Cookies

Final Idea and Recipe

My final cookie design is called the Coco² cookie, because the cookies have coconut and cocoa powder. The ingredients that I used are dark chocolate chips, cocoa powder, almond flakes, coconut flakes, and powdered sugar, which are not usually found together in a typical cookie. I think the flavor combination makes it creative, and the flavors compliment each other well. It is also inspired by the candy Almond Joy, and the coconut flakes are chopped into smaller pieces to bring out more of a coconut flavor, which I feel is creative. The final recipe is as shown:

• 1 cup softened unsalted butter
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 2 tsp. hot water
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups dark chocolate chips
• 10 oz. coconut flakes
• 3 tbsp. cocoa powder
• powdered sugar and almond flakes for garnish

I then followed the following recipe:

• Preheat oven to 350 ° F
• Combine butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar. Mix until smooth
• Beat in eggs, then add vanilla extract and mix until creamy
• Dissolve baking soda in hot water, then add to the batter
• Mix salt into the batter
• Stir in the dark chocolate chips
• Cut the coconut flakes into smaller pieces and mix it in a smaller bowl with the cocoa powder
• Drop by large spoonfuls about two inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet
• Place a few almonds in each cookie
• Bake for about 10–12 minutes
• Top with a small amount of powdered sugar

Close up of the Coco² cookie

In the end, I am glad with the way that my cookies turned out. I think the flavors of the dark chocolate, cocoa powder, coconut, and almond flakes worked well together. The powdered sugar on top is also a nice addition. I think it is creative and my takeaway is that it is important to revise ideas to make them better.

Idea Generation

To start my search for a creative cookie idea, I started by thinking of what I already knew. I thought about what cookies I have eaten, but none were super creative. I thought about what ingredients that I would need that I’ve used in previous cookie recipes. I figured that I would need to have flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs, butter, salt, etc. Then I thought about my inspirations for ideas, like for example, Slovak cookies that my mother and grandmother have made, and my favorite candies, Almond Joy and Kit Kats.

Brainstorming and Inspiration for my Creative Cookie Idea

So that got me thinking, and I started brainstorming some ideas. I liked the “Almond Joy” idea, so I started to branch off of that, including powdered sugar on top of the cookie as well. I thought using some type of fruit would be interesting, and there would be many opportunities with fruit to include other spices and ideas with it. I also pondered cinnamon roll cookies, with some type of vanilla icing on top, but I didn’t think that was super creative. From cinnamon and fruit, I thought about apple pie and apple crisp, which I figured I could put into cookie form. I thought about putting Koolaid, Jello, or pudding powder in the cookies, since my grandmother used to make lemon Jello cake. Cereal cookies were also an idea, but that reminded me too much of cereal breakfast bars, which was not the direction I wanted to go. I created a mind map out of my ideas and connected what ideas that were similar and could be combined in a recipe.

Brainstorming Mind Map

From my mind map, I wrote down twelve actual ideas that I could elaborate on. I wrote down the idea of the cookie and a small description of what I would do to make the cookie. Some of them did not seem super creative to me, so it was easier to narrow them down to two ideas that I actually would try and bake for this class.

12 Brainstorming Ideas

So my next step was to pick two ideas that I liked more than the others and I thought would be creative and taste good. For those two ideas, I picked the “Almond Joy” type cookie, and the apple oatmeal cinnamon cookie. From there I elaborated on them and clarified how I would make them.

My final step was to head over to the grocery store and start searching for ingredients that I could use to make these. I gathered the basic ingredients that I would need, then I started brainstorming further for my two ideas.

Idea Test 1

The first idea was an “Almond Joy” type cookie. For this I knew I would need chocolate, coconut, and almonds. So at the store, I walked through the baking aisle and picked out my ingredients, which included dark chocolate chips, cocoa powder, almond flakes, coconut flakes, and powdered sugar. I decided to take a chocolate chip cookie recipe I was familiar with and modify it to include my ingredients and make my own cookie. The ingredients that I decided on is:

• 1 cup softened unsalted butter
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 2 tsp. hot water
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups dark chocolate chips
• 7 oz. coconut flakes
• 2 tbsp. cocoa powder
• powdered sugar and almond flakes for garnish

I then followed the following recipe:

• Preheat oven to 350 ° F
• Combine butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar. Mix until smooth
• Beat in eggs, then add vanilla extract and mix until creamy
• Dissolve baking soda in hot water, then add to the batter
• Mix salt into the batter
• Stir in the dark chocolate chips, coconut flakes, and cocoa powder
• Drop by large spoonfuls about two inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet
• Bake for about 10–12 minutes

I attempted this recipe and the picture below shows what the batter looked like.

Batter

It reminded me a lot of chocolate chip cookie batter. Looking at the batter, I was thinking to add more coconut, dark chocolate chips, and cocoa powder. I kept that in mind going into the final revision. I put the cookie batter on a cookie sheet, placed some almond flakes on top, and baked them for about twelve minutes. I took them out of the oven and this is what they looked like.

Closeup of cookie straight out of the oven

The last step was to garnish it with some powdered sugar, so the final cookie looked like this.

