The World’s Biggest Cookie
Story by Viki Psihoyos, with photos by Louie Psihoyos.
Question: What do you do with 30,000 whole eggs, 10 million chunks of semi-sweet chocolate and over 5 tons of flour? You bake the world’s largest cookie, of course. Which is what Scott Blackwell, president of the Immaculate Baking Company recently did. On a rainy morning (you can’t control the weather) in the hills of North Carolina, he and 70 helpers unveiled a freshly baked 100-foot chocolate chip cookie. Why? To raise money and awareness for a folk art museum. And to grab the record for the World’s Largest Cookie from the New Zealanders’ 81-foot confection.
It’s not easy to create an enormous treat. On a large, flat area beside the bakery, project manager Tom McCartney created an enormous, outdoor oven. He laid 4 inches of perlite, (commonly found in potting soil) to act as a heat barrier, under large metal alloy sheets. That way, the ground didn’t heat to dangerous temperatures. The field of sweetness, which was actually pre-made mats of dough, was covered with a heat- retaining film of polyester and blasted from the sides by 20 propane heaters. Set oven to 300 degrees, bake for about 10 hours.
The bakery’s usual purveyors generously provided the abundance of ingredients. Over the course of three weeks, batches of chocolate chip cookie dough were mixed, rolled, boxed and moved on pallets to a local distributor’s freezer in preparation for the big event.
To get recognition, and a certificate from the Guinness World Records, Blackwell had to adhere to a rigorous set of standards. In addition to keeping accurate, written records of the whole process detailing everything from the oven’s temperature to the number of spectators, he also had to provide the esteemed organization with photos, videos, press clippings. Local officials had to witness the cookie, and state so on official letterhead. The cookie had to be edible, it had be made from normal ingredients, it had to be scaled exactly as a cookie would be and lastly, it had to be baked that day. Independent surveyors used laser tools to measure the cookie’s thickness, weight, radius, circumference and diameter. Blackwell sums it up, “They are thorough.”
The classic chocolate chip cookie recipe had never been attempted in this quantity or under these conditions. The cookie had to be tested for doneness throughout the rainy night. When it was determined to be ready, volunteer workers aided by a gust of wind rolled the film back. The crowd cheered. Scott Blackwell said a few words and samples were passed through the crowd, which had become ravenous after hours of enduring the delightful smell. The local event, which drew hundreds of spectators, was deemed a success and the final product actually measured 101.61 feet across, exceeding the goal.
Blackwell had called upon purveyors to donate the ingredients; 12,000 pounds of unbleached flour, 5,000 pounds of granulated sugar, 3,370 pounds of dark brown sugar, 6,525 pounds of unsalted butter, 30,000 eggs, 184 pounds of salt, 79 pounds of baking soda, 10 gallons of pure vanilla and of course those 10 million chocolate chip chunks. In addition to giving form to Willy Wonka’s dream, the project was launched to fund a museum of folk art. The finished product was cut and packaged in cardboard boxes resembling the eventual art venue.
Blackwell’s love of folk art extends past the colorful packaging that he uses on his bakery’s products. He has admired for years the work of self-taught artists who use “found” materials like plywood, tin and ordinary house paint. By selling chunks of the enormous treat, which weighed as much as four elephants, Blackwell playfully comes closer to achieving his goal. He is heartened by the commitment, drive and spirit of the people that worked to make this enormous cookie become a reality. “It was a solo vision but not a solo effort,” he says.
Originally published at https://medium.com on June 9, 2016.
