COOKIES
Timeline and outline
Tuesday 9/4/18 — Receive assignment, create timeline
Wednesday 9/5/17 — Research different types of cookies and different baking methods
Thursday 9/6/17 — Brainstorm cookie ideas
Friday 9/7/17 — Test first type of cookie
Saturday 9/8/17 — Iterate first type of cookie, try new cookie if needed
Sunday 9/9/17 — Test second type of cookie
Monday 9/10/17 — Iterate second type of cookie, create new cookie if needed
Tuesday 9/11/17 — Update process on blog
Wednesday 9/12/17 — Final iteration of both types of cookies, create final batches
Thursday 9/13/17 — Present cookies to class
Final Idea & Recipe
My final idea for this project ended up being beet cookies. I chose to call them “Sweet Beet Treat”. This idea is original and creative for two main reasons. The first reason that this cookie is a creative idea is because I decided to incorporate a vegetable into my cookies rather than something that traditionally goes in cookies and I had to figure out a way to still make it taste good. The second reason being that I had an extra constraint on my recipe given that I am vegan and I wanted to be able to try all the cookies that I made, therefore I had a little more to try and deal with in my process.
The cookie itself is a vegan sugar cookie base with beets, brown sugar, and molasses, it is a traditional shape and size however now a traditional cookie color.

Sweet Beet Treat
2 Large Beets
3 Tablespoons Brown sugar
2 Tablespoons molasses
2 Cups Unbleached all purpose flour
1 Teaspoon baking powder
3/4 Teaspoon baking soda
1 Teaspoon salt
1 Cup sugar
1/2 Cup vegetable oil
1/4 Cup water
1 Teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees
- Peel beets, cut each in half and the slice into thin pieces, pieces should be about 1/4 of a centimeter thick. Oil a baking sheet with vegetable oil and lay beets on it so that none are overlaping. Drizzle molasses over the top of the beets and sprinkle brown sugar over everything. Place in the oven for 15–20 minutes or until soft, don’t let them get crispy!
- In a large bowl mix flour baking powder, baking soda, and salt together.
- In a second bowl combine all other ingredients except for the beets.
- Mix wet and dry ingredients together.
- Put beets in a blender and blend as fine as you can get them. Make sure to add any of the sugar molasses mixture from the pan as well. If it becomes to hard to blend you can add a tablespoon or two of water.
- Add blended beets to dough and mix well.
- Use a spoon to form dough into balls and place on baking sheet.
- Bake at 375 for 8–11 minutes.
Idea Generation
For my idea generation I first did some research on different types of cookies and traditional cookie bases. I then created a list of potential cookie ideas and chose two from that list. From there I worked with ideas for dough bases and figured out how to make my cookies vegan so that I could sample them.

Idea Test 1
The first idea that I tested was the sweet beet cookies. For this experiment I found a sugar cookie recipe and modified it to be vegan. I then figured out how to add the beets without having the cookies fall apart. My first step was to caramelize the beets in the oven.


While the beets were caramelizing I mixed up the sugar cookie base.

When the beets came out of the oven I put them into a food processor and ground them up, I found that this didn’t give me the consistancy I wanted so I moved to a blender instead.



Next I added the beet mixture to my dough and mixed it all together.

I then scooped the dough into balls and placed them on a baking sheet and put them in the oven at 375 for 10 minutes.


Idea Test 2
My second idea was to make a breakfast cookie so I decided to make and oatmeal cookie base and incorporate coffee into my cookie. I first found an oatmeal cookie recipe and veganized it so that I would be able to try my cookie. I started out by brewing some very strong coffee (about twice as strong as I typically make it, and I love strong coffee). I then created a vegan oatmeal cookie base and when it came time to add water to the recipe I substituted the coffee instead.

I then used a spoon to shape the cookies into balls and place them on a cookie sheet to bake for 12 minutes at 350 degrees.


These cookies were absolutely delicious however I decided to move forward with my other idea because I thought it was more creative and relevant to the assignment.
Iteration
In my first batch of the Sweet Beet Treat cookies I found that they rose too much as they were baking so I decided to cut back on the amount of baking soda I used. I also modified them by adding slightly more of the beet, brown sugar, molasses mixture to improve the color.


