Cookies
Summary
In designing my own cookie, my biggest struggle was choosing between two very different ideas, both of which my friends and I enjoyed a lot. I developed two cookies based on ome of my favorite flavors: Cheese, and bite-sized chocolate treats. The former turned into a savory cheesy cookie that might be best served as an appetizer, while the latter became more of a party favor. Both were delicious.
During my early development process, I thought of several ambitious ideas, but ultimately only found these two ideas to be exciting enough to try. After my first batch of each and sharing them with my friends, I was no closer to choosing which would be my flagship cookie, so I continued to iterate on both types.
Ultimately, I decided to go with the cookie that was easiest to make, while pushing the boundaries of what is considered a cookie. My final decision was a cookie that is both unexpected, and yet is exactly what it claims to be.
Recipe
Cheese Cookies
Makes 12 cookies
Dry Ingredients
- 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp Blanched Almond Flour
- 2 tbsp Coconut Flour
- 1/4 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/4 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1/2 cup Grated Cheddar Cheese
- 1/4 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
Wet Ingredients
- 1/4 cup Sour Cream
- 1 Egg
- 2 tbsp Butter
Chips
- 4–5 crumbs Feta Cheese per cookie
Steps
- Preheat oven to 350º F
- Mix dry ingredients
- Add wet incredients
- Blend with spatula
- make 1-inch diameter balls and place on cookie sheet
- Bake for 12 minutes, and then press Feta crumbs into top of each cookie
- Bake for an additiona 5 minutes.
- Remove from oven and let cool
Mystery Cookies
Makes 12 cookies
Dry Ingredients
- 2 and 3/4 cups Flour
- 2 tsp Cream of Tartar
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 cup Granulated Sugar
- 1/3 cup Light Brown Sugar (packed)
Wet Ingredients
- 1 cup Unsalted Butter (melted)
- 1 Egg
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
Treats (Suggested — Try your own!)
- 3 large Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
- 3 Double Stuf Oreo Cookies
- 3 York Mints
- 1 1/2 Snack-Size Kit Kat bars, cut into half-length pairs
Steps
- Place treats in the freezer
- Preheat oven to 350º F
- Mix dry ingredients in one bowl
- Whisk wet ingredients in another bowl
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix with a spatula
- Chill the dough in the refridgerator
- Once chilled, mold dough around frozen treats. Dough balls should be about one inch thick, and 1.5–2 inches in diameter.
- Use cooking spray or butter to coat the inside of a three-inch diameter glass container or coffee mug (one per cookie). Container should be oven-safe.
- Place doughball in center of container
- Bake container for 15 minutes or until the surface of dough no longer appears doughy.
- Remove container, let cool, then use a knife to pop the baked cookie out of the container.
- Serve in an assortment of different treat-filled cookies!
Idea Generation
Idea generation has never come very easily to me, so I committed to coming up with two or three ideas every day for three days before picking two which which to move forward.
Most of my ideas were new flavors of cookies, but I also had some ideas for different forms of cookies.
I had some sillicon molds for making LEGO ice-cubes, and I thought maybe they would work for baking cookies. I also had several different sorts of cupcake and muffin pans. Additionally, I had an idea for making baked cookies in a can, that you could tear or push out and either slice or bite off.
The more I thought about these options, however, the more I decided I wasn’t excited about trying to make tiny bricks that probably wouldn’t function as LEGO bricks, and creating a can form was not feasible given my resources.
The ideas I got most excited about were the flavors that I go to for pleasure food. I love cheese, and I was very intrigued by the idea of making some sort of cookie that was cheese-based. I also love treats like Oreos, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and other bite-sized snacks. Though baked cookies have been made based on Oreos and Reese’s, I thought I might be able to find my own unique take on the snacks.
Idea #1 Test
Cheese Cookies
When I told my friends I was going to try to make a cheese cookie, most of the reactions were that of disgust. “Cheese and sweet just don’t go together!” (I really never considered cheesecake to be a viable route to take, since I don’t know anyone who actually associates cheesecake with cheese; furthermore, I don’t even like cheesecake.)
