Food Lab: Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (butter vs. margarine)

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup butter (or margarine), softened
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

In order to have a properly controlled experiment, I decided to work with salted butter so that it would be on an even playing field with margarine (which comes salted). This way, I was able to follow the exact same recipe for both batches.

Becel Omega-3 Plus margarine	Butter (salted)
Margarine at room temperature – soft and pliable	Butter at room temperature – soft yet firm
Creaming the margarine with the sugar – more watery	Creaming the butter with the sugar – more paste/dough-like
Cookies are more wet and drop-like	Cookies are more dense and moldable

The results:

• The cookie to the left is the one made with margarine. The dough is more watery making it difficult to handle. You would not be able to roll this dough into balls.
• The cookie to the right is the one made with butter. This dough is more pliable and less sticky. It is also slightly more golden in appearance. You would be able to roll this dough into balls. For the purpose of this experiment, I used the drop method for both batches of cookies to be consistent. However, if you were to roll the dough into balls you would get a denser, chewier, less flat and more compact cookie.