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Frozen cookie dough offers a shortcut to the house-filling smells of melting chocolate and sizzling butter. But the world has moved far beyond the classic plastic tubes and bland flavors of slice-and-bake doughs. Some of Seattle’s most famous cookies now come as premade dough shoppers can grab at the grocery store and bring home to cook at their leisure.
I baked and tasted my way through a dozen types of cookies—with help from my 7- and 9-year-old self-appointed official tasting assistants—to determine which ones lived up to the in-store versions.
Hello Robin, Birthday Cake Cookie Dough
Winner
Pastel sprinkles and a rich vanilla dough conceal the molten white chocolate center of these fun, colorful cookies. Like all the Hello Robin cookies, it comes as a frozen 12-pack of preportioned balls that bake up beautifully in exactly the prescribed time.
$18–21 for a bag of 12 dough balls
Runner-Up
Chewy and electric purple, with the sweet complexity of its star ingredient, this scoop-it-yourself cookie dough has some advantages. The instructions suggest a tablespoon-size portion, which, even generously scooped, would make 16 servings—of rather small cookies. But it was nice to be able to tailor the cookie size to our mood—little ones for a snack, larger ones at dessert. The downside is that this one lives in the fridge, making it more perishable than the frozen contenders.
$15 for a pint of dough (makes 12–16 cookies)
Best Gluten-free and/or Vegan
As with their more famous ice cream, Frankie & Jo’s manages to make vegan, gluten-free cookies that absolutely stand up to—and often best—any traditional version. The flavors are creative, and while I enjoyed the miso oat variety, the lacy caramelization of the chocolate chip was the crowd-pleaser, despite the 18-minute bake time. Thankfully, these have the bonus of being totally safe to eat raw or cooked.
$16 for a bag of eight dough balls
Honorable Mention
If it were not for how good the in-store version of “The Cookie” is, this dough might have done better. (Full disclosure: I was the marketing manager for Metropolitan Market when the Cookie launched more than a decade ago.) The bake-at-home balls are a fraction of the size, which makes the chunkiness that’s great in the larger version slightly overwhelm the dough. Completely divorced from the in-store version, it’s a good cookie and a great value compared to other premium bake-at-home options.
$6 for a box of six dough balls