel refreshed and ready to get back to baking ASAP! On the list for 2021 bake offs: carrot cake, oatmeal cookies, copycat lofthouse cookies, Levain chocolate pb cookies, shortbread, lemon poppyseed muffins, etc. Let me know if there’s anything else you’re dying to see in the comments!

THANK YOU for all of your support, your kind comments, your reviewing of different recipes and your spreading of joy through baked goods this past year. Thanks to my tasters for their critical tasting and hilarious comments. Can’t wait to do it all over again next year 💕
Gingerbread bake off is up! Commence all the ginge Gingerbread bake off is up! Commence all the gingerbread baking!! 🎄🎄🎄

Tap the pic to see all participating recipes and tell me which one looks the best or which recipes you’re most excited to try!! You really can’t go wrong with any of them 🎊🎊🎊 and if you’re planning on baking any other holiday cookies this weekend, gimme the deets on what you’re making! I need more inspo for my cookie boxes 🍪🍪🍪 #pancakeprincessbakeoff
@THEPANCAKEPRINCESS

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