Remember our Chocolate Chip Cookie Reinvention Contest? We invited you to take your best shot at reinventing the classic chocolate chip cookie. The response was amazing. Recipes poured in from across the country and there was no lack of imagination when it came to ingredients! My sincere thanks goes out to all of you who shared your recipes—they were delicious and the judging process was not easy. (Okay, okay, eating delicious cookies was easy, but judging them was not.) The recipes from our finalists were prepared, taste tested, and voted on by a group of judges who really know their cookies—that's right, Mrs. Fields employees. Take a look at these snapshots from the taste test.
The competition was extremely stiff, but a clear winner rose above the others. May I have a drumroll, please? The winner of the Mrs. Fields Chocolate Chip Cookie Reinvention Contest is Jamie Jones for her Chippy Chunks & Orange Cookies! Congratulations to Jamie, who has won $250, plus our grand bakeware package and endless bragging rights!
Jamie's cookies are flavorful, chewy, and rich. The unexpected zing from the orange makes you do a double-take of pure delight. And the pairing of fresh orange zest with chocolate chunks is a perfect balance of absolute yum. In short, these are a great reinvention of a classic chocolate chip cookie.
As mentioned, the competition was extremely intense, so a well-deserved congratulations goes out to our four runners-up, winners of our bakeware packages:
Amy Siegel's Macadamia-Cherry Chocolate Chunk Cookies Deborah Puette's Cherry Covered Chocolate Cookies Emily Hobbs' Spumoni Chocolate Chip Cookies Karly Campbell's Chocolate Covered Pretzel Cookies (Stay tuned, we'll be sharing these recipes with you in the coming weeks.) So what exactly does the best reinvention of the chocolate chip cookie taste like? Why don't you try it and see? Chippy Chunks & Orange Cookies from Jamie Jones 1 cup butter flavored shortening ¾ cup firmly packed light brown sugar ¼ cup sugar 1 egg 1 ½ teaspoon orange extract 2 cups all purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 dash salt 1 cup semisweet chocolate chunks 1 zest of a small orange Directions Preheat oven 350 degrees F. In a large bowl cream shortening, and both sugars using an electric mixer on medium speed. Mix in egg and extract. In a separate medium bowl sift flour, soda and salt together. Gradually add mixture to creamed mixture on low speed until well blended. Stir in chocolate chunks and orange zest. Shape dough into 1 ½ inch balls. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheet. Bake 14 minutes or until bottoms are light brown and cookies are set. Allow to cool on baking sheet 3 minutes before removing to a cooling rack. Makes 2 dozen cookies.
Jamie Jones is from Madison, Georgia, and enjoys cooking and baking to relieve stress from a busy day at work.