The world is an imperfect place. It requires revolutionaries, visionaries, and game changers. It requires rabble rousers and protesters. It requires you to be resilient. But sometimes you can’t fight. Sometimes you need to back off.
Sometimes you need a cookie. A sugar bomb of perfection — gooey, crunchy, and lush. Comforting and sure to smack that big old bull’s eye of nostalgia. We all have our favorites, from that one coffee shop we always go to or the jar grandma keeps filled on her kitchen counter. You can probably feel the bite right now as you’re reading this. That butter and sugar melding into a perfect morsel, the bite of some chocolate chips or the smoothness of baked peanut butter rolling over your tongue and piquing your senses. Butter + sugar + flour + a little something extra = yes, more please.
So which cookie is the absolute best? It’s probably a fool’s errand to ask that. But that’s why we’re here. To ask the hard hitting questions and put our feelings and beliefs to the test — even when it comes to something as simple and delicious as cookies. Can you beat a peanut butter cookie? Or does replacing chocolate chips with M&M’s take the cake?
Let’s dig in and throw down some opinions about cookies. Get those glasses of milk ready.
10. Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
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What sort of monster would put raisins into a perfectly good oatmeal cookie when chocolate chips exist? Oatmeal cookies are a hefty proposition. Those oats cling to the sugar making these cookies formidable and delicious. The oats add a bit of balance and soak that sugar up so it’s never too sweet or plain. Add in chocolate chips and you have yourself a cookie that’s filling and the perfect amount of sweet — which, let’s face it, we’d still probably only pick if there were no other cookies available.
9. Sugar Cookies
It’s plain, but that’s okay. You can kind of do anything with them. Sugar cookies are the base on which dreams are made of. A good, chewy sugar cookie can be divine in its simplicity. Add on a killer frosting and you’ve got yourself a cookie worth talking about. Albeit, this is a very sugary proposition. There are no oats here to add heft. It’s just sugar on sugar. But… maybe that’s what a cookie is supposed to be.
8. Dark Chocolate Cookies
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Add a little cacao into that cookie dough and you’ve got a nice step up in flavortown. This is where things start to get interesting. Sure sugar, flour, and more sugar get the job done most of the time. But what doesn’t chocolate make better? Throw in some chocolate chips and you’ve got a chocolate on chocolate morsel of deliciousness.
7. Salted Butter Cookies
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Those Danes are on to something here. Salt, butter, sugar — win, win, win. These are probably the least ‘homemade’ on the list. But, they really shouldn’t be. Butter cookies are just sugar cookies with an extra layer of salt. Oh, and more butter. The savory and creamy aspects of the butter and salt mixed with a heavy dose of sugar are the perfect trinity of simple yet addicting flavor that makes these cookies a guilty pleasure.
6. Molasses Cookies
This is the cookie that asks, “can a cookie be too sweet?” Nah. Though you’ll likely need a dentist check up after a batch of these gets demolished. Drop out the plain old white sugar and replace it with the byproduct of turning sugar cane into sugar and you’ve got yourself a rad cookie. Maybe add a hint of dark rum to really amp up those flavors.
5. M&M’s Cookies
Take your basic chocolate chip and replace the chips with M&Ms. The crunch is just delightfully odd. We’ll admit that this one hits the kindergartener nostalgia in all of us pretty hard. But, they’re oh so good and deserve a spot right in the middle of this ranking.
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4. Snickerdoodles
The name alone should disqualify this one. But, damn, it’s amazing how much difference some cinnamon can make. So here’s your basic sugar cookie that’s dusted with a magic mix of sugar and cinnamon. That dusting adds a spicy edge that neutralizes the sugar and makes for an interesting and delicious cookie. This one gets a high ranking just for spiciness alone.
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3. Macadamia Nut Cookies
Can you beat savory and nutty with a nice dose of sweet? What more could you want? You know these are always the cookies that get taken first when that over-sized medley box of cookies is popped open. And there’s a good reason. There’s just something about the savory nuttiness of these cookies that blend perfectly with the velvet butter and heavy sugar.
2. Peanut Butter Cookies
There’s something truly wonderful about the lush and savory texture of a great peanut butter cookie. It’s a balance of sweet and savory that really makes this cookie shine. Have you ever tried slathering some good raspberry or blackberry jam over a peanut butter cookie? It’s a pb & j in your hand. Or, and bear with me here, add in some big ol’ chocolate chips. Now it’s a peanut butter cup. Thank me later.
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1. Chocolate Chip Cookies
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Come on, what else is going to be number one? This cookie is both easy to execute in any kitchen and wonderfully delicious. You can make them gooey or crunchy and they’ll still hit that soft spot. Take your average sugar cookie and add in some vanilla and bitter chocolate chips and you’ve got a cookie that’s damn near perfect. What more could one want?
