Blue Blue Blueberry

This past weekend, I was stumped. A few months ago, when I started this blog, I made a list of all the ideas I had to turn into cookies. Well, I referred to my list this past Friday and found, I had completed them all. Some still need some tweeking, but overall the list was done. So I asked my boyfriend and faithful cookie tester, Keith, what kind of cookies he would like to have this time. His answer was blueberry - followed by the comment "if anyone can make a blueberry cookie, it's you." Ahhh, such a sweet guy.

So, I hit the store in search of blueberries. Don't ask me why I've been on this summertime fruit kick lately. Maybe it's the terrible winter we've been having. I just want something to remind me of warmer and less snowy days. While I was thinking about my blueberry cookies, I decided to also grab some blueberry jam - since I wasn't sure exactly what kind of recipe I was going to come up with.

Well, I have made a blueberry cookie before, which also contained dried cranberries. They were only good warm, had a texture more like a scone and didn't have a whole lot of blueberry flavor. Although my dad and I found they were very good right out of the over with a dollop of whipped cream - but what isn't good with whipped cream?... Anyways, I digress.

I wanted my cookies to actually be cookies and taste blueberry through and through. Since I had plans for almost the whole weekend, I decided to bake on Friday night. So, I threw together a recipe and set to baking. I've been told many times that blueberry and lemon goes great together, so I decided to try to incorporate some lemon into my recipe. Also, while I was at it, I thought I would use almond extract instead of vanilla for a little different flavor. Since blueberries and lemons are both acidic, I threw in a little baking soda to cut the acidity.

In the first try of the recipe, I put about 1/2 cup of blueberries into the food processor and then ran them through a sieve. So I was left with a little more than 1/4 cup of blueberry juice, which I mixed into the cookie dough. I put the remaining 3/4 cup blueberries whole into the mix at the very end. I used a little lemon zest for flavor. The cookies tasted good, but were really sweet. The almond extract was very strong and there wasn't much blueberry flavor. The juice really did nothing for the taste and there ended up only being 1 or 2 blueberries in each cookie. Also, the cookies spread very thin and were very buttery. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of trial #1, because I gave them all out to taste testers for feedback. So I decided to go back to the drawing board...

For trial #2, I decided to skip the blueberry juice and just add 1/4 cup of the blueberry jam I had purchased (a good move on my part). Then I was able to add the entire 1 1/4 cup of whole blueberries to the recipe. Since there is sugar in the jam, I cut my sugar by about 1/4 cup. I also cut the butter and almond extract. I decided to use a little less baking soda and add baking powder instead to reduce the amount of spread.

The second trial came out much better. The jam even made the cookies turn blue. I received several comments from testers about the color being a little strange, but really there is not enough blue food in the world, if you ask me. So the flavor was good when the cookies were fresh from the oven. Lots of blueberry flavor. Keith said he thought they still were a little sweet or buttery, but the main thing I could still taste was the almond extract. Keith and I both took cookies to work for sampling. Unfortunately, overnight something magical (in a bad way) happened inside the cookie jar. The cookies became very soft, I suppose absorbing the juice from the berries and the blueberry flavor faded away a bit. On the upside, the almond flavor also mellowed. Both my and Keith's coworkers felt that the cookies were still too sweet and everyone commented that they were now too soft. My coworkers thought there was not enough blueberry flavor and said I should try dried blueberries or possible candy the blueberries before putting them in. Obviously, I'm going to need another trial.

Even so, we enjoyed eating them and they made cute pictures. I haven't seen very many blue cookies in my lifetime. :)

Corn & Raspberries

For the week of February 22nd, I was inspired by a muffin I had made for a coworker's birthday about 6 months ago. The muffins were a sweet corn with raspberries and blackberries. I had never been a huge fan of raspberries, because I had mostly only ever eaten things with raspberry filling, etc...anyways, I figured I would enjoy the muffins with the blackberries. Turns out the raspberry ones were delicious and I couldn't stop eating them. The corn and raspberry combo was so good together.

