Cookies

Emmy Shinners
Sep 5, 2018 · 8 min read

Final Idea + Recipe

Creamy Dream Cookie

The Creamy Dream Cookie combines some of a vegetarian’s favorite things; fruits, vegetables, and nuts. This cookie combines two sweet and salty treats (guacamole and peanut butter) with an orange slice for a wonerfully unique flavor, while keeping the texture of a familiar cookie. This lovely cookie has never been made before, it has multiple spins on a typical cookie, and it has a flavor combination which is not found in other food. It is a vegetarian’s dream.

Ingredients:

3 avocados

5 grape tomatoes

1/3 cup cilantro

2 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/2 white onion

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

2 cups creamy peanut butter

1 tablespoon vanilla

2 cups brown sugar

2 cups white sugar

4 eggs

5 cups flour

4 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

5 clementines

Procedure:

  1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Cut avocados by slicing all the way around the avocado, so that there are two pieces. Cut from top, down to bottom, then back up to the top on the other side.
  3. Remove the pit from the avocados and then spoon out the innards into a bowl.
  4. Mash the avocado up with a fork, so that it is decently smooth, keeping only a few lumps.
  5. Cut up the tomatoes, white onion, and cilantro into tiny chunks. Add these to the mixture, then stir them in.
  6. Add salt, pepper, and lemon juice.
  7. In a seperate bowl mix peanut butter, butter, vanilla, white sugar, and brown sugar together.
  8. Slowly mix eggs one by one into that mixture.
  9. In another bowl mix flour, baking soda, and salt. After slowly add this combination into the peanut butter mixture, mix at a low speed.
  10. Add the guacamole mixture to the peanut butter mixture and mix at a slow speed.
  11. Roll into approximately 1 inch balls and place 12 on a standard cookie tray.
  12. Bake for 8–11 minutes, or until the cookie has started toform, then take out the cookies.
  13. Next add one slice of clementine into the middle of each cookie.
  14. Place the cookies back in the over and bake them for 3–5 more minutes, or until the cookies have fully risen.

Idea Generation

I originally started my idea generation by a brainstorming session where I wrote down everything that came to mind. I really enjoy cooking, so I tried thinking about all the odd things that I had cooked previously. I then continued to think about different ways to change a traditional cookie. I did this whenever I had free time between classes or at home. My real inspiration though came when I was making dinner. I am a vegetarian, so I eat a lot of odd things as substitutes for meat. I was thinking about what I could use the remainder of my produce from my zucchini and eggplant lasagna for, when I realized that I could use it in this project. I then sat for a bit and thought of all the different ways zucchini and eggplant could be incorporated into a cookie. I decided on a cookie similar to an Oreo, but with a zucchini slice being the filling, and a peanut butter cookie as the outsides. After that I thought that maybe I could use other meat substitutes as cookie ingredients. After pondering these ideas for a while, I decided on a guacamole peanut butter cookie. This may or may not be because I believe that those are the two yummiest forms of protein, and I was looking for an excuse to try them together.

Idea 1 Test

Zucchinut Cookie

Ingredients: sugar, peanut butter, salt, flour, vanilla, eggs, zucchini

Procedure:

  1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Mix salt and flour together in a small bowl.
  3. Mix sugar, peanut butter, and vanilla together at a low speed.
  4. Mix in the eggs one by one at a low speed, then slowly mix in the salt and flour mixture.
  5. Grease the pan with preferably coconut oil, but other nonstick substitutes work as well.
  6. Slice the zucchini into thin circular slices, starting by cutting off the end of the zucchini.
  7. Spread the dough onto one side of the zucchini, then place it dough side down on the cookie sheet. Repeat this step until you have used up half of the dough. The amount will depend on the size of your zucchini.
  8. Spread the remaining mixture on the other size of the zucchini slices.
  9. Bake for 10–13 minutes or until the color has changed into a slightly darker brown.

Thoughts: This cookie was quite terrible. I forgot to add baking soda, so the cookies did not rise. Also due to the zucchini in the middle, the bottom of the cookie baked quite well, while the top remained super doughy. A few of the cookie tops actually slid off the zucchini. Though the flavor of zucchini can usually be masked by the flavors around it, it was quite pungent with this recipe. I attempted to have my roommates and some friends try the cookies. Out of the 10 I asked, only 3 tried it. I had very high hopes for this cookie, but even I was not a fan of the taste. It was too bland. If I were to make this cookie again I would need to add much more vanilla and sugar. I also would have completely covered the zucchini in batter, so that the zucchini flavor would not be as noticable.

Idea 2 Test

Guacnut Butter Cookie

Ingredients: avocados, tomatoes, white onion, cilantro, lemon juice, salt, pepper, butter, peanut butter, white sugar, brown sugar, eggs, flour, baking soda

Procedure:

  1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Cut avocados by slicing all the way around the avocado, so that there are two pieces. Cut from top, down to bottom, then back up to the top on the other side.
  3. Remove the pit from the avocados and then spoon out the innards into a bowl.
  4. Mash the avocado up with a fork, so that it is decently smooth keeping only a few lumps.
  5. Cut up the tomatoes, white onion, and cilantro into small chunks. Add these to the mixture and stir them in.
  6. Add salt, pepper, and lemon juice.
  7. In a seperate bowl mix peanut butter, butter, white sugar, and brown sugar together.
  8. Slowly mix eggs one by one into that mixture.
  9. In another bowl mix flour, baking soda, and salt. After slowly add this combination into the peanut butter mixture, mix at a low speed.
  10. Add the guacamole mixture to the peanut butter mixture and mix at a slow speed.
  11. Roll into approximately 1 in balls and place 12 on standard cookie tray.
  12. Bake for 10–13 minutes, or until the color has changed to a slightly darker brown.

Thoughts: Though this cookie was much better than the first. The combination of guacamole and peanut butter tasted good, but it still was missing the flare that I wanted to bring to my cookie. It had a better consistency and overall taste than the other cookie. It also looked more appealing. Out of the 10 people I asked to try it, 7 of them complied. My cookie testers agreed that it was not bad at all. They all agreed that I could make it better though.

Iteration

I decided that I would change up the second cookie idea, since it was the more well received cookie with my audience. I thought for a while about ways that I could improve not just the taste of the cookie, but also the look. I decided that the cookie needed something special. I made a list of all of my favorite desserts and tried to figure out a way to incorportate one of these into my cookie design. From there I decided on adding an orange or a chocolate drizzle ontop. I also chose to go from using one avocado to using three, in order to make that flavor more prominent. Vanilla extract was also added to the dough recipe. I decided to try eating an orange slice on top of one of the cookies and to drizzle chocolate on another to see which combination was better. The orange brought a crazier and more diverse flavor, which I had never before had in a cookie. The chocolate drizzle was similar to many things which I had previously tried. I decided to go with the orange recipe.

Timeline

9/4 think up thirty cookie ideas and pick top five

9/5 think up 10 more ideas and adjust top five if necessary then start thinking about the feasibility of these cookies

9/6 narrow down to top two cookies and come up with recipes and materials needed

9/7 gather materials

9/8 bake cookies and figure out the exact recipes

9/10 organize photos and begin writing up blog post

9/11 look over blog and fix any errors and look for missing chunks or things to add and have someone look over blog

9/12 submit final blog post and bake more cookies for the class

9/13 bring cookies into class

9/14 critique classmates blog posts. Everyday: ask others opinions, continue thinking up ideas, take pictures of work, write everything in the notebook.

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