These are just my current favorites, and the list could change at any time. For now, these are recipes that I’ve been recommending to people. I’m calling it Top 5 because my goal is to get 5 in each category. Obviously, this is a page I need to come back to.
BAKE SALE BEST-SELLERS
Magic Blondies from Martha Stewart
Rocky Road Fudge Brownie Muffins
Zingermann’s Brownie Clone
Rice Krispy Treats
BREAKFAST COOKIES
BHG’s Loaded Oatmeal Cookie
Judy’s Wholesome Chocolate Chip Cookies
Agave and Honey Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
CHOCOLATE CHIP
Had to have 10 for this category. Can’t just pick top 5!
S’mores Cookies
New Cooks Illustrated Chocolate Chip
Almost Like Levain Chocolate Chip Cookies
Mexican Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Ibarra
New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookie
Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies by D. Lebovitz
Crunchy Cookies from King Arthur
Alton Brown’s Chewy Chocolate Chip
Alexis Stewart’s Cookies (very thin and crispy)
Tate’s Bake Shop Cookies (Thin with crispy edges)
DOUBLE CHOCOLATE
Milk Bakery Chocolate Cookies
Shiny Cookies
Chocolate Shock Cookies
PEANUT BUTTER
Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
Get Well Cookies
Criss-Cross Cookies
Sadie’s Peanut Butter Cookies
Million Dollar Peanut Butter Cookie — Scratch and Convenience
OATMEAL
Oatmeal Cookie Guy’s Cranberry Pecan
Oatmeal Cookie with White Chocolate
Old Fashioned Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
SPICE COOKIES
Ginger Toffee Cookies
Chai Spiced Almond Cookies
Epicurious Molasses Cookies
SUGAR COOKIES
Lazy Mom’s Sugar Cookies Cut-Outs
Cookies on a Stick Cut-Outs
NUTTY COOKIES AND BARS
VEGAN COOKIES
Vegan Oatmeal Peanut Butter
Vegan Chewy Oatmeal Cookies
Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Vegan Brownies
FRUIT BARS
Raspberry White Chocolate
Creamy Lemon Blueberry Bars
Pineapple Cream Cheese Bars
Apricot Orange Bars
BASIC (YET EXCELLENT) BROWNIES
King Arthur’s “Best Ever” with Hershey Dark Cocoa
Easy One Bowl Cocoa Brownies
Chewy Brownies
Hershey’s Deep Dish Brownies
Minnesota State Fair Brownies
DRESSED UP BROWNIES
Caramel Filled Brownies
Outrageous Oreo Brownies
Mascarpone Brownies
BOXED BROWNIE RECIPES
Easy Peanut Butter Marshmallow Krispie Topped Brownies
Triple Espresso Brownies
BLONDIES
Still need one
Pat’s Chocolate Chip Bars
Malted Blondies from “Baked”
Chef Kate’s Goop Blondies
BUTTERSCOTCH BLONDIES
Still need two
Jenn’s/Garret McCord’s Butterscotch Brownies
Whole Foods Butterscotch Macadamia Blondies
Old School Betty Crocker
BARS WITH CREAM CHEESE
Peanut Butter Cheesecake Brownies
Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars
Butterscotch Cheesecake Bars
No, but they sound good!
Anna, Have you ever given Oatmeal Cookie Guys’ “Golden Girls” a try? I am debating making them and as I always do, I check your recipes to verify ratios. (I usually end up confused, though, sigh.) He describes them as an oatmeal cookie with a cheesecake filling and a graham cracker outside.
for your blondies, have you tried smitten kitchen’s? they are SEX.
-rebekah
Cindy, I like your oatmeal chocolate chip cookies a lot. In fact, I made a small batch today because I’m testing a bunch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookie back to back. I’ll post results as they come.
Just got home from our marathon trip and went back to see what I’d missed in your blog. I’m very flattered to find my favorite cookies on your favorites list! Thanks!
Michelle, I’ll try them again. I thought they were good, but they didn’t make my top 5 because I liked the others (listed above) more. Maybe Peanut Butter needs to be a Top 10 category.
Anna,
I love this list! Thanks for taking the time to compile it. I was super surprised not to see my favorite p.b. cookie recipe on your list, cause I was just sure it was one of the first recipes I ever tried from your blog. So I searched through all of your p.b. recipes and finally found the post:
http://www.cookiemadness.net/?p=1787
looks like you made them on a bad day! I highly suggest you try them again. I made them after seeing them on your blog and on Smitten Kitchen
http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/12/peanut-butter-cookies/
and they are absolutely my favorite. They just melt in your mouth. I don’t make them with peanuts or with chunky p.b. I recommend just doing the creamy. I usually use my favorite, Jif. Anyways, I hope you’ll try making them again as I think they are incredible and so does everyone I make them for!
Anna, I was so happy you posted these!! I had to bake cookies to send to Iraq a few days ago and these saved my life. I made the Smores cookies and the Flourless Peanut Butter cookies. Both were very good!!
Oh my! Bookmarking this page. What an awesome list!
