the results are in!

This was a lot of fun and I enjoyed hearing what other people had to say on the subject. I was really curious how they would turn out, but I really needed input from other people, people I knew have strong opinions about things and know me well enough to just laugh at me and play along. Since I was the only one who knew which cookies were which, I couldn't trust my own opinion, because I knew which ones I wanted to taste the best- the French ones of course. I want desperately to believe that my own palate was so refined, that "of course I can tell the difference, I've been to Paris, you know..." (picture me dramatically flipping my hair and looking very fabulous and sophisticated as I say that) and so between my own ego, and the fact that I really like the ones made with regular American butter because that's the way I've been eating them for years, well, clearly I can't be trusted to have an unbiased opinion. - And then there's my husband, well, lets just say he's not that great of a food critic-

"It's good."

"Give me something I can work with! Give me some constructive criticism! How can I make this better!"

"Make more."

"Aaaaaarghhhhhh!"

And then there's the kids. They totally can't be trusted because their palates haven't been refined yet. They still think Hershey's is primo chocolate.

And so I sought the help of some friends- and this is what I brought them (tres classy, non?) (this pic is just for you, Alisa)

Other comments made personally to me included things like "I had my brother/brother in law try it and he did not like 'A' at all- but he spent 2 years serving a mission in France. "

The comments of course totally made my day. They made this whole project worth it. At any rate- I'll just get right to it, in case any one out there is dying to know which one is which-

A- the butter from Costco

B- the Vermont butter

C- The French AOC butter.

I think the French butter was hands down the winner, and the Vermont butter came in last. It was interesting how many people said it had "an aftertaste". Also unless the Vermont butter was hands down the winner, I don't think I'd use it because it was more difficult to use. The packaging was cute, but unless you were going to use the whole thing, besides being messier to work with, it would be difficult to measure and keep. Maybe not too difficult, but just not what I am used to. And so it would irritate me.

The thing that is still bothering me though is that I completely ignored one tiny, itsy bitsy, ingredient- salt. The Costco butter is the butter that I use, and it is salted butter. The others were unsalted sweet cream butter, and I didn't even think about that until after the cookies were made. A couple friends said that they liked A better, and when we talked further, and I told them of my salt issue, they said that makes sense, because they are "salt people". The salt isn't supposed to stand out, but you use it in baking as a flavor enhancer. For the most part you don't notice it in a recipe, but you'll notice if you forgot it.

I'm thinking that if I were to do this again, I'd make a batch with the regular Costco butter, and then two batches of the French butter, one without salt, and one with just a little- maybe a 1/4 teaspoon or so... I don't know. John wants me to test it on my caramels. (of course he does) I'd like to figure the salt thing out first though. And I'd need a lot of volunteers to help me test them. But where, oh where would I find caramel testers?