Cookies
Final Idea + Recipe:

“The Nuke” was my final idea that I settled on due to its theme and low cost.
Recipe:
1 box white cake mix
1 box yellow cake mix
4 eggs
3 and 1 half tablespoons of cocoa powder
1 and 1 half bananas
1 half stick of butter
Pour both cake mixes into two separate bowls. Be sure to remember which bowl has the yellow cake mix and which has the white as they will both appear white. Next, crack 2 eggs into each of the bowls and stir until a consistency like the one below.

Next, add the 3 and 1 half tablespoons of cocoa powder to the white cake mix and stir until mixed thoroughly. Next cut 1 and 1 half bananas into 1cm pieces, then cut those pieces into 4 identical triangles. Add the banana pieces into the yellow cake mix and stir but do not mash the banana pieces. Next, take about one tablespoon full of each batter and lay them next to each other on a baking sheet so that they resemble a black and white cookie. Repeat this process until the sheet is full, then with a toothpick or thin knife slowly start mixing the two flavors into a swirl. Place inside the oven for 17 minutes at 350 degrees.
Idea Generation:

When the “Cookies” task was assigned, I immediately thought to create a mind map. I knew that I wanted to create a large amount of ideas before proceeding with the creation of the cookies. My main idea that I wanted to focus on was to create some food-related item or dish that had already existed in the real world. I knew once I started working on the cookie project that I wanted to combine two flavors both visually and in terms of taste. I began sketching my initial thoughts on a new 2 - 3 flavor cookie with an emphasis on visual contrast and combination.

When making both of these sketches, I was unaware of how difficult it truly was to manipulate raw cookie dough into a shape like an equilateral triangle. Regardless, when drawing the sketch for “Idea 2”, I had the idea to make a cookie with a very specific theme; Weapons of Mass Destruction. I was intrigued by the idea of elevating the contrast that my cookie would offer. Now, not only would my cookie contain a strong color and taste contrast, but it would also provide a very controversial and deadly topic with something as mundane and civilian as a simple cookie. From there, I got the idea to use chocolate and banana as the two main ingredients, which would represent the black and yellow seen in the infamous “nuclear radiation sign”.

I also chose the use bananas instead of lemon, pineapple or any other yellow food commonly found in deserts due to the fact that I can retrieve as many bananas as necessary in the dining hall in my dorm. Banana peels also contain potassium, a chemical that, when concentrated, can be dangerous.
Idea Test 1 - “The Root beer Float” :

During my first attempt at creating a cookie, I made my own cookie dough from flour, salt, baking soda, sugar, eggs, and sour cream, following a recipe I had found online. Here, I decided to make enough dough for 3 dozen cookies, and then, before baking, I split the dough in half. One half would be used for the root beer and the other would be the vanilla ice cream.
The vanilla ice cream cookie dough worked out perfectly and kept a good cookie consistency and taste. The root beer, on the other hand, did not seem to work at all. For one, the taste and smell of the root beer had completely disappeared even after adding significantly more root beer to the mix. Another problem was that, even before adding the additional root beer, the mix was mainly liquid. In an attempt to fix this issue, I slowly added more flour to the mix hoping that the dry flour would cancel the liquid of the root beer. I still attempted to make a few cookies from the batters. Unfortunately, neither of the flavors could be detected and the rootbeer half of each cookie was not the same consistency as the vanilla cookie. I considered this attempt a failure and moved on to my next idea.

Idea Test 2 - “The Nuke” :

With “The Nuke” I wanted to correct some of my errors I had made in the previous cookie. This time, I wanted to use a pre-made cookie dough mix, but unfortunately, I was unable to obtain the mix. As a substitute, I found white and yellow cake mix. This, to me, was fantastic. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to replicate the yellow color of a banana without using food coloring.

This way, the batter would already be yellow and the bananas would be added simply for taste. Additionally, the white cake mix aided to create the dark color in the chocolate half of the cookie with ease.
Iteration
Obviously, the first obstacle to get over when trying my second cookie was the cookie dough itself. I choose to use cake dough as an alternative because I was unable to find cookie dough. This does, however, allow my cookie to maintain inside the definition of a cookie by Dictionary.com which is “a small sweet cake, typically round, flat, and crisp.” From there, I added the bananas and the chocolate powder into their respective mixing bowls and began experimenting with how I would like to present the cookies.
This was particularly difficult because I was unable to follow through on my original idea that involved making the cookie look similar to a radioactive sign.

I decided I would use a simpler method after attempting to make perfect equilateral cookie dough triangles. I initially decided to have my cookie resemble a traditonal black and white cookie.

After getting some advice from my peers, I then decided to swirl the cookies so that every bite would include part chocolate and part banana.


Timeline:
9/4: Brainstorm ideas with classmate and friends and identify baking products in on-campus housing.
9/5: Begin sketching ideas and research recipes that would work with suggested materials.
9/6: Find a recipe that could potentially work with suggested ingredients and choose the better of the 2 ideas proposed during brainstorming and sketching.
9/7: Go shopping for all of the required ingredients.
9/8: Create and fail “Rootbeer Float” cookie.
9/9: Create and complete “The Nuke” cookie and modify Idea 2 to create a feasible cookie.
9/9: Finish baking and taste testing.
9/13: Bring a dozen cookies to class.