Cookies

Jackson Goerges
Sep 5, 2018 · 4 min read

Final Idea: Caramel Apple Jalapeño Sugar cookie

Idea Generation: A lot of my idea generation was just thinking of random foods and turning them into cookies, some notable favorites of this method were Sushi cookies(raw cookie dough, chocolate chips, assorted other toppings, wrapped in some sort of edible leaf or almond bark), quesadilla cookies(baked cinnamon sugar dough wrapped in a tortilla and cut into triangles with assorted toppings and dipping sauces).

Other ideas I had were: orange butterscotch cookies with orange frosting, lemon-lime layered cookie, chocolate chip Twinkie balls, vanilla chocolate stacked swirl cookie, Gatorade flavor cookies, cookies on a stick, lavender cookies, etc... Lots of decent ideas I think, but I ended up going with something a little more structurally simple.

Idea Test 1: Banana Cookie, banana shaped… I made the cookie dough for these from scratch; butter, flour, baking soda, over-ripe bananas, etc. No banana shaped cookies ever came of this idea. I made two batches, both turned out to be much too bread-like to call them a cookie. They tasted very good though, similar to a banana pancake, but with some cookie aspects. My from scratch baking skills really limited me on this one..

Idea Test 2: Apple snickerdoodle.

This was a good cookie. I used store bought snickerdoodle cookie dough and homemade dehydrated apples. To dehydrate the apples I sliced up Sweet Tango apples and put them in a toaster oven at about 150 degrees for around ten hours.

Apples in the toaster oven
Dehydrated apples and cinnamon sugar

While these were appetizing cookies, I decided that they were not novel or innovative enough for this assignment. I had to come up with something new to appease the guidelines…

Idea Test 3: Apple caramel jalapeño sugar cookie.

Final iteration of Apple caramel jalapeño sugar cookie

Alright hear me out on this one…

I was making some jalapeño chicken while I was baking a batch of my apple snickerdoodles and I decided to set aside some of my jalapeños to add into my cookies. My roommates thought I was whack for having the idea, but I stuck with it.

Jalapeño sugar cookie dough

I added the jalapeños straight to the dough and plopped some globs onto the baking sheet. I nixed adding a coat of cinnamon sugar to this batch out of personal preference(basically making them sugar cookies). A minute into the baking process I added on the homemade dehydrated apples, giving the cookies some time to expand to fit them. Once they were finished baking I added on the caramel.

Caramelizing process up close

Holy smokes were these tasty. Right away when you bite into the cookie you get a taste of jalapeño mixed with the cookie dough, it was a simply pleasurable experience. Then came the caramel and apple taste, which paired so intricately with the sugar and jalapeño that you would have thought it had been a baking staple for the last century. My roommates agreed.

On Tuesday night I baked my final batch of the jalapeño caramel apple cookies. I baked them in two sets, making sure to keep the process the same for each; apple placement timing, jalapeño to dough ratio, bake time, cookie size, etc. I only had enough apple slices for 15 cookies, so I split them up between batches in case one turned out poor. To my luck both batches turned out great and I had some cookies to give out to the roommates who so diligently helped and critiqued my cookies along the way.

Timeline:

Tuesday 9/4: First day of class. Make this outline and timeline

Wednesday 9/5: Outline Due. Brainstorm with roommates

Thursday 9/6: Look up brainstormed ideas

Friday 9/7: Make cookies to practice. Eat cookies

Saturday 9/8: Brainstorm more. Make test batch, eat cookies

Sunday 9/9: More brainstorming

Monday 9/10: Final run, maybe.

Tuesday 9/11: Final changes.

Wednesday 9/12: Bake the product

Thursday 9/13: Cookies Due in class

Friday 9/14: Peer review due

Paper blog pages:

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