Last year around Christmas time when everyone was baking their holiday cookies a lot of bakers were complaining about how butter brands have changed and how it is impacting the results of their cookies. I too did notice that some of my cookies were baking flatter, thinner, and crispier, not the result I was trying to achieve. Many said that many brands were increasing the amount of water in their butter which could lead to these results. I decided to do a little research and put a couple brands to the test to see if there really was a difference.
For this experiment I made chocolate chip cookies and used three different brands of butter: Sam's Club brand, Challenge (Standard not European), and Plugra (a European brand). Everything else was the same, the baking temperature, the placement in the oven, the cookie sheets used, the same recipe, same measuring cups, and same measuring scoops. All three batches used the same temperature of butter and all were unsalted. Literally the only difference was the brand of butter.
Sam's Club contains 80% butterfat. Ingredients: cream, natural flavors.
Challenge contains 80% butterfat. Ingredients: cream, natural flavors.
Plugra contains 82% butterfat. Ingredients: cream, natural flavors.
Now, just because Sam's Club and Challenge's regular butter contain the same amount of butterfat does not necessarily mean that the results will be the same.
The second cookie in the picture listed above is Challenge Standard Butter.
The third cookie in the picture listed above is Sam's Club Butter
As you can see the results were very different. Now, the brands do not list the amount of water in their butters.
The Sam's Club brand of butter yielded the thickest cookie. While it is nice that they did not spread, but they were also the driest cookie out of the three.
The Challenge Standard brand of butter spread the most. It was the thinnest cookie of them all. It was not dry but not as chewy as the Plugra.
The Plugra brand of butter had the best results of them all. They didn't spread as much as the Challenge but more than the Sam's. They were not dry or real crispy. The texture was beautiful. They were chewy with just the right amount of thickness. And they had better flavor as well.
In my opinion Plugra yielded the best results with Challenge being second and Sam's being third.
What are your thoughts?
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