Author: Kelly Janis
The thick, warm chocolate. The soft, yielding dough. Ah, chocolate chip cookies. As any junk food connoisseur knows, these delightful morsels are most certainly not created equal. Some are endowed by their creator with some extra oomph - a little more oozing chocolate here, a little more scrumptious dough there. Naturally, with an eye to this reality, one must be more than a bit discerning about her indulgence of choice. But, with so many options, what is a Midd Kid with an aching sweet tooth to do? Never fear. In the interest of quelling dessert indecision and expediting the freshman 15, The Campus scoured the streets of Middlebury in pursuit of the chocolate chip creation to trump all others. Here is how the cookie crumbled.
Middlebury Market & Café
54 College Street
Price: $1.64
Rank: 3
Chef and owner Usamah Hayyat, who conceived of the cookie's recipe in conjunction with co-worker Mo O'Keefe, is quick to sing praises of his chocolate creation.
"It's not overcooked," he explained. "It's soft and chewy and has a doughy center. It's not crispy, it's not falling apart. It has a good flavor." The Market & Café treat avails itself of Hershey's chocolate chips and uses unsalted butter. "Most people," Hayyat said, "use salted butter." This cookie, he implied, should thus stand out, unique from the fray.
Though the cookie was a bit pricier than some of its counterparts in town, its thickness and the brawniness of the chocolate chips that were liberally dotted throughout the cookie made it well worth the cost. The bottom was dark brown, calling into question Hayyat's assertion that the baked goods were not overcooked. Its bulkiness and resultant resistance to being broken into manageable pieces made it a bit difficult to handle, but it was admittedly satisfying. This cookie seems to be for the ravenously hungry snacker who is not the least bit tentative about their cookie consumption. It is big, bold and filling.
Carol's Hungry Mind Café
24 Merchant's Row
Rank: 4
Carol's Hungry Mind Café is usually abuzz with excitable, heavily caffeinated customers and boasts a warm ambience and a menu brimming with a wide assortment of goodies. But, wait! Something was missing. Where were the staple chocolate chip cookies?
"They're so good, they're gone!" a clerk named Claire said and explained that a fresh, warm batch would emerge from the oven some time late the next morning.
When asked to describe the morsel, she did so with a nostalgic smile. "It's a little crunchy. Crusty on the edges, moist on the inside and loaded with chocolate," she paused, intoxicated by her recollection. "I love cookies like that."
The cookie no doubt sounds appealing. But, if it's unavailable to satisfy a late-afternoon chocolate craving, I can't help but question its ability to stand up to the competition.
Dunkin' Donuts
16 Court Street
Price: $.59
Rank: 2 (tie)
Dunkin' Donuts, nestled in the corner of an Exxon gas station across from Mary Hogan Elementary School, has dubbed its fresh-baked cookies "coffee's new entourage." The restaurant's website goes so far as to insist that they are "delicious, satisfying and irresistible!" - a formidable claim to live up to, indeed.
Dunkin' Donuts' chocolate chunk cookie certainly stands its ground. It is firm, perfectly round and imbued with some serious chocolate. Unfortunately, however, it soberly reminds diners that, it is possible to have too much of a good thing. Eating a Dunkin' Donuts chocolate chip cookie is like inhaling a box of chocolates. The hardcore chocolate lover may not bat an eye at this notion. But for those seeking the delicate balance between chocolate and dough, which characterizes a true chocolate chip cookie, look elsewhere.
Subway
40 Court Street
Price: $.49
Rank: 2 (tie)
Upon bounding through Subway's doors one finds a glass container that displays a modest selection of cookies. Unfortunately, the slot labeled "chocolate chip" was conspicuously empty. Employee Kim Fallon said that they had just run out of chocolate chip cookies but offered some chocolate M&M cookies as a substitute.
Hmm. Would the infusion of these chocolate-coated candies be considered cheating? After learning about The Campus' quest for the perfect cookies, Fallon said, "I hate cookies, so I wouldn't be the one to ask."
Behind Fallon, fellow employee Jennifer Sheldon smirked as she munched on what she confessed was her third cookie of the day. "They're soft, they're nice, I like them," she said,
Fallon and Sheldon were curious about what other establishments offered chocolate chip cookies. When "Dunkin' Donuts" was mentioned, the duo seemed horrified. "Dunkin' Donuts sells cookies?" Sheldon asked, incredulous.
A Hefty Ziplock bag containing the specimen was produced.
After eyeing it suspiciously, Fallon advised, "I wouldn't eat that."
"Everything there consists of nothing but sweets. Sugar, sugar, sugar," added Sheldon.
Though the staff was lively and amusing, the tasting had to continue with the purchase of a chocolate chip M&M cookie which, in its scarcity of M&Ms, would appear to the untrained eye to be a regular ol' chocolate chip cookie anyway.
Fortunately for cookie lovers, in spite of Subway's commitment to fresh, nutritious offerings, the restaurant's cookies do, indeed, pay their proper respects to the gods of sugar and empty calories. Truth be told, however, the cookie was neither overwhelming nor particularly impressive. It was thin, the chocolate was bland and indistinct and the baked good sort of smelled like a turkey sub, which was a little awkward. So, a thumbs down to the cookie itself, but two thumbs up to the establishment's lack of inhibition in shamelessly bashing its competitors and its closing proclamation that it "loves college students."
Otter Creek Bakery
14 College Street
Price: $1.50
Rank: 1
Otter Creek Bakery, "a small European-style bakery/deli offering a full line of gourmet foods made on the premises," offers a dizzying selection of diverse and eclectic baked goods, but not at the exclusion of the classic chocolate chip cookie.
"It contains all natural ingredients," bakery clerk Tammy Ifflin said. "We don't use any shortening, only real butter. It's baked here and served fresh everyday."
Otter Creek's chocolate chip cookie is a delight to all of the senses. With its ideal thickness and golden color, it is pleasing to the eye. It smells deliciously home-baked and quintessentially bakery-fresh, all at once. It possesses a certain gritty, distinctive texture. And, most importantly, it scores high on the taste-o-meter. In the spirit of being a critic and therefore offering up some obligatory criticism of the otherwise masterpiece-esque representation of a chocolate chip cookie, it would be the fashion in which the sweetness of the chocolate is sometimes overshadowed by the unusual sweetness of the dough in which it is imbedded. But, this rather minor gripe is not sufficient to eject Otter Creek Bakery's creation from its preeminent position on the throne of Middlebury's finest baked goods.
So there you have it. After much searching and agonizing and mouth-watering and stomach clutching with the ambivalent pangs of enough sugar to kill a cow, the ruling has been made: Otter Creek is king. If you're looking for the ooey-gooey goodness of chocolate chip glory, look no further than these masters of everything devilishly delicious.
Now, where can I get a glass of milk?
Otter Creek Crumbles Cookie Competition One brave Campus writer struggles to define delicious
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