# What kind of cookie is a chocolate chip cookie without chocolate chips? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 7, 2004, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cookie-is-a-chocolate-chip-cookie-without-chocolate-chips/238719 "2004-04-07T11:14:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cookie-is-a-chocolate-chip-cookie-without-chocolate-chips/238719/21 "2004-04-07T19:44:23Z")
A chocolate chip cookie without chocolate chips is a butterscotch cookie. In butterscotch, the main flavoring elements are butter and brown sugar. The traditional chocolate chip cookie recipe has those two elements. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cookie-is-a-chocolate-chip-cookie-without-chocolate-chips/238719/22 "2004-04-07T19:57:24Z")
> [@theR](#): > > Chocolate chip cookies are not supposed to be chewy! A proper chocolate chip cookie is chewy while hot, but unless they’re undercooked I don’t recall any chocolate chip cookie recipe worth a damn where you end up with chewy cookies once they’ve cooled off. They should not be hard, but they should be crisp or crunchy. IIRC Using flour with gluten will give you a chewy cookie. Back To The OP I’d say it depends on your specific recipe. Having eaten many chocolate chip cookies over the years, I’d say you’d have either a sugar cookie (crisp, and very sweet) or a butter cookie (softer, chewy, less sweet, melts in your mouth). ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cookie-is-a-chocolate-chip-cookie-without-chocolate-chips/238719/23 "2004-04-07T21:15:32Z")
Sugar cookies generally use white sugar, not brown sugar. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cookie-is-a-chocolate-chip-cookie-without-chocolate-chips/238719/24 "2004-04-07T21:37:52Z")
Butterscotch cookies sounds about right to me: butter cookies and sugar cookies don’t have brown sugar in them, usually. Although I might cheat and call them walnut cookies, or pecan cookies, if I’d only left out one ingredient. Incidentally, to make rabbit punch cookies, substitute 1/3 cup Turkish ground coffee (dark roast beans ground to the consistency of cocoa) for an equal amount of flour. Just don’t eat too many, or it’ll be like a blow to the kidneys. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![pokey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ebca7d/32.png) [@pokey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pokey)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cookie-is-a-chocolate-chip-cookie-without-chocolate-chips/238719/25 "2004-04-07T22:35:06Z")
I think butterscotch cookies are as close as you can really get even though butterscotch cookies don’t (in my recipies) have white sugar so they are more…butterscotchy. Everything is the same except the white sugar is left out and it’s made up for by more brown sugar. I have a recipe for “standard cookies” that is pretty much the same as a chocolate chip cookie base and you can add whatever you like to it. Once you put something in it it becomes a type of cookie. I was always led to believe that Americans called chocolate chip cookies Tollhouse cookies so I’m very confused about the fact that Tollhouse cookies hasn’t even come up. I guess I was misled by keebler elves or something. ---
**Author:** ![daffyduck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ec9cab/32.png) [@daffyduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/daffyduck)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cookie-is-a-chocolate-chip-cookie-without-chocolate-chips/238719/26 "2004-04-07T22:57:50Z")
Here is a page that explains how Toll House got into the picture. [http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/story047.htm](http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/story047.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cookie-is-a-chocolate-chip-cookie-without-chocolate-chips/238719/27 "2004-04-07T23:01:34Z")
No gooey morsels of chocolate? I’d be scared chipless to eat them! ---
**Author:** ![pokey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ebca7d/32.png) [@pokey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pokey)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cookie-is-a-chocolate-chip-cookie-without-chocolate-chips/238719/28 "2004-04-07T23:10:27Z")
> [@daffyduck](#): > > Here is a page that explains how Toll House got into the picture. > > [http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/story047.htm](http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/story047.htm) But wait. If she invented tollhouse cookies, and that was the first chocolate chip cookie, and if she invented it by adding chocolate chips to her Butter Drop Do cookies, then isn’t the answer to the question “Butter Drop Do” cookies? ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cookie-is-a-chocolate-chip-cookie-without-chocolate-chips/238719/29 "2004-04-07T23:13:19Z")
> [@sturmhauke](#): > > Sugar cookies generally use white sugar, not brown sugar. Also, sugar cookies don’t (for lack of a better word) melt the way chocolate chip cookies do. You can use cookie cutters on sugar cookie dough - make intentional shapes and then they’ll stay in that shape. If you do that with chocolate chip cookie dough, you’re going to be disappointed. Sugar cookies aren’t not drop cookies. Butterscotch cookies seem to be the closest… but I like the name “chocolate zip” ---
**Author:** ![TJdude825](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cookie-is-a-chocolate-chip-cookie-without-chocolate-chips/238719/30 "2004-04-07T23:14:47Z")
What a great thread! I’d like a cheeseburger, but hold the cheese. Can I have Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Baked Beans, Spam, Spam and Spam, but without the spam, please? > [@theR](#): > > Chocolate chip cookies are not supposed to be chewy! A proper chocolate chip cookie is chewy while hot, but unless they’re undercooked I don’t recall any chocolate chip cookie recipe worth a damn where you end up with chewy cookies once they’ve cooled off. They should not be hard, but they should be crisp or crunchy. Well, you should eat them as soon as possible after baking, so that they are chewy. Of course, there is a large amount of variance that is allowable on the chewyness scale, and I’d say “not hard, but crisp or crunchy” is on the low end, but still acceptable. I can’t find much information on it, but Chips Ahoy had a contest in 1998 (I think) which challenged people to find a whole bag of cookies exactly like you described: without any chocolate chips. Anyone remember the name of that contest? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cookie-is-a-chocolate-chip-cookie-without-chocolate-chips/238719/31 "2004-04-08T02:22:46Z")
