CQ Stop #1: Roasting Plant

We all met up and began our quest at Roasting Plant! We had to wait a moment to get our cookies since they'd just come out of the oven when we arrived. We were deliciously rewarded as we sank our teeth into the gooey warm goodness.

Price: $2.75

We rated cookies by:
"Texture" -- crispiness / softness, gooeyness, meltiness, etc
"Chocolate Quality" -- how good the chocolate was
"Cookie Composition" -- chip distribution, butteryness, sweet / salty ratio, etc

Here are the group's averaged scores in each category:
Texture: 4.07 out of 5
Chocolate Quality: 4.14 out of 5
Cookie Composition: 4.07 out of 5
Overall Rating: 4.2 out of 5
3rd Best Cookie; 3rd Best Texture; 3rd Best Cookie Composition

Assorted Comments: "Gooey and soft, crisp edges (fresh out of oven)" -Lien Tran "Not too sweet; very chewy inside, crispy outside" -Ilya Kushnirsky "Definitely want more" -Clay Ewing

Serious Eats #1: Roasting Plant, 81 Orchard St
These perfectly chewy cookies prompted an absolute outburst from Adam ("These are incredible! These are a revelation!") on first taste. The rest of our judges were nearly as enthusiastic ("These win the gooey award!" "Crisp and airy edges that the others didn't have." "Stops just short of too buttery." "I could eat these all day.") A few tasters found them too sweet, or too gooey, but they were far outnumbered by the thumbs pointed up. Bonus? It's open 24 hours. "A gorgeous cookie--bumps, nooks, and crannies. Chewy, crispy. An absolute ideal." There wasn't much we didn't love about the Roasting Plant's chocolate chip cookies--the winners of the Chocolate Chip Cookie Championship. The Plant baked their own cookies—and they do. But their dough? It comes from acclaimed NYC wholesaler Tom Cat Bakery. Their recipe uses pastry flour and Callebaut chocolate, and other shops, including Colador Café, Ground Support, and City Bean carry these cookies—but The Roasting Plant is the only place to bake them in-house, turning out fresh chocolate chippers at least four to five times a day. What can we say? It works. Score one for freshness.