Hi Anna, I am really loving this list and plan to bake several from it over the next couple of weeks. But I hope the old top ten lists will still be archived for reference? I often would take a look back at them for inspiration. Thanks.
Thanks for the tip! I guess this is the recipe.
http://www.recipelink.com/cookbooks/2005/0312334176_1.html
How many grams of flour do you use? I’m starting to hate American volume measurements because I never know if the 2 cups of flour is 9 oz or 10.5 oz. That extra flour makes a big difference.
Hi Anna, I’ll chime in with everyone and say that you have a great list going there. I’m probably way too indecisive to make such a list, and to be honest, I haven’t baked enough different recipes in as many categories as you so as to make favorite lists for some of them!
I have a nomination for your 10th chocolate chip cookie recipe to put on the list: if you like Alexis Stewart’s cookies, try the Tate’s Bake Shop choco chip cookies. I’ve bought their packaged cookies when I went to NYC recently, and I’ve made the recipe myself several times… I make my dough balls too big for it to be thin and crispy like they’re supposed to be, but the buttery brown sugar flavor is just as good chewy as it is crispy. Love them. My friends said they were the best CC cookies I’d ever made…until the Cooks Illustrated Perfect CC cookie came along…haha.
I love lists like this! Very cool, thanks for sharing! 🙂
Great list! Love your blog! I’m going to use your cookie list as a way to get back into baking (and hopefully to myself to the gym! ha ha) Just curious – any chance of adding your top 5 favorite blondie recipes to the list? I am having a craving…. 🙂
Okay, good. I’m going to add the Williams Sonoma crunchy recipe for people who like crunchy cookies and the David Lebovitz chewy cookie. I might also add Alton Brown’s.
I agree that you should add 5 more to the cc cookie category as I don’t think I’d always pick the same one as my favorite. I also like Alton Brown’s “The Chewy” and JT’s.
Hi Mary,
No, not at all. Also, I feel like I should add 5 more to the chocolate chip cookie category.
Anna, are the cookies listed by order of preference within category/type?
And I’m now tempted to try each and everyone I haven’t so far. My eyes landed on the good and easy oatmeal cookies, I haven’t seen those before!
This is such a great list and I like the sound of those – New Cooks Illustrated Chocolate Chip cookies mmmmmm
Hi Anna!
I swear there is more on this list than when I looked at it yesterday. I was wowed yesterday by the list, and I’m even more wowed by it this morning! I know this was a lot of work!
Yesterday I was searching your blog for the One Bowl Cocoa Brownie recipe but I couldn’t find it, and today there it is. I must not have been using the right search words yesterday. I ended up making another recipe and will blog about it later.
Have a great day! You deserve a day off after all of that work you did yesterday!
Thank you for all the work you do on this blog and for all of the outstanding recipes you share!
Sue
KAnn, I believe it is.
I also have reservations about buying the cake flour and bread flour. I think that cake flour is bleached, isn’t it??
DAMN Anna that is one killer list!! Thank you so much for sharing your favorites with the peoples!!
Okay, sugar cookie link is fixed. I still need to find 3 more, but will need to think about it because sugar cookies aren’t a favorite.
Karen, good suggestion on the mascarpone brownies! Those are excellent.
Erin, I know you liked the Top 10 list so hopefully this will be even better for you :).
The mascarpone brownies are pretty good, too, they get my vote.
this looks great! thanks for the list 🙂
Brownies — how about the America’s Test Kitchen version?
Oh Anna, you know how I love your lists! I’d better get cracking and I think I’ll start with one of the brownies. I need to bring a treat to a swim party tomorrow.
Great list, I’ve made about half already but will definitely be baking a few more soon. Thanks, Anna.
Too funny! I was talking about even a different one — the one where you start with the PB cookie mix! There are just too too many delicious pb cookies, I guess!
Once you buy cake and bread flour, you will have a bag of it just for the NY Times cookies and they are definitely worth it.
If you are ever in the mood to try a sugar cookie, my recipe(obviously MY opinion-but I have tried many) is SO good. Roll the cookies pretty thick and don’t over bake, slather with a good vanilla frosting and sprinkles. Grandma’s famous pink cookies, but they are great for cutting shapes, too. My mom’s favorite cookie! (She doesn’t eat chocolate-ever.)
Oh, and I’m sure you’ve considered it, but I see you only have 4 double chocolate and my vote is for Baking Blonde’s Chocolate Shock cookie! 😉
Fan, that is a good one! Do you make the scratch version or use the million dollar refrigerated dough version?
Yeah, I was on the fence about the NYT cookie because of the fact you have to buy the different flours. But really, is that such a big deal? It is a good cookie.
How can you forget the double pb cookie (where you wrap pb cookie dough around a delicious ball of pb in the middle). That’s a staple at our house!
Thank you for including the NY Times ccc, earlier you hadn’t put it on there. It’s definitely in my top 3! I just love cookies, they’re all good. 😉
ohhh rasp & white chocolate! need to have a look at that one
This is a terrific list! Oh boy do I have a lot of baking to do. 🙂
what a great list!