Cookies

Ian Anderson
Sep 5, 2018 · 7 min read

Final Idea + Recipe

Behold,

The Canadian Mudslide.

I’m happy to say that the Canadian Mudslide has been one of the proudest culinary moments of my short 18 years on this planet. The perfect combination of earthy notes from the maple syrup, and dominating sweetness from the syrup and frosting alike. This cookie, although tedious, has an oddly familiar flavor profile that makes you savor every last bite.

Now referred to as the Canadian Mudslide

Idea Generation

I pondered between two types of ideas; cookies that would be potentially delicious, or cookies that are strange and unique. I thought of more traditional cookies like a chocolate chip hybrid cookie and more unique ideas like a cookie made with garlic and activated charcoal. Thankfully, Professor Moran had told us that random does not equal creative, so I plan went with a chocolate chip hybrid instead.

Idea 1 Test

I decided to play a northern twist on an American classic; Maple syrup chocolate chip cookies filled with chocolate frosting. I knew the sweetness of the syrup would overpower the rest of the flavor, but it would make the cookie unique while still being in the realm of possible and edible. These cookies required a reasonably advanced process and took a lot longer than I initially thought. The cookies begin their life as a classic chocolate chip cookie recipe with a unique twist:

After my dough was formed and my syrup was added, I started lightly kneading the dough and then vigorously crushing it flat. I used some flour on the dough to prevent my fingers from sticking to it. The syrup I used was 100% pure maple syrup.

After my dough had been flattened, I started with the frosting. I emptied about a 1/2 cup of Pillsbury chocolate frosting into a large mixing bowl. As I tried to form the frosting into balls, it kept sticking to my hands. I improvised and used some more all-purpose flour and was then able to create the frosting balls.

Once my frosting balls were complete, and my dough was flat, I separated the dough into circular sections and placed a frosting ball into the center of each dough circle. It was not easy, but I eventually had five separate dough circles with a frosting ball on each one.

After my cookies were adequately set up, I used some more flour to roll them into balls and preheated the oven to 350 degrees.

Finally ready to bake!

I wiped any excess dough off the tray and baked the cookies for 14 minutes at 350 degrees.

The first thing that I noticed was that I must have added too much frosting, as the frosting was seeped out of the dough balls and burned onto the pan. This ended up only being a minor problem because I could scrape off the excess once they cooled down.

After scraping the cookies out of their burned frosting graves, I placed each of them on a plate and gave them to four of my neighbors to review.

A little big and gooey, but not bad!

The reviews were positive, with 3/4 of the reviews rating the cookie 4 or higher out of 5

The general advice was to make the Canada cookie less chewy, crumbly and spread a lesser amount of frosting more evenly in the cookie. I thought adding some syrup into the frosting balls and adding more PAM to the baking sheet would help as well.

Happy neighbor 1
Happy neighbor 2
Angry neighbor 1 and Happy neighbor 3

Idea 2 Test

For my second cookie, I decided to convert the famous fluffy Japanese pancake into an American-ized cookie. I plan to closely follow the original recipe while adding chocolate chips and baking them to ensure their similarities to a traditional cookie. The recipe is as follows:

I started by whisking my two egg whites into a thick foam. I also added a pinch of salt and cream of tartar to make the foam thicker.

While my eggs were resting, I started mixing my dry ingredients in a separate mixing bowl.

Afterward, I added my egg whites and then my two egg yolks.

I then mixed the ingredients and added the vanilla extract and the chocolate chips.

Finally, I placed my cookies on the baking sheet and into the oven at 350 degrees and baked them for 19 minutes.

The cookies came out crispier on the outside and softer on the inside, just like a pancake.

The reviews for the fluffy cookie were less than positive, as the average overall score was a 1.75/5. My neighbors made it clear that the Canada Cookie was indeed the one to make an iteration of and that the fluffy cookie should be abandoned as soon as possible. The reviews are as follows:

:(

Iteration

In a landslide victory, the Canada Cookie came out on top, defeating the fluffy cookie by a score of 5–0. I made the obviously requested Canada Cookie V2 based off of the suggestions of my neighbors. The iteration recipe and steps are listed below:

I began my final iteration like the first test, by laying out the dough, adding the syrup, and forming it into a ball.

After this, I applied a thick layer of PAM onto the baking sheet and placed my syrup-dough onto the baking sheet and flatten each one out.

I then placed the frosting on top of the cookie dough, making sure that it was thinner and more spread out than the frosting from my first test.

As they baked, I noticed that they were cooking a lot more evenly and had a very small amount of frosting runoff. For my batch for class, I could ensure that there would be no frosting runoff by applying the frosting while the dough is hot and on the pan.

The cookies baked for 14 minutes and when I took them out of the oven I was very proud of the final result.

The Canadian Mudslide

Voilà!

The improved and crispy Canadian Mudslide is complete!

As I tasted my final cookie I was impressed, the frosting and syrup content was now a lot more balanced, and the cookie kept it’s shape a lot better when you bit into it.

Timeline:

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