Cookies
Final Idea + Recipe

My final idea that I chose was The Puppy Chow Ultimate Chocolate Chunk M&M Thicc Cookie. This cookie is less dough and more chocolatey toppings. I have always liked oat cookies and their texture so that made me think about what if the cookie was not healthy with oats — it was more chocolately goodness? The Puppy Chow Ultimate Chocolate Chunk M&M Thicc Cookie is exactly how it sounds — a typical chocolate chip cookie with extra flair. The flair comes from the ingredients inside. The cookie has a lot of chocolate and a hint of peanut butter but what is most creative is that the cookie provides a crunch that gives you that sensation of biting into your favorite cereal or eating a bag of chips. The “thiccness” being similar to an oat cookie makes it feel sensational as you bite into it and gives it that feeling of a gooey cookie without it being underdone. Other crunchy cookies on the market initial crunch comes from the cookie being harder in its physical form — this cookie is still your standard chocolate chip cookie in thickness but it has that crunch coming from the inside. This crunch is similar to a thinner cookie without needing to look like others, and that is what makes it innovative.
The Puppy Chow Ultimate Crunch Chocolate Chunk M&M Thicc Cookie
*Making the Puppy Chow —
12 oz Bag Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips
1 Box Rice Chex
1/4 TBSP Vanilla
1 Cup Powdered Sugar
1/4 Cup Butter
1/2 Cup Peanut Butter


Creation —
- Pour cereal in large bowl.
- Set aside.
- Microwave chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter for 1 minute on high.
- Stir.
- Cook for 30 seconds longer or until smooth.
- Add vanilla.
- Pour mixture over cereal, stirring until coated.
- Pour mixture into large container and add powdered sugar.
- Shake until well coated.

*Making the Cookies —
1 Bag Betty Crocker Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix
2 Cups M&Ms
1 Egg
1/2 Cup Butter
4 Cups Puppy Chow
Creation —
- Heat oven to 375 degrees F (or 350 degrees F for dark or nonstick cookie sheet).
- Stir cookie mix, softened butter and egg in medium bowl until soft dough forms.
- Stir in Puppy Chow.
- Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. (For 2 dozen larger cookies, drop by rounded tablespoonfuls.).
- Bake as directed or until edges are light golden brown. This will need 7 minutes of bake time and then to be checked every 2 minutes after if not fully cooked.
- Cool 5 minutes before removing from cookie sheet.


Idea Generation
I started with my initial brainstorming and ideation. I used Blue Sky ideation to start and just started jotting down 100 ideas in my notebook. For inspiration, I looked at Pinterest and searching for what creative cookies are already out there. I started by looking up “Unique Cookie Combinations” and “Creative Cookies.” After I had explored what cookies are already out in the Pinterest universe, I wanted more inspiration so I thought about creative Ice Cream, Waffles, Pancakes, and Donuts I had seen or eaten.
I looked on Pinterest for the most creative recipes that I could find for Ice Cream, Waffles, Pancakes and Donuts. I started picking flavors and features that sounded interesting and combining them. I did not limit myself to what was possible I was just focused on generating as many ideas as I could, whether that be flavors, combinations of textures, smells and even combining cookies that already exist. I thought of 100 ideas and attempted to make them as unique as possible. After I had looked into the Pinterest Universe I decided to look at various weird flavor combinations. I tried to figure out a way to implement these flavor combinations into cookies and mix those combinations.
To deliberate which cookie was the most creative I sent my list to 10 friends and had them vote on which cookies they found the most creative. One of my friends who had taken this class years ago said that a few of my potential cookies she had seen done in her class — which was not a major problem but I wanted mine to be unique. After hearing her opinions on what makes a cookie great and unique I concluded that I should try to pick one that would be unique in its flavor and texture combination but also delicious. I gave each of the 10 people 1 vote each to pick the cookie they thought was the most creative and unique. I received 4 votes for puppy chow, 3 votes for pop rock cookies, 1 for banana nut cookies, 1 for mojito cookie and 1 for cookie ravioli.
Since Puppy Chow and Pop Rock cookies were my highest voted cookies I decided to do a second round of iteration and research on those to see how I could make them better. My Puppy Chow cookies originated from two different thoughts/problems — one being “How might we make a crunchy cookie without it being thin?” and the other being “How might we make the texture of an oat cookie without oats? My Pop Rock cookies came from one idea/problem — “How might we make a cookie that has a popping sensation in your mouth as you eat/How might we make a cookie more fun to eat?” The Pop Rock idea came from a blizzard that was extraordinary when I was younger — The Dairy Queen Pop Rocks Blizzard!





