Cookies

Ari Livshutz
Sep 5, 2018 · 11 min read

Final Idea

Recipe

Idea Generation

Idea test 1

Idea test 2

Iteration


Tuesday 9/4: Think of a couple cool ideas

Wednesday 9/5: Sketch up a couple ideas and decide which one/ones to implement, blog the process.

Thursday 9/6: Research how those ideas could be implemented blog the research sites Moms advice etc, formulate the plan and get ingredients…

Friday 9/7: Get ingredients blog pics of store items etc…

Sunday 9/9: (get the house insured) Start test cooking err… baking the cookies to see if the concept works and blog results (even the inevitable ones …)

Wednesday 9/12: Go for the real deal/s and blog (hopefully) awesome pics of final cookies.

Thursday 9/13: Final prep and taste testing/ reviews

Friday 9/14: Backup day just in case things get pushed off.


Last night I made a few sketches of my cookie idea!!! But no need to celebrate yet… because the file wasn’t the “right type” so I’ll have to ask my Computer Wiz brother how to convert files and I’ll send them later, but I hope for now my uhh… relatively not horrible writing’ll suffice.

Anyways my main Idea is an awesome innovative cookie called “Chesskie” I thought I invented it, but alas Cristin’s harsh reality was proven right after a quick search on Google. The idea is to create a cookie that not only satisfied our cravings, not only dazzles our taste buds (which nonetheless will surely be blogged about later) but also adds vibrancy and taste to our society as a whole, bringing people together. It’s simply cookies in the shape of 2-Dimensional chess pieces which you play chess with, and when you take a piece from your opponent you eat it in his face munching as he cowers with his cinnamon fudge flavored King. Basically, picture this: Al goes to Aldi’s and after a 15 minute store brawl with a bunch of other “Chesskie hunters”, he gets the last bag of the highly coveted “Chesskies”. As Al leaves the cash register with fresh blood dripping from his nose he gets a call from his best friend Bruce. “Hey Al I heard you got the last “Chesskies”, that is so cool, wow I’d think there’d be like a million other guys trying to get it” Al wipes his bloodied face and replies “Well a million is a bit of an exaggeration but there certainly were other people who showed some… interest in those cookies” Bruce shyly requests “Umm… so Al, you wouldn’t mind if we played a quick game?” “Of course not Brucey boy, see ya at the park at six”

The story ends with our heroes playing an awesome game ending in a draw (Special Rule: When there’s a draw each gets to eat the rest of the opposing teams “Chesskies”)

My second idea which is a bit less sophisticated is a 3 dimensional spin on the ever less popular “Animal cracker” called “The Animal Cookie” , it’s basically a little cookie sculpture of an animal (with awesome filling on the inside of course!)


Finally got those Pictures converted to an acceptable file type (thanks to my computer wiz brother.)

So here they are (Sorry if they’re a bit blurry/messy, I’ll try to fix that up next time)

At the top of the sketches is a basic idea of the “Chesskie” setup with a little “knob” at the top to make it easy to move around the board.

Next up below are some birds eye views of what the various pieces might look like.

Below that I sketched an idea for the “Chesskie” board to be made from the Chesskie cookie bag (probably not relevant to assignment).

The board sketch is 3x6 (squares) since our assignment is to make 12 (which may imply an interesting arrangement of six per player)cookies and this setup looks more complete then 12 little “Chesskies” on a big standard 8x8 chess board. But now come to think of it maybe I’ll just pitch the board as an Idea since the cookies are gonna be split up anyways.

Another idea I’m thinking about is adding flavors for the fillings in proportion to the prominence of the piece, so for a junky piece like a pawn maybe the filling will be strawberry jam, for a higher piece like a rook maybe some tasty malt balls and for their majesties the King and Queen, some scrumptious mouthwatering, exquisite melted Lindor Milk Chocolate!!!