Using my friends’ forceful feedback, I determined I wouldn’t use a sugar-based dough recipie.
I started with a recipe I found at my parents’ place. I thought of the “biscuits” my mother made because, rather than being flakey like most biscuits, they crumbled like a cookie.
I familiarized myself with the recipe, and then started thinking about how I was going to turn it into a cookie. Cookies often have things in them, like coconut or chocolate chips. I decided I’d put in shreaded parmesan as a texture analogous to coconut, and feta as an analogy to chocolate chips.
I also chose to substitute sour cream for the heavy cream, and to add shredded cheddar to the dough as a cheese flavor.
The result tasted great! My friends all really enjoyed tasting it, but were uncertain of whether they would call it a cookie, due to it being more savory than sweet.
Furthermore, the cookie resembled more of a macaroon than the chocolate-chip-cookie shape I was hoping for. I figured if I moved forward on this cheese cookie, I could play with the recipe to find a shape I liked.
Idea #2 Test
Mystery Cookies
There are many recipies for cookies based on other candys, like Oreo-based cookies or Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup cookies. Some of these are even recipes for cookies with these treats placed in their centers.
My twist on this is to make cookies that contain a surprise: a batch of cookies indistinguishable from one another, but containing any one of several possible hidden treats. They could be distributed out as a random assortment, with the consumer never sure what treat they would bite into.
My first thought was to wrap the treats in a chocolate chip cookie, but decided that the texture of chocolate chips would likely mask the presence of the hidden contents. Instead, I decided to use a snickerdoodle recipe. I’d never made snickerdoodles before, but they were recommended to me by a friend as a simple, unobtrusive base without being particularly bland.
I browsed around for a simple snickerdoodle recipe, and settled on Snickerdoodles by Sally’s Baking Addiction. I attempted making a batch of plain snickerdoodles to ensure that the recipe tasted good. After the approval of my roommates, I began the process of stuffing them.
Halloween is nearly upon us, so I had no trouble tracking down many options for treats to hide in my cookies. I settled on trying Oreos, Double Stuf Oreos, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, York Mints, Kit Kats, and s’more fixings (graham crackers, marshmallows, and Hershey’s chocolate bars).
I placed my treats in the freezer, and then I made a batch of snickerdoodle dough and chilled it in the fridge. I froze the treats to try to keep their form as best as possible through the stuffing and baking process.
My first draft tasted great, but definitely did not result in uniform shapes. The cookies spread so much that only a small fraction of the volume containes the hidden treats. This made the surprises easy to miss while tasting, even though they made an obvious appearance in the uneven lumps.
My next iteration would have to involve refining the baking process to maintain a uniform shape.
Iteration
Cheese Cookies
My main iterative process was choosing the amounts and placement of the cheese. When I added in lots of cheese to the dough before baking, it didn’t spread out much during baking. I was able to change the amounts of cheddar and parmesan pretty freely without much effect.
When I removed the feta chips from the recipe, The cookies spread out very much as I’d hoped.
But when I mixed feta in with the dough before baking, it stuck in a heap.
I settled on the process of baking the cookies almost-thoroughly without Feta, and then opening the oven and pressing chunks of Feta into the dough before closing the oven for another few minutes.
The later in the baking process the feta was added, the more spread out the cookie become, but the less baked the Feta got. I settled on the process outlined in the recipe above.
Final Idea
I decided to produce cheese cookies! This is a counter-cultural cookie because it frankly freaked out most of my friends before they tried it. “Cheese” and “cookie” does not immediately make sense. Once they tasted it, however, they instantly got it, and shared my excitement.
One of the ways this cookie gets away with being so good is that it is strongly based on what we in the United States think of as a Biscuit, rather than being sweet and sugary as we immediately imagine cookies to be. But why do cookies need to be sugary? And one big advantage to savory cookies is that they can be served during almost any meal! No need to save for the post-dinner sweet tooth.
These cookies have cheddar cheese dough, a coconut-like parmesan texture, and delicious feta chips. And on top of all that, they’re gluten-free!
