Friday, April 22, 2011

The Pillsbury Test

Well hello everybody!! For this post I'm going to do something a little different. It's not even going to be about cats or cupcakes! Today I'm going to pursue a life long dream of mine. That's right boys and girls I'm comparing the ingredients of a REAL chocolate chip cookie recipe with the ingredients listed on a Pillsbury Chocolatey Chunk Cookie Dough Roll. With store bought foods, ingredients are listed in order of use. So if flour is listed as the first ingredient and sodium phosphate is the last ingredient, then flour was used in the biggest amount in the recipe and sodium phosphate was used the least.

Alright I couldn't find our chocolate chip cookie recipe so I'm using another one we have at my house: The Branch Family Recipe, courtesy of Sarah Branch.


Pillsbury:
enriched wheat flour
sugar
semisweet chocolate chunks
soybean and cottonseed oil shortening
water
soybean oil
blackstrap molasses
wheat protein isolate
salt
dried whole eggs
baking soda
sodium aluminum phosphate
artificial flavour

Branch:
2/3 cup shortening
2/3 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 heaping teaspoon salt
As many chocolate chips as you want


So, there's actually quite a difference between the two recipes. Personally, I wouldn't use dried eggs in my cookies but I'm also pretty sure that my cookie dough wouldn't last 2 months like the Pillsbury dough does. What do you think?

p.s. Here are the directions on how to make Sarah's recipe for those interested:

1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit
2) Mix shortening, butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla thoroughly in a large mixing bowl
3) Stir in remaining ingredients
4) Roll dough into balls and place on a large ungreased cookie sheet
5) Bake for 8-10 minutes
6) Cool and DEVOUR!!!!

1 comment:

  1. I think that this was a very good idea! Comparing the 2 makes you think more about what you eat. I mean, what the heck is sodium aluminum phosphate, and what is the artificial flavour made of?!?!?!? I know that I would never put that in my cookies!

    ReplyDelete