Cookies
Final Idea and Recipe: My cookie was named “The Mint Monster Melter” because of its great job of combining both a family Monster cookie recipe as a foundation, with the innovative idea that candy, or in this case “Junior mints” can be melted to consistency of choice and drizzled across the textured base. I am also a sucker for mint flavors. Whenever I go on a trip, I always try to find the nearest chocolate shop displaying there latest and greatest dutch mints, peppermint patties, and mint truffles. Only problems with high quality chocolate is that it’s one, expensive, but it has so much flavor that it would be overpowering in a multi-flavor cookie. So, the feasible alternative: Junior Mints.

When combining these two great flavor pallets, you get this balance between the softly melted silky, sweet and savory taste of candy as well as the effortless bite into an evenly baked monster cookie. Yes, it may seem that the cookie is simple and bland, but before this project, I saw that there were multiple recipes for cookies with candy in them, but none in my research actually melted candy to a spreadable consistency. It’s creative both in its form after the recipe is completed, but it also is creative in its function, appealing both visual interest as well as a common, fresh cool taste mixed with the savory nature of my families Monster cookie recipe.

What differenciates my cookie from the others, is its uniqueness in every cookie. The taste is the same, but the design is different on every individual cookie. The cookies were made with human error. My original desire for the project was to make them perfectly consistent, like an assembly line, but that’s Impossible unless you’ve been a baker for years or you’re a robot working for tesla.

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup crisco
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 packages of Junior Mints

Recipe:
Step 1: Put all of the ingredients listed in a mixing bowl.
Step 2: Use a scooper to place the cookies on a tray.
Step 3: Put the aproximentally 24 cookie dough balls in the oven for 8–9 minutes at 375 degrees Farenheit.
Step 4: Pull the cookies out of the oven. While they are cooling, but the whole package of junior mints in a bowl and melt them for 2–4 minutes in the microwave to a watery consistency.
Step 5: Time is of the essence! Drizzle the melted junior mints as even as you can before the junior mints harden. The hardening process takes between 5–6 minutes depending on room conditions.
Idea Generation: My main goal for this project was to design and create a cookie that combines two flavors or pallets into one, that both complement each other as well as have their indivual distinguishable flavors, that are noticeably different through sight and through taste.
My main inspiration: came from the idea or analogy that a formal dinner or restaurant provides both an appetizer as well as an entree. Those two courses are complementary of each other, but because they are considered different parts of a meal they are easily distinguishable between each other. Lets take a salad and pork chop for example. A salad may be very simple but it’s a way to clear your pallet and prepare us for the main course. Once you’ve finished your first course you’re able to shift focus onto the entree. The pork chop is tender, seasoned to perfection and full of flavor. My main question I wanted to answer was, what if you combined two opposing but complementing flavors together to create a masterpiece in one or a couple bites? and how do you perform this task in a feasible way that both tastes good, is presentable, and can be tasty to anyone who is able to consume the cookie?
My idea generation process began with a mind map, where I laid out all of my ideas. I broke it down into individual sections to describe my thought process.

- Idea Generation: Top ten
- Why “the Mint Monster Melter?”
- Texture: Multi-texture,
- Presentation: Physical Appearance
- Process: Where to get inspiration from, Research I conducted, Recipe research, Who to go to.
- Goal: My drive or final achievements
Throughout the project I asked myself constantly… What makes a good cookie? Most would think, as long as it tastes good, then you’ve done a good job, but how do you set the bar high and set your recipe and design apart from the competition?
My top 3 Choices (Ideas I chose to test): My main reasoning for choosing these three cookies is because I found that my other choices which included either sour candies not able to be melted to perfection or ideas previously developed and made by another person.
- “Monster Mamba Cookie” (Mamba Fruit Chews)
- “Star-Monster Cookie” (Starbust)
- Finalist: “Mint Monster Melter” Cookie

Then I began Developing intial sketches of my top three cookie choices, and how I wish to present them. In the drawings you will notice that I wanted a clean, reserved and modern feel to them, but I later found out through Idea testing that, that’s not exactly how cookie dough forms.



Idea Test 1: “Monster Mamba Cookie” Mamba Fruit Chews
Using multiple flavors including: Strawberry and banana, My first test was that before putting the cookies in the oven, I inserted the fruit chews in the cookie dough hoping that the chews would melt and become formed in the center of the cookie. Unfortunately that did not turn out as expected. That perfect shape that I thought would be the results, ended up being just two blocks of mamba pressed in the cookie dough. The taste was mediocre. the mambas were just too chewy and not soft like a cookie should be. That Balance that I originally hoped for wasn’t result at hand.

After this test, I learned that my perception of what the cookie would look like changed completely. While trying to stick the mamba’s in the cookie, I tried playing around with molding the cookie dough to my desired shape by hollowing out holes, but it was impossible to shape the cookie without ripping the dough, or the cookie would have to be an XXL. It shifted from the perfect bullseye donut shaped cookie that I thought would be a success, to a round base with unique drizzle shapes on the top. This change was to be expected, but it was worth a try.
Idea Test 2: “Star Monster Cookie” Starburst
My second test involved an approach where I put the cookie in the oven on its own. While the cookies were baking, I prepared the starburst in the microwave and melted them to a consistency where I could spread them on the cookie.

The Biggest problem that I found with this cookie design was that the consistency of the multiflavored melted startburst was way too sticky to spread evenly across the cookie surfaces. It would clump together and stick to the spoon as I began spreading it across the cookies, making it impossible to achieve the individuality and uniqueness on every cookie. Yes, every cookie looks different, but the liquid starburst sat on the tops like mountains in an open field. Not even, not natural, and not appealing.

It looked like Goo. I learned that it wasnt the cookie itself that was failing, it was the flavor of choice that I decided to drizzle on top that messed up its overall appearance and presentation. The deliciousness was the same, but it wasn’t exactly what I pictured when entering design test 2. So in order to perfect things, I shifted my choice of topping and I ended up with using Junior mints, making a creative, unique, tasty and presentable cookie that is sure to please and had far better results than any of the other tests I conducted.
Iteration: The best way to represent my iteration process is through a diagram I drew. It explains essentially….
- What changes I made or Manipulated
- What problems I faced
- What things I kept
- Drawings of physical changes and Modifications
- Reasonings behind why these changes, or tweaks were made
Using Diagrams, Textual representations, as well as short explanations, and bullet points for each iteration step I took throughout the project.


Timeline:

