Creative Exploration with Cookies
Final Idea and Recipe
I went with a cookie inspired by the Spanish Tarta de Santiago. Tarta de Santiago is a Spanish cake that has notes of almond and orange. Final Recipe is: 0.75 c softened butter, 1 c sugar, 1 egg + 1 yolk, 0.5 oz almond extract, zest and juice from 1 large orange, 2.5 c flour, 0.25 c cornstarch, 1 tsp baking soda, 0.5 tsp salt. Cream the butter and sugar together then add the egg and yolk, mix in the almond and orange. Mix all dry ingredients together and slowly add them while mixing. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.
Idea Generation
I started with looking up traditional world desserts to find one that I thought I would be able to turn into a cookie. I wrote down a handful of desserts that I thought sounded good and might be possible to turn into a cookie. My list consisted of Creme Brulee, Baklava, Picarones, Tarta de Santiago,and Banoffee Pie. Baklava and Creme Brulee cookies both already existed and Tarta de Santiago seemed to be something that could simply be turned into a cookie. The second idea I decided to try was peanut butter and honey ham cookies. When I was younger I made a peanut butter and ham sandwich and I remember it being pretty good. Plain peanut butter cookies are pretty simple to make so I decided adding ham would not be too difficult.
Idea Test 1
I made the peanut butter cookie base and simply added some diced ham. I then decided that just adding ham would not make a complex enough cookie so I added feta cheese. These cookies were not awful but were a little weird. They tasted mostly like regular peanut butter cookies but with a little extra salt and they had a weird texture.
Idea Test 2
For the Tarta de Santiago I creamed the butter and sugar, added the egg, then slowly added the orange and and almond until I could taste them. I then finished the cookies normally. They ended up being a little more puffed up than a regular sugar cookie which I anticipated and attributed to the added acid from the oranges reacting with the baking soda. I was hoping for the little bit of puff so it was a tiny bit more cake like. These were very good so I decided to go with them.
Iteration
The first batch of peanut butter cookies were not done enough after the suggested time. So I adjusted the time spent in the oven for a longer period. For the Tarta de Santiago rather than making a batch and testing then retesting I tasted and tested as I made the batter. I kept adding orange and almond flavor until I was happy with it.
