Ooey Gooey or Crispy Chewy Cookies? BAKR Solves The Age Old Debate at Barstool Sports Chicago
It was a random Monday, the week after we launched BAKR. We got a DM from our good friend that Barstool Sports had a classic debate on their Chicago Podcast “The Dog Walk”. It’s a debate that will probably go unsettled for the remainder of human history, but one even my husband and I can’t agree on. Do you prefer your cookies ooey gooey? Or soft and chewy? Now when I say there is no wrong answer, I mean it, but these guys know good content when they have it, so there were fireworks…we knew we had to step in.
There is a regular segment on the show where they draft desserts. Chocolate Chip Cookies is taken 1,1 off the board. Round 1, pick 1, right where it should be. It’s honestly questionable that it was even in the draft class at all because it is that overpowered that it should already be playing in the major leagues. The rest of the dessert world was playing for second place, directly after that was taken off the board. And to have cinnamon roll in the same category? It’s a wrap. Let me know if you agree, but anything else could have been picked with the rest of the draft and I still would have selected that squad – Chocolate Chip Cookies are just that good.
Now after the pick is when things started getting a little contentious, and by a little contentious, we mean a lot contentious. As per usual with the barstool crew, fireworks went off when Chief asks Eddie how he likes his cookie. Eddie leads the way stating he prefers a crisp rim and a little softness. Chaps follows this up by questioning the predominant crisp call, seemingly standing in a more gooey realm. Chief then quickly agrees with the team crispy, with Big Cat quickly following up that he needs the crisp too – he’s a football guy and a dad. He’s been around the block; the cat knows what the cat wants. But… White Sox Dave gets the most slack for saying he likes his cookie squishy and mushy as can be and washing it back as an even soggier milk-soaked cookie. Big Cat repeatedly being grossed out, even going as far as saying he may be a hospice patient, with Eddie then chirping asking WSD how long he has been doing snowball cookies.
These guys are professionals – they know how to get clicks and views and people debating in the comments. We had to fire off a DM to try and settle this for them. I messaged Eddie and let him know that we just started a chocolate chip cookie dough company (at the time, it was our only flavor) and we’d love to come in with fresh baked cookies to put everyone to the test, for real this time. We didn’t think much of it, yet he messaged us back a few hours later and said the team would love to have us come in. We were ecstatic, but…we have a range on the back of our backs for a reason and it didn’t include predominate crisp! We couldn’t even settle the debate in our own household at two bake times, let alone 3 lol. Ooey gooey is my preference, on the low end of our recommended bake time at 14 minutes and Crispy Chewy, my husband’s preference on the high end clocking in at 18 minutes. Don’t get me wrong, I will fight through a crispy chewy cookie if I have to, but I am a ooey gooey girl through and through. Then there was uncharted territory, one we still do not recommend on our pack – the predominate crisp. It wasn’t for us then and still isn’t for us now, we thought it dried out the cookies too much, but the fellas get what the fellas ask for and we baked them for an unprecedented 20+ minutes.
These were all back ups for the main event, the star of the show was going to be a fresh baked ooey gooey cookie, right out of the oven. We walked into the barstool Chicago office and the energy in the room was electric. If you are a barstool fan, you have undoubtably watched these guys and they are just as fun as you’d expect. White Sox Dave then immediately walks out of the office and marches back with a tub of ice cream and a gallon of milk. We set up the oven and the conversation immediately turns right back to Dave, his goo ball energy, and how he bakes banana bread at least every 6 months. All the hilarious conversations allowed us time to get the first batch of cookies out of the oven.
We let Dave drive the bus on his level of doneness and he pulled them at what he said was the perfect gooey cookie. We always say on our bag, even if you like the cookies gooey, let them cool before enjoying. Dave dug right in and almost IMMEDIATELY turned on goo ball nation. Too Gooey, he says after talking a huge game on the pod, he let down all team ooey gooey. He redeemed himself a bit once we brought in the other cookies and we were so happy to hear everyone’s thoughts on the dough! 9.55 rating – we’ll take it!
- White Sox Dave: 10.0 - said he was a gooball guy, not a gooball guy. Ate 4 cookies in about 30 minutes.
- Eddie: 9.3 - straight shooter, right down the middle crispy chewy. No BS.
- Barstool Chief: 8.9 - took BAKR cookies to a place we had previously not been to, predominate crisp. May have to add in new bake times for our crispy cookie fan.
- Danny Conrad: 10.0 - crispy chewy, our kinda cookie - you love to see it.
If you want to watch our bit in the Stool Scenes episode, we are the last five minutes. It worth a few laughs and brings back fond memories of the early days of our company. We appreciate the guys having us out to the office – we had so much fun hanging around the crew for the afternoon and sharing some early batches of our dough with the entire Chicago team. Owning your own business comes with so many highs and lows and this was undoubtably a high point in our first months of BAKR’s existence. We can’t wait for the journey ahead – who knows who else will try our cookies in the future!
VIVA! Happy Baking as always!
Alexa 