Finished chocolate coconut almond cookies

Now to try them out! I enjoyed them and so did my friends. Some were a bit over cooked so for the final cookie, I will not cook them as long. My takeaways from this test were that the flavors worked well together, but the coconut did not stand out as much. It even had a slight banana bread taste to them, which was weird because there was no banana in them at all. For the revision, I will mash up the coconut or use coconut extract to make the coconut stand out more, since the flavor only stuck out if you bit into the coconut flake. I also could include some nuts on the inside, since they were only on the outside in the first test. I learned that this idea had some strengths, but it is important to continue revising it to improve on parts of the recipe that were not as strong.

Idea Test 2

The second idea was an apple crisp/pie inspired cookie. I really enjoy apple crisp since it is something we make every year during the fall and apples are one of my favorite fruits. I thought about how I would want to incorporate the flavor of apple into the cookie, so I went through my cabinets at home and found apples and applesauce. I debated between the two while I got together all the ingredients that I would need. In the end I decided that I would just use both, and see how that would turn out. I modified an oatmeal cookie recipe that I was familiar with to include my own flavors. The ingredients I used were:

• 2 sticks of unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
• 3/4 granulated sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 1/2 cups oats
• 1/2 to 1 apple chopped in small cubes
• 2 tsp. cinnamon (or to taste)
• 1 cup applesauce

I followed this recipe:

• Preheat oven to 350 ° F
• Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla extract till mixed
• Beat in eggs till creamy
• Add flour, baking powder, and salt until fully mixed
• Stir in oats till blended
• Add in applesauce and apple cubes till fully mixed
• Place in spoonfuls about 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets
• Bake for 16–18 minutes

I attempted this recipe and the batter turned out like this:

Apple Cookies batter

When I saw the batter, it first reminded me of tuna salad. I’m not really sure if I would be able to change that, so I just waited till they were done to fully judge them. I only put about half an apple in the batter, so I think I could add more of the apple to the batter for a more apple flavor. It also did not look like much cinnamon was in the batter, so that would also be a revision.

Next I baked them for about 18 minutes. When I took them out, I was confused as to whether they were done or not. They looked very light and seemed gooey just by looking at them. I could see the apple pieces sticking out, which I was pleased with.

Close up of cookie straight out of the oven

But then I looked at some of the other cookies, which looked dark on the outside but not done in the middle. One revision I thought of was when I placed them on the cookie sheet to make them more like balls instead of piles that would spread out, since this batter was more “liquidy” than my other cookie idea. It struck me as odd that some were darker, but that was not an issue with the recipe.

Four cookies on the cookie sheet out of the oven

The last step was to test them of course. I was correct in the fact that they did taste rather gooey, but it did taste more like pie filling that way. The cookie tasted like apples and the apple chunks added more apple flavor to them, which I was happy with since I achieved the apple pie flavor. Other than the fact that the shape of the batter on the tray made the cookie have weird cooking consistency, the cinnamon flavor was lacking, and more apple pieces could be included as well. My takeaway from this was that idea had some good points, but I would need to fix the cooking time and shape of the cookies to have the same consistency throughout the entire cookie. I would also need to be less conservative with the apples and cinnamon, to really bring out the flavor. I learned that my friends enjoyed this cookie too, but as they got cold, the cookie did not taste as good as the first one, which is something to keep in mind for class and the bake sale.

Iteration

I had my friends try each cookie to get more opinions other than mine on the cookies. My friends liked each cookie, and it was split about even of which they preferred. I was leaning more towards the first cookie since I liked that one more, but before deciding which recipe to modify, I made a basic pros and cons lists of each cookie that came to mind quickly after trying each cookie.

Pros and Cons list

Between the taste of the cookies, other people’s opinions, and the quick pros and cons list, I figured that the first option would be more viable for class and the bake sale. There were also more things that I would be able to change in the recipe in the first idea than in the second, so I decided to modify my first recipe. I thought more in depth about the cons, and made a list of the first modifications I came up with.

First modifications list

I took these into account and came up with the following idea modifications:

• Cut up coconut flakes into smaller pieces and mix it in a bowl with cocoa powder before adding it into the batter, to bring out the coconut flavor
• Put more cocoa powder and coconut flakes into it
• Make sure the almonds don’t stick straight out of the cookie
• Bake them for a shorter time

The new batter

The batter is more chocolate looking because more cocoa powder was added this time. I also chopped up the coconut flakes into smaller pieces then mixed it with the cocoa powder in a bowl. This made the coconut more prevalent in the cookies and will make the taste of coconut stronger. Also, more cocoa powder makes the cookies more chocolately.

Cut up coconut mixed with cocoa powder

After it was all mixed together, I placed them on a cookie sheet, put some almond flakes in them, and baked it for 12 minutes, which seemed to be the perfect time. They were not too soft or too crunchy. I topped it with powdered sugar.

Final cookies

I was happy with my modifications and they tasted more like chocolate and coconut. I tested them, and had my friends test them, and the verdict was they tasted better this time around. The appearance didn’t change too much, except the cookies looked darker and the almonds were not sticking straight out this time. The last thing to do was name them, and the coconut and cocoa both having coco in the name, lead to the name Coco².

Timeline:

• 9/5- Make blog post, starting brainstorming
• 9/6- Continue brainstorming different ideas, start thinking of what ingredients I will need to make cookies
• 9/7- Pick two recipes that I will want to make and buy ingredients for them
• 9/8- Bake cookies with friends, test them, take notes and figure out what to change
• 9/9- Analyze notes and make more cookies with those edits, take any more notes of things to fix
• 9/10- Make any last edits to the recipe
• 9/11- Bake final cookies to bring to class
• 9/12- Present in class!