No Title Required

This is a just a visualization of what the “Chesskie” experience is about. It’s a picture of two guys playing, the one on the right is gleefully exclaiming “Ahhh… delicious…” as he munches on a recently captured Bishop from b3. His opponent growls angrily “It’s not over yet I’ll, devour your pieces!!!”


Got to a cookie recipe this should get me a basic idea of what I need for the crunchy, munchy cookie part…

For the white Chesskies (and the Animal Cookies)

and for the black ones…

This looks more confusing then I thought it would be…

Its Official, Grandmas are undercover geniuses.

Here’s a bunch of ideas I sketched up for the Chesskies (right) and animal cookies (left) With pros (+) and cons (-)for each…


Finally got the ingredients…

A BIG shout out to Cubs, Walgreens and random stuff that happened to be in our pantry.

BTW,just realized I left my sketchbook in one of the shopping carts

Oh well, good thing I happen to have a spare one.

So…

The Ingredients are (for now)

Butter, Sugar ,Brown sugar, vanilla extract, eggs, flour, baking soda, salt, Cocoa (For the black Chesskies)

Proportions and process to be recorded later as stuff unfolds


If all else FAILS…

(Don’t tell)

Fillings, as of yet not 100% determined but here’s a few stuff I got to test out.

The Ready Crust stuff are gonna get cleaned out, used for a cake my Moms making for the Jewish New Year, and then the foil will be used for the cookie mold…


Here’s the new sketchbook, just so you guys know I’ll be in quite a rush today cuz from tonight till Wednesday night I’ll be celebrating the Jewish New Year which means no blogs, no cooking and no lotsa other stuff till Tuesday when 3 stars come out at 8:16, things are about to go down…


Alright here’s the plan for testing stuff out (Ideas) Sorry again that its blurry I’ll try to use pen next time. The top half is two Chesskie plans and the bottoms one for Animal Cookies.

So here I go starting Chesskies Plan #1, quick recap

  1. Mold some clay into a Chesskie
  2. Wait till clay is dry
  3. Mold/squish foil onto clay
  4. Take out molded foil and wash
  5. Make/pour in mix add filling and BAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now for Chesskie #2

Basically All the same steps as #1 except make a simple outline mold, instead of 3D.

For Animal Cookies

  1. Sculpt clay into Animal
  2. Slice it in half
  3. Mold both halfs with aluminum
  4. Take out foil and wash
  5. Pour mix into mold add filling, BAKE!!!!!
  6. Glue both cookie halfs with Chocolate/Spread

Now for Animal Cookie #2 make two outlines of animal from cookie (reference Chesskie 2) and have filling in the middle (Dad’s Sandwich Idea)I better Get started! I would hate to reveal the “BACKUP PLAN”

Here’s some clay figures I made on Sunday. Now I've gotta beat the foil into a mold around the clay (if that’s even possible, and then get test cooking!!!!

From left to right there’s the Chesskie plan #1 (Knight) then a Queen for #2

and finally two halfs for the Animal Cookie sandwich idea (elephant), its gonna be a long night…

Cmon that’s a nice little horsey for like 5 minutes of work, no?

Well here is the foil molding part I did tonight (Tuesday) I basically took the foil put it on the hardened clay and squished it with the foil ( Don’t worry the hammer was just there as a threat so the foil would behave) and at the end I did get decent foil mold although the clay cracked.

Then there was my second Chesskie plan, the aluminum pan outline thingy,

But right when I started to form a strip of aluminum around the Queen piece silouette, Her Majest decided she had enough…

RIP ( Or should I say RIPs as in pieces)

IT coulve gone better…

So I had to make the queen aluminum outline by myself…


Her excellency exclaims “Pretty good job using just your hands and aluminum”


And for the “Animal cookie” an elephant! The clay broke so this was also done just by hand. It looks more like a baby elephant no?


COOOOOOOkING Time!! ( The part I dreaded from the beginning), I’m loosely following the online links blogged before, naturally with a few quirks of my own such as Moms advice, messed up proportions and …. coffee ( Because why not)

If you mix a mixture, shouldn't you pick a picture?!?
MOLDS and cookie cutters before baking and …..
After

Basically the hellish lighting is perfect for the current events!

