The Great Houston Cookie (C)rumble of 2015

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?

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).

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.