Most Popular Cookie Recipes

Cookie Recipes and Ingredients

This graph represents the most popular cookie recipes of 2020 found on Google Trends. Each set of circles represents a different recipe. Each circle with a different color represents an ingredient. The size of the circles represent the amount added to the recipe. Because the amounts can be cups to pinches the increases in volume are not displyed in a linear manner.

This display of forms and colors makes it easy to compare ingredients and decide which recipe you want to try!

Most Googled Cookie Recipes of 2020

1. Hilton Double Tree Cookie Recipe
2. Disney's Grand Floridian Chocolate Chip Cookies
3. Joanna Gaines or Magnolia Table Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
4. Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
5. Matcha Cookie Recipe
6. Levain Bakery Cookie Recipe
7. Potbelly Cookie Recipe
8. Edible Cookie Dough
9. Subway Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
10. Rainbow Cookie Recipe
11. Magic Cookie Bar Recipe
12. Single Cookie Recipe
13. Healthy Cookie Dough Recipe

Visualization is not just about cookies. Check this Visual Classification of Cheese you will find why Cheese lovers cannot have enough of it!

Hotel and Resort Cookie Recipes

I discuss the recipes with my relatives and acquaintances. To my surprise they are more in touch with reality and have heard of some of these unknown recipes. I told my husband about them and he had tried the Hilton Doubletree Chocolate Chip Cookies. Before we were married he was a member of Hilton Hotels and was a frequent guest, and yes he remembered and liked those cookies.

This recipe had the top 3 searches out of 25. How could one recipe have more than one spot? Well people would search "Hilton chocolate chip cookies", "Double tree cookies" or "Double tree hotel cookies". Being so sought after I made sure it was the first recipe I prepared. I was glad Doubletree hotel chain decided to publish their recipe. As everything I knew there were going to be some copy cats. In this case I got the original. It was definitely worth it. A bit tough to mix at the end. It had lots of Walnuts and chocolate chips, but that did not make it hard to prepare, bake or try!

The Hilton is not the only hotel chain sought after for its delicious cookies. The next inline is Disney's Grand Floridian Chocolate Chip Cookies. Again in this case the hotel made sure we can bake the real cookie and not settle for copycats. I have visited Disney Parks and went to the Lobby of the Grand Floridian, but I never imagined that such a magical place would also be known for its cookies.

Chocolate Chip Cookies Reign

I am an avid viewer of home renovation homes and I enjoy watching "Fixer Upper", but I never thought that Joanna Gaines was famous for her cookies. But Joanna Gaines Cookie Recipe also made the list. They are actually called Magnolia Table Chocolate Chip Cookies. Beautiful to see, mouthwatering to taste, easy to make. You have to give it a try.

Nestle a well renowned food company, not only found a way to get its brand associated with cookie recipes. It found a way to get its morsels used in most of the recipes in this visualization. Furthermore, it found a way to get its own appetizing recipe: Nestle Chocolate chip cookies.

This graph might help you decide your next meal. Best Cheese and Wine Pairings. Best meats and wine pairings included too.

Restaurant and Bakery Copycat Cookies

This was another interesting find. People's interest in recipes are not limited to hotels and tv hosts. There is a bakery on the East Coast called Levain Bakery. They have a popular Chocolate Chip Cookie. They have not published or made public their Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. There are several proxies online. I don't think they will publish it any time soon, so I chose the first recipe offered by Google. It is a thick chunky appetizing cookie!

The Potbelly Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe is a copycat from the Potbelly Sandwich Shop. There is also the Subway Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, a copycat from the Subway Sandwich chain. These two recipes prove that Restaurants are definitely leaving their mark on costumers, and for some reason they want their cookies homemade or from scratch?

Half Way Cookie Recipes

Edible Cookie Dough Recipe, Single Cookie Recipe, and Healthy Cookie Dough recipe, vary in amounts or stages of the previous recipes. The Healthy cookie dough recipe is a mix of Edible, Vegan, Paleo, Gluten free ingredients. All unexpectedly delicious.

Edible Cookie Dough was a chocolate chip cookie recipe with a twist. There are some avid cookie dough fans out there, and not everyone wants to eat raw eggs. This recipe gives them an alternative option with the same flavor!

Different Cookie Flavors

The Matcha Cookie Recipe was a novelty. I love drinking tea. I rarely adventure away from black tea. I enjoy Chai tea and herbal tea, but I am not a fan of green tea. I usually brew my tea at home but apparently I have missed on tea trends. Starbucks tea drinkers have known about Matcha green tea for a while. I am pleased to say now I know what is Matcha and glad I gave it a try. You don't always have cookies that make you feel healthy.

I am a fan of Ginger Bread houses during Christmas and I love the look of Gingerbread Cookies, but the flavor is a bit too strong for me. I will definately bake them just to decorate them. For those who like them this is a wonderful recipe.

Do you know which county has the most breweries per capita? Breweries per capita and Locations Map, can show you where.

Fantasy Cookie Recipes

When I read the name I thought this was going to be a butter cookie with coloring or lots of M&M's but no, it is more of a cake than a cookie. Rainbow Cookies are almond flavored and common in Italian and Jewish households. They look awesome and taste wonderful!

Out of all recipes the one that looked the least appealing was the Magic Cookie. The pictures did not do it justice. The name was the only thing giving it some points. But this is where the graph comes in. When you see the ingredients you know you have to try it. A far cry from the recipes above but absolutely mouthwatering!

Christmas Inspiration

I wanted to create a visualization inspired in the Christmas Holidays and the Winter Season. I thought about a traditional foods map and a Reindeer map, but neither idea seemed appealing. Then I realized I wanted to focus in just one food. I came to the conclusion that an all time favorite food (for eating and preparing) are cookies. I thought that the search was simple. All I had to do was find out, What are people's favorite cookies? What are the most searched cookie recipes? What are the most popular cookie recipes? Finding people's favorites cookies was going to render and obvious but fun result.

I started my search for favorite cookies reading some blogs. I found an article about all time favorite cookies from Spruce Eats. I absolutely agreed with the results. There were Snickerdoodles cookies, Peanut Butter cookies, Monster cookies, Butterscotch Cookies, Shortbread cookies, White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies, and more! These articles stated the opinion of the author. They are reasonable, even if they are the opinion of one author. They are usually on point.

As a researcher I wanted a more thorough or evidenced approach. I thought I was going to find some study or survey on the topic. Unfortunately that was not the case. I then decided to go to what I consider the next best thing. I went to Google Trends and searched for the terms Cookie and Recipe. I was actually baffled with the result. I did not know or have heard of most of these recipes. Yes, they were mainly chocolate chip cookie recipes. But the names were completely alien. I came to the conclusion that I did not know what Americans wanted or liked.

Recipe Visualization

Designing small multiples graph was the way I wanted to compare different recipes. At first I wanted to represent them with snowflakes. Each crystal representing an ingredient. My first attempts resulted in less than appealing visuals. I tried different angles and lengths. I realized that this approach was not working. I decided to go for circles forming a circle. This gave it a look like Christmas balls on a tree out of focus. I was going for more winter and polar colors. I settled with this Christmas tree green for a background and bright colors for the balls. I hope you liked it!

The pandemic has also changed the way we eat. Check this map of most searched recipes during the pandemic!

Made by Luz K. Molina with D3.js.