I forgot to oil the pan and the outline so everything stuck, the 3D Knight mold seems too risky to ever work even after improvements, and the cookies are squishy and bland.


BUT NO FEAR I WILL LEARN FROM MY MISTAKES AND MAKE AWESOME COOKIES TOMORROW (I will cuz Im writing this blog “tomorrow” and I know the cookies turned out decent, only thing is couldn’t taste them since todays a fast for me… “awesomeish” pics and my 2 ( 3ish) IDEAS COMING UP!!!!!!!


So, good news the ideas are some what presentable from this mornning cookie….!!!!!!

Wait for it…

Much better then the last atrocity committed Tuesday night, don’t you think…

Oh and now its Wednesday night ( still technically, theoretically, and hypothetically within the 10pm hour dealine, with only 40 minutes left till 11 , I better hurry) Maybe I shouldn’t have written that, Oh whatever…so the fast is OVER!!! and I could eat them, they tasted great especially with all the fillings. Heres the recipe the instruction are ordered with the little circled #s

Sorry for the Blurr I’ll blog the recipe quickly in a more clear way here we go! (italics denote ingredients)

CHESSKIE RECIPE

Servings:12

Take cereal bowl put in 3 spoons of butter and 1 cup of sugar so the butter get completely covered, mix up alot. Add 1 egg and two spoons of vanilla extract

Now add some ground coffe (why not) add 2 cups of flour, 1 spoon of baking soda (sorry about writing 1 cup, DONT DO THAT and bake in a preheated toaster oven at 375 degreees F, for 15 minutes ( with desired molds, and shapes) Fillings will be listed a the end of this story.

And now I present to you the onen the only…. CHESSKIE!!!!!! (IDEA 1)


Its a white pawn, unfortunately it cracked in half as I was taking it out, but luckily my cookie cream spread came to the rescue and glued it back together, I also took advantage and added the I aluminum knob I was talking about in the beginning ( so you wont eat a chesskie that your opponent slobbered with his greasy fingers.)


Here’s a another piece its a noble KNIGHT and then below is Her Majesty, The Queen…


NOW FOR IDEA #2 WE HAVE “ANIMAL COOKIEwich” (sandwich) , the Baby Elephant type!

“ Its the Circle of Life” (I know that’s what you were thinking)
The Chocolate eye makes it look like a bird, bad placement

Unfortunately some evil poachers stole a chunk of our little baby’s trunk as he was being taken out of his mold… (which is wierd cuz I thought thy’re after the ivory tusks, if you know any reason a poacher would want a trunk lmk)

and its sandwhiched with cookie cream and… strawberry jam! Oh! and A chocolate bar hidden in the crust.

It kinda looks like he has 2 back legs, no?

Here’s our little baby elephant before he got sandwiched

Well It looks like I finished on time its 11:30

Meaning …

The blog was due 10 pm Wednesday night 9/12, now one can look at 9/12 and say “hold on something doesn’t make sense, it first says 10 and then now 9:12” so I could say we just add them up so 10+9:12 (using PEMDAS) = 10 and 3 quarters or 10:45 which would mean I’m still late

But we know thats silly because when it says 9:12 it doesn't mean 9 divided by 12 but rather 9 hours and 12 minutes, so if we add 10 +9 and 12 minutes it means the assignment was due at 7 tomorrow morning…

Basically I finished a tad late and hope ask and pray you let it slide, if you haven't anyways, Now as a finale I’ll list my Filling plans For My Chosen IDEA THE CHESSKIE,

Pawn: Chocolate Chips

Knight: Chocolate Bar

Bishop: Chocolate Bar

Rook: Cookie Cream

Queen: Caramel + Strawberry spread

King: Caramel + Honey

Gotta go and and bring 12 Chesskies to life!!!!! and other stuff.

Doesn’t the Rook in the middle look a bit cRooked?

Ari Livshutz

Written by

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade