cookies

Final Idea + Recipe. My final cookie idea was quite the stress creator to decide. My roommates (aka taste testers) loved both cookies, so it was ultimately up to me to figure out which cookie would be a “winner.” But after some in-depth thought on the whole things, I decided to go with my Cinnamon Breakfast cookie, mainly because it tasted most like a cookie (and for the paranoia I had about potentially intoxicating people with my wine cookies, even though there was a slim chance of that ever happening). To the left is the final outcome, and while these are unfrosted, they are still quite tasty.

As you can see down and to the left, there are the ingredients and very simple instructions for my Cinnamon Breakfast cookie recipe. One thing I struggled with, and still am a little uncertain about, is the frosting. Delicious as it is, I didn’t find it wise to keep this frosting on my cookies for longer than the term “fresh” could be applied. I considered creating small bags of transportable frosting, but with my limited supplies, I couldn’t bring my creativity levels to come up with the means to make such things. I am now thinking that I will have the cookies being sold in the bake sale be un-frosted, and the cookies being taste-tested be frosted. Because in reality, the frosting transforms the cookie from “ok” to “wow ok.” To summarize this extensively long section of this blog, I am very proud of this cookie, despite what others may end up judging it to be, and I felt creative for combining so many different and yet coordinating flavors and textures.
Idea Generation. My process of idea generation was very sporadic, random, and a little disgusting. I used Google, and I basically typed in ideas I had; from popcorn cookies to cucumber lime cookies (which just so happened to make my top 3 ideas). From there, I could easily cross off ideas that other people had already had and tried themselves, and I could remember ideas that maybe didn’t have as many results. Unfortunately, my page of creative ideas turned, simply, into a buttery, floury mess. And as messy and scribbly as my other pages already are, it didn’t feel right to add a stained page of ideas to this blog. Instead, I give you….the rewrite (down below). If you’d like to see the original, more complex version, shoot me an email and I will gift your eyes with a very gross image.


Finally, I came up with 3 ideas: 1) Cucumber Lime cookies, 2) Wine and Cheese Tray cookies, and 3) Breakfast cookies (which eventually turn into Cinnamon Breakfast cookies).
Idea Test 1. Wine + Cheese Tray Cookie. This idea stemmed from me Googling “cheese cookies” while brainstorming (and also drinking wine). Not sure if that’s something I can openly discuss on here, but there it is. I then researched already existing wine cookies, and while there were some white wine recipes, I couldn’t find much for red wine cookies. Especially red wine cheese cookies. So then I took my idea to the next level — I thought of the typical, classy, snacks that you eat while drinking red wine, and I came up with the idea to develop a cookie that could provide you those things.


I found a simple, savory cheese cookie (or biscuit) recipe, and added my idea of a decent amount of red wine to it. I also added some salt, to give it that savory feel in a higher level. A few cookies I added raisins, a few I did not. As you can see by the picture shown below, they turned out lumpy and purple…how appetizing! The texture my roommates compared this cookie to was the Red Lobster cheese biscuits, with a hint of wine flavor. That’s not what I wanted, but it is certainly (in agreement from myself as well), what I got.


Idea Test 2. The Breakfast Cookie. Another random, yet clever idea came from my mass amount of Google searches. I had Googled “frosting-filled cookies,” and the images that appeared almost looked as if it were a boiled egg inside of the cookie, instead of vanilla frosting. Which got me thinking, what if I made a breakfast cookie with sausage and bacon, and a sunny-side up egg? But no, this would definitely be gross if it weren’t refrigerated; in fact it’d be unsafe to eat. So I had to do some thinking, and while I didn’t want to go to the stereotypical dessert cookie idea, I felt as though I should have one idea be savory (Idea 1) and one be more dessert-like.

Thus, the new and improved Cinnamon Breakfast cookie. This name came from my roommate describing my cookie has a “cinnamon toast crunch cookie.” But I’m getting ahead of myself. I added some regular breakfasty-items into a mashup cookie; consisting of a croissant, oatmeal cookie, applesauce, and maple syrup cinnamon frosting. “That’s a lot of stuff” you say, and I agree. My first round, as you see below, was a little tragic. While my roommates insisted it was delicious, they said it wasn’t the most attractive cookie they’d seen. After round one, I knew I needed to make my cookies smaller and cuter. Meaning not just throwing ingredients together and going for that “organized mess” look. Round two, as you will soon see, went much better.

Iteration. In terms of iteration, there wasn’t necessarily much to improve on for the wine and cheese tray cookie. To be honest, the cookie was very dry and in fact did need improvement, but I wasn’t going to spend time on that cookie when I had an already decent tasting cookie idea that actually symbolized a cookie. As you can see with the photos of my cookies throughout this blog, some improvements were in the display of the cookie itself. Comparing the first try of my breakfast cookie to my second; simply using a knife to cut the croissant dough into square pieces instead of just throughout some dough together last minute made the cookie go from a pile of cookie to a “cookie-cutter” perfect cookie. I also added some peanut butter the second time around, as well as replacing the fatty butter with some healthy applesauce. I thought that these additions/substitutions would help people who maybe couldn’t eat the cookie due to dairy restrictions out a little. Also, who doesn’t love a healthy alternative?! By no means do I call my second go-round at the cookie a beautiful masterpiece, but all the joy I could find with it was comparing it to my first try. I’m sure with multiple tries and more time, I could improve this cookie to the point of professional standards. To add more to this already descriptive section, below there is a “Trial 1” page from my notebook that describes the original recipes I used, as well as some thoughts from my roommates.

Timeline:

