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A confession that will surprise no one: I can be insufferably bougie. When the other kids at elementary school declared their favorite food to be mac 'n' cheese, my go-to answer was, "Rack of lamb." (I'm not proud, okay.)
But nothing captures my heart quite like cookie dough – and as far as I'm concerned, the more basic the better. I've made the homemade doughs with the browned butter, but when cravings strike, the last thing I want to do is chill my dough overnight for "proper curing." Frozen dough is 100% the answer, and even if the finished product doesn't push any culinary boundaries, the instant gratification of a fresh-baked cookie from the freezer is my idea of heaven.
So imagine my surprise when I heard that there was a new brand that promised the best of both worlds: the convenience of frozen dough with the deliciousness only a homemade recipe can bring. That would be Home Dough, a line of DTC frozen cookie dough that eschews preservatives and GMOs for ingredients like maple sugar and organic butter.
Could it be that my impatience and my snobbery could finally be satisfied by the same product? I had to find out. But first, I wanted a little backstory.
THE MOM BEHIND THE MAGIC
The origin of Home Dough is exactly what you want it to be: Mom's famous recipe. The mom in question is founder Jami Changaris, who spent over fifty years fine-tuning her cookies for her five children. In fact, even before she had kids, Changris estimates she'd made hundreds of cookies thanks to an obsession with baking that started in middle school. But once the demands of parenthood began, it was off to the races, with class parties, sports games and sleepovers all calling on the magic of her cookie prowess. The answer to keeping her head above water was to make huge batches ahead of time and freeze the leftover dough for later.
Credit: @eathomedough
It quickly became clear: this was a business op. How many other people out there – parents or not – could use that last-minute save? Obviously there have been store-bought alternatives on the market for decades, but Jami knew the value of her recipes. They'd been perfected with love for her family and friends, not automated in a corporate kitchen.
Thus a DTC start-up was born, and with a confident promise that "the only leftovers will be crumbs," Home Dough had officially hooked me. I added two classics, Chocolate Chip ($18) and Oatmeal Toffee ($18), to my cart. Just a few days later there they were, calling my name.
FROM PORCH TO FREEZER
While unboxing, the first thing that caught my attention was that the package was insulated with dry ice. We got special effects already! Having ordered refrigerated items in the past, where a simple ice pack would suffice, I forgot how much more effort goes into keeping things properly frozen in transit. But the approach paid off: both packages of dough were solid as a rock.
And beautifully designed too, I must say. If Pillsbury was my reference point, we were not in Kansas anymore – Home Dough's aesthetic feels incredibly modern, cool but approachable, with bright, pleasing colors and a slightly warped font that hinted at the gooeyness inside. The back listed not only the ingredients again (nearly all of which are organic), but also the very carefully calculated baking instructions: 15-17 minutes in an oven set to 365 degrees.
If Pillsbury was my reference point, we were not in Kansas anymore – Home Dough's aesthetic feels incredibly modern, cool but approachable, with bright, pleasing colors and a slightly warped font that hinted at the gooeyness inside.
I've done a lot of baking in my day, and never have I seen a temperature so precise. I didn't even know ovens could be set between 350 and 375! Clearly these recipes had been tested with every possible permutation, which meant the final result was truly the pinnacle.
Even though it was the middle of the day, I couldn't resist popping some in the oven. Chocolate Chip, GOAT though it is, would have to wait. I wanted to see what Oatmeal Toffee was all about.
LOVE AT FIRST BITE
It's hard to get a sense of how substantial these cookies are when you look at them frozen. Sure, the dough ball looks a little bigger than your average, but I was still stunned when I pulled them out to cool 15 minutes later. These are mega cookies – and believe me, I'm not complaining. They spread sumptuously across the pan (shoutout to brown sugar, the MVP of cookie spreads) while still getting a nice, pillowy height (and that's thanks to my girl white suga). The caramelized bits of toffee peeked through in delicious-looking flecks, along with those textural rolled oats. Cooling time was the longest 5 minutes of my life.
And what can I say, besides our usual disclaimer that the opinions below are truly my own and aren't sponsored… but it might be the best cookie I've ever had. I'm dead serious here.
Then it was time to taste. And what can I say, besides our usual disclaimer that the opinions below are truly my own and aren't sponsored… but it might be the best cookie I've ever had. I'm dead serious here. The interplay of the different sugars, the toffee, the perfect cut of sea salt, that cook time that got things feeling just on the right side of baked. Within two bites, that Chocolate Chip package came flying out of the freezer too. One kind was simply not enough.
And the hits just kept coming. This genre of cookie always comes down to the choice of chocolate, and bless Mom for nailing that balance between sweet and bitter. It's rare to have a cookie with so much heft that one leaves you feeling satisfied, even though they're so fantastic it's impossible not to go back for two. What's even more astounding is that they came out of my freezer. This is a cookie that tastes like it's been painstakingly made by an elite team of pastry chefs – and clearly it has, but none of that work fell on my plate.
As I blissed out in cookie heaven, I caught another look at the back of the package. Up top it reads: "This cookie will ruin your life. Or at least your taste for any other cookie." And for better or worse, it’s true. Team Bougie has won yet again – but when the results are this good, that's a victory worth celebrating.
5 MORE REASONS TO LOVE HOME DOUGH:
1. In order to keep the dough frozen, shipping times are speedy as can be – you'll never wait more than 3 days for your shipment.
2. Fans of holiday spice will love Home Dough’s new third flavor, Molasses Ginger Spice ($18). Bonus points if you grab all three in the Variety Pack ($48).
3. All cookies come in a gluten-free version, calling on organic rice flour to get that same shatteringly crisp texture.
4. Speaking of nutrition, Home Dough’s cookies are surprisingly low in fat, clocking in at single-digits in grams – a rarity for treats that taste this buttery.
5. Because of their large surface area, these make a fantastic vessel for the perfect ice cream sandwich.
