Semifinals Game #2: Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies vs. Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

My Thursday was terrible.  I started the day exhausted.  It then became apparent that I have disappointed everyone in the world by doing an altogether horrible job.  I was in a terrible mood.  I announced before I left that I would not make cookies as previously planned, because I hated everything in the world.

Because cookie days seem to make everyone happier, though, I decided to make up the cookies for the second Semifinal game between Kristy's Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies (p. 121) and Navika's Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (p. 127).  I am glad I did, too, since baking tends to put me in a better mood, and by the end of baking I felt quite a lot more content.

First I mixed together the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I almost didn't remember to double the recipe several times, but I managed to get all the ingredients in there in the correct quantities in the end.  Again, when it came to mixing in the absurd number of chocolate chips, my arms got an excellent workout (a good thing, too, since I hadn't exercised since Monday night).  I chilled the dough in a separate bowl, and cleaned up all my bowls and measuring implements so that I'd be ready to mix up the second batch.

Once I got rolling on baking the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, I started to put together the Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookie dough.  This time I had the correct size of instant pudding mix, so no math was necessary for this batch.  Also, I had Diamond brand chopped walnuts, and I'll have to take back all of the disparaging things I said last time about the nut industry - they were chopped into small enough pieces that I could just add them into the mix.  Again I got a good arm workout as I mixed all of the chocolate chips and walnuts into the dough.  By this time my husband was fully asleep on the couch, and the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies were finished baking.

I rolled all of the Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookie balls so that I could start washing the dished while they baked.  The recipe, as stated, makes about 6 dozen cookies so I had a fair amount of time while they baked in order to set the kitchen back to rights.  Still, I only finished by about the time I was three oven-fulls from being finished.  I woke up my husband and asked him to bake the last trays while I got a shower (not cheating since I've made these before!).

Although we've seen these before, I think I did a better job baking the Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies this time, so here is a picture (Award Winning Cookies are on the left, Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies are on the right):

Everyone enjoyed tasting both of these cookies again.  I truly didn't know which one would be the winner since both cookies had an ingredient which may dissuade some voters - Walnuts in the Award Winning cookies and Oatmeal in the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies.  When the votes were tallied, the Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies were the victor - the final score was 13 to 3.

Next week we'll have our finals, with Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies competing against Turtle Fudge Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I know everyone is looking forward to seeing these two epic cookie recipes face off!