I would call it a sugar drop cookie, or a butter drop cookie myself. Although searching for both terms didn’t lead to too many results (though they did exist) there’s this interesting one: > [@](#): > > And unbelievably, the chocolate-chip cookie is barely an octogenarian. Young Chip was born in the Toll House Inn in Massachusetts when owner Ruth Wakefield sliced up a Nestle (NQB: NSRGY.PK) chocolate bar and **mixed it into a butter-drop cookie recipe**. Yes, these were the very first Toll House cookies. (Bolding mine) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cookie-is-a-chocolate-chip-cookie-without-chocolate-chips/238719/32 "2004-04-08T02:23:52Z")
Oopsie… [Source of quote](http://www.fool.com/news/commentary/2003/commentary030725edible.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cookie-is-a-chocolate-chip-cookie-without-chocolate-chips/238719/33 "2004-04-08T03:20:16Z")
> [@audilover](#): > > One more little aside. The biscuit conversation prompted me to ask what word they used for what I would call a biscuit. I almost made his head explode as I tried to describe a buttermilk biscuit. “Like a scone?” “A dumpling?” I just couldn’t quite get him to understand what it was. I later found that even though KFC is popular in England, that they don’t even have biscuits! (Yeah, that one made me develop a tic. What are you people eating with your fried chicken?!) So what was said above about an unfortunate culture might be true…solely because there aren’t any “real” biscuits. I think you could call a biscuit “shortening bread,” as in _Mama’s little baby loves shortn’n, shortn’n, Mama’s little baby loves shortn’n bread._ But then again, maybe the Brits don’t have shortn’n bread. Do they even have Crisco? If they do, it’s probably called “By Order to Her Majesty the Queen: Wiltshire’s Hard Short Pudding Cream” or something. ---
**Author:** ![Trigonal\_Planar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/0ea827/32.png) [@Trigonal\_Planar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trigonal_Planar)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cookie-is-a-chocolate-chip-cookie-without-chocolate-chips/238719/34 "2004-04-08T04:22:45Z")
I’m not sure if there really is a debate here or not - or that maybe I’m just missing something - but if it doesn’t have chocolate chips in it, it sure as heck ain’t a chocolate chip cookie! It’d be a “plain cookie” in my books. ---
**Author:** ![Dystopos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e79b87/32.png) [@Dystopos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dystopos)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2004, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cookie-is-a-chocolate-chip-cookie-without-chocolate-chips/238719/35 "2004-04-13T02:45:21Z")
> [@theR](#): > > Chocolate chip cookies are not supposed to be chewy! A proper chocolate chip cookie is chewy while hot, but unless they’re undercooked I don’t recall any chocolate chip cookie recipe worth a damn where you end up with chewy cookies once they’ve cooled off. They should not be hard, but they should be crisp or crunchy. Why on earth would you ever let them cool off? ---
**Author:** ![olefin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/d78d45/32.png) [@olefin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/olefin)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2004, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cookie-is-a-chocolate-chip-cookie-without-chocolate-chips/238719/36 "2004-04-13T03:02:39Z")
Very simple: If you were to follow the chocolate chip cookie recipe but leave out the chocolate chips you would have a “Chocolate Chipless” cookie. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2004, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cookie-is-a-chocolate-chip-cookie-without-chocolate-chips/238719/37 "2004-04-13T11:15:30Z")
Wow… No one said it. “Chocolate chip cookie” - “Chocolate chip” = “cookie” !!! ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2004, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cookie-is-a-chocolate-chip-cookie-without-chocolate-chips/238719/38 "2004-04-13T12:36:41Z")
I’d call it a brown sugar cookie. I think a butterscotch cookie would have butterscotch chips in it. Or would that be a butterscotch chip cookie. This is getting complicated. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Brother\_1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_brother_1/32/3513_2.png) [@Little\_Brother\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Brother_1)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2004, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cookie-is-a-chocolate-chip-cookie-without-chocolate-chips/238719/39 "2004-04-13T14:21:43Z")
Yeah, “brown sugar cookie” is better than “butterscotch” cookie, because even if the ingredients are essentially the same as in butterscotch, the cookie part of all the varieties of c.c. cookie _I’ve_ ever tasted aren’t very butterscotchy. Personally, I’m in the despised minority who feels that the chip component of chocolate chips have become far too overstated. When I first tried a gourmet “chocolate chunk” cookie before they became mass-produced, it was a treat. But then all c.c. cookies became chip hyperbolized-- chocolate (or mockolate) chip clusters held together with a membrane of cookie. I think less is more, especially with properly made Toll House cookies. Then again, as a coconut lover, I truly lust after coconut c.c. cookies… ---
**Author:** ![AngelicGemma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/439d5e/32.png) [@AngelicGemma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelicGemma)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2004, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cookie-is-a-chocolate-chip-cookie-without-chocolate-chips/238719/40 "2004-04-13T15:30:22Z")
> [@Dystopos](#): > > Why on earth would you ever let them cool off? I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t eat an entire tray of cookies before they cool. Not unless I was really _hungry_ anyway! 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cookie-is-a-chocolate-chip-cookie-without-chocolate-chips/238719.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cookie-is-a-chocolate-chip-cookie-without-chocolate-chips/238719.md?page=3)