Cookies
Final Idea + Recipe:
After going through my drawings and ideas, I decided to make a cookie I call a peppermint brownie cookie. I chose to make this cookie because I just couldn’t drop the idea of combining a brownie with a cookie. I thought it would be a pretty cool and somewhat difficult challenge to combine the two desserts together to make what I believe to be a great cookie. I also chose it because I thought it was pretty creative to base the cookie off of a peppermint and make a sort of spiral swirl with the dough.

-Brownie cookie batter ingredients
2 ounces baking chocolate (or chocolate chips)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 stick butter
2 large eggs
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup flour
1/8 cup + 1/2 tablespoon cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
-Peppermint cookie batter ingredients
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick butter
5/8 cups sugar
1 egg
Green food coloring
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
Peppermint candies
1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2.) For the brownie batter (brownie batter and peppermint batter are made separately, use ingredients meant for specific type of batter) melt the chocolate chips in a microwave then stir and let it cool.
3.) Brownie: mix sugar and butter in a mixed, then once combined put mixer on slow and add in the melted chocolate. Next mix in the eggs one at a time, then add the vanilla. Mix until fully combined.
4.)Brownie: In a bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. Once done, add it to the mixer on low and mix until fully combined. Brownie batter is done.
5.) Peppermint: In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, salt, and baking soda. In another bowl, beat together butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium.
6.) Peppermint: Add in peppermint extract, egg, and 5 drops of food coloring to the mix. Then on low speeds, gradually add in the flour mixture until fully combined. Peppermint batter is done.
7.) Refrigerate both batters overnight or for a few hours so that the doughs become more solid and more shapable.
8.) Place doughs on separate baking sheets and roll out both doughs. Once rolled, place the entire rolled out brownie batter on top of the rolled out peppermint batter.
9.) Roll up the combined doughs like a cinnamon roll. Place whole thing in a freezer for 20 to 30 mins before slicing up roll into even slices. After slicing, place peppermint candies crushed into small chunks on top of the cookies
10.) Bake for 14 minutes and let it cool before eating.
Idea Generation:
For this project, the first thing I did was take out my designing notebook and wrote down every cookie that came to mind until I got stuck on ideas. I did this so that all my basic or weaker ideas would be on paper and out of the way forcing me to be more creative and think of something different from the list that I usually wouldn’t think of right away. I then added my more creative ideas to the list when I came up with them. From that list I picked my favorites, those being a cheesecake sandwich cookie, pina colada cookie, peppermint brownie cookie, dumpling cookie, and a gummy cookie. From my favorites list I started drawing out and sketching how I wanted the cookies to look which allowed me to look at all my cookies visually and determine whether or not I really liked my ideas.



Idea Test 1:
In this first test I really going for looks with the cookie, I mainly just wanted to see if combining brownie batter with cookie batter would work in terms of flavor and texture. I looked up a brownie cookie recipe and a peppermint cookie recipe to reference as I knew that brownie batter is pretty watery and because I do not know much about baking. One of the big take aways from the recipes was the use of more flour to make the batter more solid. When placing the batters on a baking sheet, I placed the brownie batter down first as it was still more of a goo than a dough. Next, I placed some of the peppermint cookie batter right on top of the already placed brownie batter and added a bit of crushed peppermint on top before baking. I also put chocolate chips on some cookies just to see what would happen. When they cookies came out they tasted really good but the presentation was horrible. Some things I learned from this first test was that the brownie batter spread out more cause it was more watery than the cookie batter, which also made it hard to mold, and that the flavors worked really good together.

Idea Test 2:
Since I knew the flavors mixed well together, my goal for this test was to make the cookie balanced between the two flavors and to create the make the swirl that would help resemble a peppermint candy. Because of the last test, I knew that the brownie dough was gooey so I decided to first freeze/refrigerate both batters before I did any sort of shaping to them. By freezing them, I was able to make both doughs more solid and easier to work with. This allowed me to roll out both doughs and place them flat on top of each other which then led to rolling up the doughs together (Peppermint dough on the outside) to create the swirl I wanted. I then had to freeze the rolled up chunk of dough before slicing up the dough into even slices and placing crushed peppermint candies to the outside before baking. The cookies still tasted really good when they finished baking but I forgot that the brownie part was not similar to the cookie dough and so it expanded more than the cookie making it resemble more of a cinnamon roll than a peppermint candy. The peppermint also melted a bit since I added them before baking so they show as much on the cookie like I thought they would.

Iteration:
For this cookie, I did not necessarily make a whole new flavor of a cookie but instead iterated off of two already made cookies to make a different style of cookie. Those cookies are a brownie cookie and a peppermint cookie. My iteration happened by taking took two recipes, one brownie and one peppermint, and cutting their ingredients in half so that I wouldn’t be overwhelmed with loads of batter. The next step was figuring out what needed to change so that the cookies could combine and work well together in terms of flavor, shape, and texture. Some changes included small tweaks to both recipes such as adding peppermint candies and adding more flour to make the cookies more solid in dough form. As I went through each test, I learned more about my cookies combination like the fact that I needed more flour in the brownie mix so that it wouldn’t be so gooey and hard to shape with the peppermint batter. I also learned through the trials that the peppermint candies needed to be added as bigger chunks rather than crumbs because they melt quickly in the heat of the oven. One last thing I realized and tweaked was how the spiral or twist in the cookie looked. The cookie can not have a nice clean peppermint candy like spiral because the dough would expand, so I had to settle for a more cinnamon roll looking twist to resemble a peppermint.
Timeline:
- Tuesday, 9/4 : Create blog post and brainstorm some cookie ideas with friends.
- Wednesday, 9/5 : Brainstorm some more and visit insomnia with friends to get ideas for a new cookie.
- Thursday, 9/6 : Research what makes a good cookie and learn how to bake a bit (YouTube, parents, tv shows)
- Friday, 9/7 : Do more research and start finalizing cookie ideas, pick cookie to make.
- Saturday, 9/8 : Get recipe ingredients for new cookie as well as other cookies to practice baking.
- Sunday, 9/10 : Create/taste test the first batch of the new cookies, learn from feedback
- Monday, 9/11 : Revise cookie, make a batch of them and have a second taste test.
- Tuesday, 9/12 : Be proud of cookie and complete/edit the blog post
- Thursday, 9/14 : Bring new batch of cookies for class