Idea Test 1
Pop Rock Cookies
My first idea that I decided to test was the Pop Rock Cookies, I made the batter and simply started by putting Pop Rocks in Sugar Cookie Batter and seeing if the pop rocks would pop after being baked. Initially when I put the Pop Rocks into the dough it popped a bunch and kept popping even when I placed the dough on a cookie sheet — this made me skeptical of if the rocks would pop when baked.
Ingredients —
1 Bag Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix
1 Egg
1/2 Cup Butter
3 Bags Pop Rocks

Creation —
- Heat oven to 375 degrees F (or 350 degrees F for dark or nonstick cookie sheet).
- Stir cookie mix, softened butter and egg in medium bowl until soft dough forms.
- Stir in Pop Rocks.
- Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. (For 2 dozen larger cookies, drop by rounded tablespoonfuls.).
- Bake as directed or until edges are light golden brown. This will need 7 minutes of bake time and then to be checked every 2 minutes after if not fully cooked.
- Cool 5 minutes before removing from cookie sheet.

After baking the cookies I had my room mate and my room mates partner test the cookies. The verdict that I received was that it was a fantastic tasting cookie but the pop rocks didn’t pop when it was eaten. They also said that it tasted very much like strawberries but had no hint of popping.
After this test I wanted to know why the pop rocks wouldn’t pop after they were cooked before I iterated on that again. I looked into it and discovered that the anatomy of a pop rock is that C02 is trapped inside of a hard candy shell which gives it the flavor but when that hard candy shell melts away they no longer pop. For my first iteration of not my final but just to test I wanted to test to see if I just topped the cookie with frosting and then pop rocks how long it would take to pop. The first bite was crazy and completely insane and it popped so much it was great — just like the blizzard I based it off of. I left the cookies overnight and sadly the pop rocks dissolved into my frosting and now they look unappetizing.




Idea Test 2
Puppy Chow Crunch Cookies
1 Bag Betty Crocker Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix
1 Egg
1/2 Cup Butter
2 Cups Puppy Chow
Creation —
- Heat oven to 375 degrees F (or 350 degrees F for dark or nonstick cookie sheet).
- Stir cookie mix, softened butter and egg in medium bowl until soft dough forms.
- Stir in Puppy Chow.
- Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. (For 2 dozen larger cookies, drop by rounded tablespoonfuls.).
- Bake as directed or until edges are light golden brown. This will need 7 minutes of bake time and then to be checked every 2 minutes after if not fully cooked.
- Cool 5 minutes before removing from cookie sheet.
I noticed that the cookies burnt much easier because there is less dough and more chocolate chips and puppy chow. Also once I tested the cookies afterwards they did not have nearly enough crunch. I had my boyfriend rank the cookies in the way of crunchiness on the scale of Peanuts (1) — M&Ms(3) — Reesies Puff Cereal(5) and he said that the initial cookies were more around the 2 area because the puppy chow was not as equally distributed so not all cookies had that crunch. I learned that two cups was not enough to make enough of a crunch that I wanted.



Iteration
The biggest problems were with the cookie bake time and the overall internal crunch of the cookies. I noticed as I said earlier that the cookies burnt much easier because there is less dough and more chocolate chips and puppy chow. I tested various bake times versus the amount of puppy chow. There was an inverse relationship between the two variables. The more crunch that the cookies provided the more I needed to decrease the bake time. I also kept the cookies to only have them bake on the top rack because that is where you get the most evenly baked cookies.
I added m&ms and more puppy chow and then I tested the amount of puppy chow and m&ms that my boyfriend said was the crunchiest, and after doubling the amount of puppy chow — 4 cups he said that was equivalent to eating a Reesies Puff Cereal, which was perfect. This dough was very hard to ball since it had so much puppy chow, m&ms and chocolate chips in it. The finalized cookie was delicious and “a sensation of bliss upon every bit of crunchy goodness.” By modifying the recipe I got the slight crunch, the peanut butter taste and the “thicc” cookie I wanted!








Timeline:
