I, A Regular Person, Baked 5 Celebrities' Cookies. Here's Whose Recipe Was The Best.
Every year when the holidays roll around, lifestyle publications tout celebrity cookie recipes as if they’re the end-all, be-all. Gorgeously shot photos of cookies that were baked by food stylists make them look perfect and glamorous, even though they came from celebrities who usually have no background in professional baking.
But what do those cookies look like in the actual light of day, when they’re baked by a regular person like you or me? I tested five popular recipes to see. I shared the cookies with friends, family, and neighbors to get their input, too. Here are my notes on the recipes I would make again.
Michelle Obama’s Award-Winning Cookies
Starting in 1992 until the magazine folded in 2016, Family Circle magazine sponsored a recipe showdown between the incumbent first lady and the opponent’s spouse. The cookie poll had an uncanny ability to predict the winner of the presidential election — it was only wrong once, when Bill Clinton’s Clinton family chocolate chip cookies bested Melania Trump’s sour cream star cookies in 2016.
In 2012, Michelle Obama’sMama Kaye’s white and dark chocolate cookies beat Ann Romney’s M&M cookies, and Barack Obama went on to win the White House. More than a decade later, the recipe still has many devotees.
Michelle Obama’s cookies include butter-flavor Crisco, which I am not used to working with. I assume my lack of experience led to these cookies not looking as pretty as the others. The first batch I baked spread out so much that I wound up with a pan full of square cookies that I had to cut apart. I left a lot more space between the cookies on my second batch, but they still came out flat. I wasn’t sure what I had done wrong, so I consulted baker Lauren Cooper Allen from the blog Lauren Baked Cake. She recommended chilling the dough for an hour or using butter instead of Crisco. I didn’t make a third batch, but I will take her advice next time.
Nevertheless, I thought the cookies were delicious. These cookies are crisp and have a lot of chocolate, including chocolate chips, white chocolate chips and Andes Creme de Menthe candy. Thanks to this “secret ingredient,” Michelle Obama’s cookies reminded me of a Girl Scout Thin Mint cookie. One friend thought the cookies had “too much going on,” but everyone else who tried them liked them, despite their flat appearance.
Snoop Dogg’s Rolls-Royce Peanut Butter Cookies
Snoop Dogg isn’t just a rapper and record producer. He’s good in the kitchen and has appeared alongside Martha Stewart on VH1’s “Martha and Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party.” Perhaps inspired by his time with Stewart, Snoop Dogg also authored a cookbook, “From Crook to Cook: Platinum Recipes from Tha Boss Dogg’s Kitchen.” Among other treats, the cookbook contains a recipe for Rolls-Royce peanut butter cookies, which Snoop Dogg says he got from a friend.
Snoop Dogg’s cookies include plenty of chocolate and peanut butter, which is a classic combination that’s hard to beat. The cookies are just the right amount of soft. The recipe was easy to make and the cookies came out perfectly the first time. I like classic chocolate chip cookies and these were my favorite of the five I recipes I tried. They were less popular with a friend who prefers chewy cookies, so your mileage may vary. However, I will be adding these to my regular rotation.
My friends and family agreed that these cookies were fantastic. The only disappointment came from one friend who asked me if the recipe included pot before taking her first bite. This recipe does not, but Snoop Dogg recently opened his first dispensary and launched a cannabis line so a variation may be in the works.
Taylor Swift’s Chai Cookies
Years ago, Taylor Swift posted a handwritten recipe for chai sugar cookies and icing on Tumblr. She made her cookies with a chai tea bag and credited Joy the Baker for the inspiration. Inspired by Swift, Joy later adapted the recipe using traditional chai-tea spices instead of a tea bag and it took off. Now, every year when cardigan weather arrives, Swifties make Taylor Swift’s chai sugar cookies.
These cookies are a classic sugar cookie with a twist. They are full of spices found in chai tea, including cinnamon, ground ginger, cardamom, cloves and allspice. The cookies are finished off with optional vanilla icing and sprinkled with nutmeg.
These cookies have a lot of spices. Fortunately, I already had most of them in my pantry, but the cost could add up quickly if you’re starting from scratch. Even though these cookies have a lot of ingredients, they were simple to make and came out perfectly. I tried some with the optional frosting on top, and some without. The icing added some depth to the flavor, but they tasted great without the icing as well. They were soft and chewy, with a subtle flavor one neighbor described as “a Christmas vibe” and “the best of the bunch.” Another neighbor couldn’t quite place the flavor, but she didn’t mind. She described them as “moist, subtle and delicious.”
If this recipe seems too complicated, try Swift’s shortcut. She suggests that busy bakers use a sugar cookie mix and stir in the contents of a chai tea packet for a similar taste. I didn’t try this quick-and-dirty alternative because it doesn’t sound very appealing to me. However, it might work in a pinch.
John Legend’s Favorite Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies
During a 2017 appearance on the Food Network with his wife, Chrissy Teigen, John Legend shared that he started experimenting in the kitchen after his parents divorced when he was 11. One of his creations is a cookie that remains his favorite today. These cookies have oatmeal, peanut butter, peanut butter chips, chocolate chunks and raisins. Listening to Legend, I pictured a young child throwing whatever he could find in the kitchen into a bowl and hoping for the best.
During his Food Network appearance, Legend cautioned against over-mixing the batter because the cookies would come out too tough. I kept a close eye on my stand mixer and stopped it as soon as the batter looked done.
I wasn’t too excited about trying this recipe because I’m not usually a fan of oatmeal raisin cookies. However, after taking a bite, I changed my mind and was glad that Legend decided to share his childhood creation with the world. I liked them much better than I thought I would. These cookies are moist and the different flavors blend together really well. Even though these cookies have plenty of chocolate chunks, my friend who doesn’t usually like chocolate chip cookies loved this recipe and asked for more.
Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies
In 2000, some of the biggest wrestling stars in the world got together to publish a cookbook, ”Can You Take the Heat? The WWF is Cooking.” The cookbook describes the Rock’s favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe as “WrestleMania-level” and “best enjoyed with ice-cold milk.”
This recipe calls for ground oatmeal, chocolate chips, chocolate chunks and grated Hershey’s bars. I don’t usually like oatmeal cookies, but since I liked Legend’s recipe much more than I thought I would, I was cautiously optimistic.
This recipe is more labor-intensive than any of the others I tried and required a lot more cleanup. I had to use my blender to grind oatmeal into a fine powder. I also had to grate a Hershey’s bar, which took a long time and hurt my fingers.
When I finally got a bite of my first cookie, I was underwhelmed. Even my friend who prefers oatmeal cookies wasn’t a big fan. She described the cookies as drier and breadier than she normally, although she did like the flavor combination. This is the only recipe I tried that I can’t recommend and won’t make again.
