Cookies
Summary: Inventing a cookie was a very new experience for me, given my lack of a baking background, but I wanted to invent a cookie that brought out all of my favorite flavors from deserts that I hold a special sweet tooth for.
Final Idea: My Final idea resulted in combining my favorite dessert, Apple Pie, with my favorite candy, Charleston Chews. Its called an Apple Chew. It combines the cinnamon sugar taste from a snicker doodle cookie and the taste of an apple pie and pairs it with a gooey chocolate and nougat center. I consider it a novel idea for two reasons: it is a cookie in the shape of a muffin for the purpose of being filled, and it is filled with a combination of different desserts.
Recipe:
Dough ingredients: 2 sticks of butter, 1.5 cups sugar, 2 eggs, 3 cups flour, 1 tsp. baking soda, .25 tsp. salt, 3 tsp. cinnamon, 1 tsp. vanilla,
Filling ingredients: 1 can apple filling, 1 box of Charleston Chews, 1 jar of Hershey's caramel syrup.
Directions: Combine all dough ingredients into mixing bowl and knead until mixed. Grease cupcake pan and place quarter size amount of dough into each compartment. Cut up one apple from the can of apple filling, and place 4 pieces onto dough in compartment. Add one Charleston Chew. Place another quarter sized piece of dough on top. Bake at 350 Degrees for 10–12 minutes.
Take out of oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Drizzle caramel syrup on top to finish. Enjoy!
Idea Generation: I started with a list of all of my favorite desserts and started combining flavors that I thought would be a good pair for each one. After brainstorming many cookie ideas, I determined what ideas deserved to be tested and brought to life. The combination of a pie and a cookie came about after I decided I wanted to have multiple fillings inside one cookie. Being able to combine complimenting flavors is a key part in being able to create a successful, tasty, and novel idea.
Idea 1 Test: Since I have never baked before, I started with a basic chocolate chip and peanut butter chip cookie recipe, which provided a starting point for future tests.
Idea 2 Test: I Started with cooking the dough first in a cupcake pan, and after it had cooled, adding apple filling on top. When I had test subjects try it, the cold apple filling was not a good balance with the warm cookie.
Iteration 2: I hollowed out the cookies to make more room for apple filing, and the second trial I baked the apple filing with the pie, so it would come out warm as well. I also added caramel drizzle to the top of it for aesthetics and taste.
Iteration 3: In addition to adding the apple filling to the inside, during the next test I also added a Charleston Chew to add some other complimenting flavors and to make it a more novel idea.