When it's time to make chocolate chip cookies, what ingredients do you aim for? Chocolate piecessugar, eggs, flour, and of course, butter, an ingredient most bakers consider essential to cookies. But butter isn't the only option when it comes to choosing which fat to use in your chocolate chip cookies. Get some of our favorite cookie recipes: They use Pruning, olive oilor a couple combination of fats.
Photography by Mark Weinberg; food styling by Liz Neily
There is even variability among butter-based recipes: room temperature, meltedAND fried butter they are all called occasionally. Which got me wondering: How would all these different fats affect me? Recipe for chocolate chip cookies? Are these ingredients interchangeable in a recipe, or will the results be completely different? What are the pros and cons of each fat choice?
I did some testing to find out.
Setting the scene
To make sure all the fats had a fair chance to show what they could bring to the chocolate chip cookies, I started with Basic chocolate chip cookies recipe and made only one change in each batch: fat, replaced by volume.
Lineup of contenders:
In all tests, I let the shortbread cookies cool for 30 minutes before baking to make sure the softer doughs had a chance to firm up and hold their shape when baked. I also omitted the 2 tablespoons of milk called for in the recipe (for the cake cookies) in each test batch. And finally, all cookies were baked at 375°F for about 12 minutes in the same oven in the same pan to keep variables limited. This is cookie science, after all!
Photography by Rick Holbrook; Food Styling by Kye Ameden
Chocolate chip cookie testing
After making five test batches of chocolate chip cookie dough and comparing the unbaked and baked results, here's what I found, in order of least enjoyable cookie:
Cookie Fat #1: Room temperature butter
The most common fat called for in chocolate chip cookie recipes is room temperature butter, and for good reason! It gave the best results in terms of appearance, texture and taste.
Why does butter make the best cookies? It contains about 18% water, which results in the perfect amount of spread: cookies that aren't too long or too flat. Butter also contains natural milk sugars in the form of lactose. These sugars caramelize during baking, which gives great flavor and aids in browning.
Photography by Rick Holbrook; Food Styling by Kye Ameden
Results:
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Appearance and texture: golden brown, slightly crispy edges with lighter, softer centers. The cookies were slightly crumbly with a slight degree of chewiness.
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Taste: Buttery (not surprisingly!) with flavor notes of toasted milk solids; not too sweet.
The pros: Butter at room temperature imparts the buttery, nostalgic flavor of classic chocolate chip cookies and creates a variety of textures that can please both crunchy and soft dessert lovers.
Disadvantages: It takes time to bring the butter to room temperature, so you need to plan ahead.
Cookie Fat #2: Browned Butter
Coffee butter is an example of the use of Maillard reaction to give even more taste. When butter is cooked at low heat, approximately 18% of the water content disappears through evaporation. At that point, the milk solids begin to brown (or “brown”) taking on a deeper, more complex flavor.
For this test, I used a combination of semi-browned butter (made using our Standard brown butter technique), then I added an equal amount of cold, unsalted butter to help cool the mixture to room temperature. (It has a semi-set consistency as the cold butter is combined with the hot butter.) I expected these cookies to look more like the butter-based batch at room temperature, but with a more complex flavor thanks to the addition of brown butter. .
Photography by Rick Holbrook; Food Styling by Kye Ameden
Results:
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Appearance and texture: golden brown evenly from edge to center; these cookies spread the least. The texture was pleasantly soft with only the edges having a bit of a scratch to them.
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Taste: Rich and nutty; the other flavors present in the cookies (sweetness, saltiness, bitterness) tasted better than in the other versions. This was the winner in the taste category for me!
The pros: The toasty aroma and deep flavors that brown butter imparts are unmatched by any other fat that has been tested.
Disadvantages: It takes time to brown the butter beforehand and also to let it cool to room temperature before using it. The cookies don't spread much or gain much variability in texture from the edges to the center. (This can be easily remedied by adding about 2 tbsp of water or milk to the batter at the end of the mixing – my plan for future batches!)
