The Seattle PI held an informal bakeoff that pitted three types of chocolate against each other in a recipe for chocolate decadence cookies, which are so rich, they're basically brownies in cookie form. They used Nestle's Tollhouse chocolate chips, Baker's Chocolate and expensive Sharffen Berger chocolate.
Both the Nestle Tollhouse cookie and the Baker's beat out the high-end chocolate cookie.
Unfortunately, the whole article is approached with what sounds like complete disdain for anything other than the Sharffen Berger chocolate, which is a shame. The fact that it didn't win doesn't mean that the palates of the taste testers weren't sophisticated enough to like expensive chocolates over less expensive chocolates; it means that the testers didn't think Sharffen Berger in particular stacked up. Many people who love chocolate, even very dark chocolates, don't like the unusually bitter notes that are found in the SB chocolates. And for a cookie that has decadence in the name, very few people are going to prefer something that actually tastes bitter (not just bittersweet) over something that tastes rich, chocolaty and sweet.
All in all, the Sharffen Berger cookies were probably still very good, but this little bakeoff just reaffirms the fact that it doesn't really matter what kind of chocolate you use for baking. Save your expensive chocolate for eating on its own.
The Decadence Cookie recipe can be found here.





