cookie test

Josh's project has been a complex study of one of his favorite pastimes: baking. For the last four weeks, he has been in the kitchen every day with chocolate chip cookie dough, a heating oven, a pair of oven mitts, and a tally chart, testing the same cookie dough recipe at different temperatures in the oven, on regular and convection bake, in the microwave, and in the toaster oven. His process is pretty basic, but filled with the nuances of a researcher: using consistent testers and a bracket scoresheet, he asks, "Which cookie is better?"The competition has been intense and the smell of baking cookies even more so.Yesterday was the last day of this competition. With a small group of cookie testers, he presented two different cookies that had stood the test of many tastes: one baked in a regular oven at 360 degrees for 15 minutes, and one baked in a convection oven at 360 degrees for 15 minutes.We had an in-depth conversation about the qualities of both cookies - their texture, color, taste. It was astonishing how different they were, even baked at the same temperature!The testers chose between A (the convection-baked) and B (the regular baked). Support for cookie A was overwhelmingly 5 to 1. Josh was thrilled by the feedback he got on his cookies and couldn't wait to add his discoveries to the research paper he's working on.