Dark Chocolate Cherry Crunch Cookie
Brown butter, dark chocolate, tart cherries, and toasted hazelnuts. No cocoa in the dough, no specialty ingredients, no extended chill. The simplest recipe of the four — and the international panel’s favorite when the US tasters were removed.
Ingredients
Method
Brown the butter
Melt butter over medium heat until milk solids are golden and fragrant. Pour into a large mixing bowl and cool 10 minutes.
Mix wet ingredients
Whisk both sugars into cooled brown butter. Add egg, yolk, and vanilla and whisk until smooth and slightly thickened, about 1 minute.
Add dry ingredients
Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Fold into wet ingredients until just combined.
Fold in mix-ins
Fold in chopped chocolate, dried cherries, and toasted hazelnuts.
Chill
Chill dough for at least 2 hours. Overnight is fine.
Bake
Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C). Portion dough into balls (approximately 60g each) and place on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Tap the pan firmly on the counter once before baking to encourage spread. Bake 10–12 minutes until edges are set and golden.
Finish
Finish immediately with flaky sea salt. Cool on the pan 5 minutes.
Episode 6 Results — 11 Tasters
Baker’s Notes
- No cocoa powder in the dough — this is a vanilla-base cookie with chocolate chunks as the primary chocolate source. The flavor reads as chocolate and nuts rather than deep chocolate.
- The higher bake temperature (375°F vs the 350°F most cookie recipes use) encourages a slightly crispier edge. The pan-tap technique helps with spread.
- ChatGPT has won or led the international Borda ranking in both Episode 5 (room winner) and Episode 6 (international-only winner). Its simpler, more accessible flavor profiles seem to travel well across palates.
- This is the simplest recipe of the four by a significant margin. No specialty ingredients, no extended chill requirement, no precision techniques. Straightforward and reproducible.