Some Butter And Brown Sugar Will Give Store-Bought Cookie Dough A Major Boost

There's nothing better than homemade cookies — however, sometimes we simply don't have time to start from scratch, so we need to resort to store-bought cookie dough, which may not be as good but certainly still satisfies the cooking craving. Luckily, there are ways to upgrade your store-bought cookie dough so that it tastes a little closer to its homemade counterpart.

One way to boost your store-bought cookie dough requires two simple ingredients: Brown sugar and butter. All you have to do is melt a little bit of butter and add a few teaspoons of brown sugar to it. Then, thoroughly mix the brown sugar butter into the premade cookie dough. Because the brown sugar needs to be evenly mixed into the cookie dough, this method will probably work better if you use store-bought cookie dough that comes in either a large tub or a small tube, rather than the pre-sliced squares (but that will work just as well if you are willing to mush the premade squares together so that it ends up looking like just-mixed fresh cookie dough). The added brown sugar will result in a cookie that is more moist and chewy than it would have been otherwise, making it taste closer to a homemade batch.

Adding in some extra brown sugar and butter is only one of the methods you can use to upgrade store-bought cookie dough. If you're looking to put your own unique spin on cookies, but don't have the time to make the dough from scratch, then you can buy plain premade sugar cookie dough and add in whatever ingredients you desire — such as M&Ms, nuts, or even your preferred type of chocolate chip (such as a more unique choice, like white or dark chocolate).

Additionally, you could make a stuffed cookie recipe — wrap a premade cookie dough piece around a Hershey's Kiss, which will result in a gooey, chocolatey middle when you bite into the cookie. Or, if you're a coffee lover, you can add some instant espresso powder or even a shot of espresso to the store-bought cookie dough in order to achieve a mocha-like flavor in the cookies.

Along with all of these upgrade ideas, another key thing to keep in mind is which store-bought cookie dough you're opting for — store-bought cookie dough brands can range widely in quality. Tasting Table conducted a taste test of 10 store-bought cookie dough brands to conduct and ranking and landed on the three best options: Private Selection, Nestle Toll House, and, at number one, Trader Joe's. Yep, Trader Joe's ranked at the very top of the list — so if you're looking for premade dough that will result in a homemade-like test, you know which brand to buy.