All about Cookies: The perfect compromise between softness and crispiness

Abstract

Cookies are enjoyed best when they are both crispy and soft. I investigate in which proportion the cookies are crispy and soft, and disentangle whether it makes them biscuits, cakes, or none of the above. I baked cookies for colleagues at KTH, Stockholm, and University of Geneva, Switzerland, adopting my mum's mum's mum's etc. recipe. I created a dedicated survey for my colleagues with three well-selected questions to answer while eating one cookie. The weighted-average mean of the crispiness and softness, weighted by the respective enjoyment of the cookie, over the whole population amount to 7.0 +/- 1.1 and 5.3 +/- 1.4, respectively. The enjoyment of the cookies amounts to 9.1 +/- 2.3. People like (my) cookies, and cookies are neither cakes, nor biscuits, they are just... cookies!