How to: oven temperature cookie bake test

Chocolate chip cookies are one of the simplest and most enjoyable desserts to make. I now have a favorite go-to sea salt dark chocolate chip cookie recipe that is pretty much fail-proof. I use whatever brown sugar I have in the kitchen (light or dark), use butter that maybe isn’t quite room temperature, and never chill the dough because I am impatient and want cookies right now. Despite this abuse, the cookies always come out great. But with my new apartment’s oven, I was worried that my fail-proof recipe could suffer from uneven baking temperatures, and my cookies would come out as half-burnt, half-raw crisps. So, I decided to do a little test.

Test goals:

1. Determine bake time needed for cookies. My old oven required 11 min.
2. Determine best shelf for baking cookies on (top or bottom).

Test parameters:

• Same batch of cookie dough (recipe link here!) split into 3 batches at 350 degrees
• I used same pan for each batch and covered the pan with an aluminum foil misted with cooking spray. I made sure to cool the pan between batches.
• Each cookie ball was 2 tablespoons big
• Batch 1: Placed on the bottom rack of my oven for 11 min initial time + 2 min of additional time
• Batch 2: Placed on the top rack of my oven for 13 min + 1 min of additional time
• Batch 3: Placed on bottom rack for 7 min and top rack for 8 min

Honestly, this is very bad a/b testing because I am changing multiple variables at once. But it was still informative and will help guide my cooking baking in the future.

Results:

• Batch 1: Turned out too soft after the initial 11 min and were still not quite cooked through after the additional 2 min. The bottom edges were quite browned but the top was not browned at all.
• Batch 2: Turned out soft but cooked through. Edges of top were lightly browned.
• Batch 3: Turned out a little more crumbly and cakey and both bottom and top were lightly browned.

Takeaways:

1. Base cookie baking time needed is 14 min
2. Neither shelf is ideal, but top shelf will prevent over browning of bottom. If I were feeling ambitious, I would start on the bottom shelf and bake for 9 min, then switch to top shelf for remaining 5.

I’m planning a cookie baking fest next week (imagine hundreds of holiday cookies being rolled out all day) and definitely will bake my go-to sea salt dark chocolate chip cookie. Now I can be fairly confident that they will be cooked through and just the right amount of done 🙂 Nothing is better during the winter than a hot cup of tea and a warm, perfectly-baked chocolate chip cookie!