Cookie Fat #3: Shortening
Shortening has a consistency similar to room temperature butter, although it has a higher melting point. (Shortening melts at about 117°F to 119°F, compared to butter's lower range of 90°F to 95°F.) Knowing this, I predicted that cookies made with shortening would spread less. than butter cookies.
Photography by Rick Holbrook; Food Styling by Kye Ameden
Results:
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Appearance and Texture: Slightly pale in color with a jagged/cracked top, matte. The cookies were soft and fluffy; almost a melt in your mouth texture.
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Taste: The shortening added a neutral taste that wasn't exciting; the flavor was not as rich or satisfying as the butter-based cookies.
The pros: Shortening is a pantry staple that's easy to keep on hand and you don't have to wait for it to come to room temperature. Depending on the brand, it tends to be less expensive than other greases that have been tested. Plus, it contains no dairy ingredients, so it's allergen-friendly.
Disadvantages: You lose the rich buttery flavor that is present in butter-based cookies.
Cookie Fat #4: Olive Oil
Olive oil was the only fat I tested that was liquid at room temperature, which led me to believe that cookies made with olive oil would spread more and probably look and taste greasy. I chose extra virgin olive oil (instead of extra virgin or plain vegetable oil) because of its mild but slightly fruity aroma. (Extra virgin olive oil is unrefined and may have a distinct olive flavor.)
Photography by Rick Holbrook; Food Styling by Kye Ameden
Results:
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Appearance and texture: Bright, cracked top crust with the most spread of any test. The cookies were slightly crunchy and uniform in texture from edge to edge. Despite looking very appealing, this batch did not provide the chewiness I was looking for in chocolate chip cookies.
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Taste: Taste slightly sweeter and more floral than other tests with a subtle aftertaste of olive oil.
The pros: The cracked look that olive oil gives is unique and attractive. There is the possibility to experiment with different types of olive oil (virgin and extra virgin, as well as infused olive oil) to create a personalized taste. It is also dairy free.
Disadvantages: Soft dough does not hold its shape until chilled, so waiting at least 30 minutes before kneading is a must.
Cookie Fat #5: Coconut Oil
Unlike most oils, coconut oil is stable at room temperature. Its melting point is 78°F, so it doesn't take much heat to soften and become more runny in consistency. Depending on the type of coconut oil used, it can have a strong coconut flavor and aroma (unrefined, “virgin” coconut oil) or be relatively neutral (refined coconut oil, which is more processed and removes most of the coconut flavor).
Photography by Rick Holbrook; Food Styling by Kye Ameden
Results:
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Appearance and texture: Many small surface cracks with a matte finish; low amount of spread. The cookies were tart in the center with crispier edges; slightly dry texture overall.
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Flavor: The cookies had a slightly sour and bitter flavor that came through at the end. I saw this as wrong, but it could just be the type of coconut oil I used for this test.
The pros: Coconut oil can be creamed like butter and shortened to create a light, fluffy base because it is solid at room temperature. It can add a subtle, nice coconut flavor as an extra flavor note to cookies, as long as you find coconut oil that tastes good to you.
Disadvantages: Coconut oil varies in taste and can taste soapy; it also goes bad more easily than other types of fat.
A final note
While this chocolate chip cookie test found that fats can sometimes be successfully substituted for each other, you should expect changes in the final appearance, texture, and/or taste of your cookies.
Photography by Rick Holbrook; Food Styling by Kye Ameden
Bakers create recipes with specific ingredients in mind and consider their properties and characteristics during development. For best results, start by following the recipe as written and then explore using other fats in your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipes to eventually end up with the best combination of flavor and texture for your palate.
What do you look for in the best chocolate chip cookies? Crispy edges? Soft centers? Too much chocolate? Tell us in the comments below.
For more side-by-side comparisons and deep kitchen dives, check out our full series Baking proof posts.