So I woke up early on Saturday morning, despite my best efforts to sleep in. I looked in the fridge at the remaining raspberries from last week's disasterous chocolate raspberry cookies and thought - why don't I turn that muffin recipe into a cookie? So I went to work calculating the ratios of ingredients for the corn muffin portion. Once I had a recipe put together, I spent some time thinking about how I wanted to incorporate the raspberries into the mix. I decided to make it a hidden pocket of raspberry in the middle of the corn cookie. If you've never had a hidden surprise in the middle of the cookie - it is a little extra work, but if you're careful about putting the cookie together so none of the filling peaks out, then it makes a really cute cookie. Basically, you take a small piece of cookie dough and make it into a ball. Put it on the sheet and press your thumb in the middle. Put your filling in the hole. Now take another piece of cookie dough and flatten it out, place it over the filling and press it together around the edges. If your filling is liquid, like in these cookies, be careful when you're pressing, because if you mess up your thumbprint, the liquid will run out the sides.

Just look at how these turned out.



Anyways, the cookies were delicious. They turned out a little sweeter than I wanted, but all in all a sweet cornbread flavor in the shape and size of a cookie. The raspberry filling was very good when the cookies were warm out of the oven, but turned out to be too little raspberry for the amount of cookie. Also, after a couple of days in the cookie jar, the liquid was absorbed from the raspberry into the cookie part. Although this kept the cookies from getting stale, the raspberry turned into a solid piece in the middle and was not very good. I think when I try this recipe again, I will use raspberry jam or something similar (which has a little more substance than pureed raspberries).

Chocolate Raspberry Disaster

About a week ago, I was looking through my Martha Stewart Cookies cookbook and I noticed a white cookie with raspberry filling and on the very next page a chocolate cookie with white filling. Well, I thought - wouldn't it be great to make a chocolate cookie with raspberry filling. I figured it would be chocolate-y and the filling would be pink and it would be terrific for valentine's day.

Well, it is not exactly easy to find raspberries in the middle of the snowiest winter in 15 years. However, I did manage to find a pint. I gathered all the other ingredients and had a plan to make these over the valentine's weekend.

Despite my best efforts, I did not find time to make these cookies in time for valentine's day. I didn't find time to make them the day after either. So by the third day, I was really ready to make these cookies. I had this very clear idea in my head of how the cookies would turn out. Boy was I wrong.

I began by making the chocolate cookies. I followed Martha's recipe exactly. First problem with the recipe - it tells you to use a glass dipped in plain sugar to flatten the cookie balls. Well, whoever wrote this recipe obviously never tried to dip a glass in sugar or they would have known that sugar doesn't stick to glass. I solved this problem by using a tiny bit of water on the bottom of the glass to make the sugar stick. Despite the sugary coating - after a few cookies the glass does stick to the dough, so it was necessary to pry it away and try to reshape the cookie.

After they were prepped they went in to bake. When they emerged from the oven, I was astonished to find they didn't look like the photo at all. If you refer to Martha's cookbook - you will see an almost black, smooth textured cookie that looks to be about 2 inches across. As you can see from this picture, that's not at all how I would describe my cookies.



My cookies turned out a light brown color, completely coated with sugar and cracked on the outside. They got huge during baking, more than 3 inches across and when I removed them from the oven, the centers fell - so they turned into craters.

Despite this, I trudged on.

I began making up the white chocolate raspberry filling. The recipe directed me to put the raspberries in the food processor and then pour it through a sieve to remove the seeds. Well, processed raspberries don't pour through a sieve. They actually require you to work them through the mesh with a spatula, which takes longer than you might think. While I was sieving my raspberries, I had the white chocolate melting in a double boiler. Reading the recipe, which involved mixing melted chocolate with heavy cream, it seemed like it would produce a ganache type mixture. However, in ganache, you usually heat the cream and then mix in the chocolate - so this was a little backwards.

Once it was all done, I mixed the raspberries into the white chocolate mixture and put it in the refrigerator, as directed. The recipe called for a 30 minute chill. However, after more than 2 hours, I found the filling still had not stiffened to an icing consistency.

I was tired of waiting, so I decided to go ahead and fill my sandwich cookies. I got a little of the icing on my finger and even though it was very runny it had good flavor. I was very excited to try out the cookies. All of this excitement is what led up to the big letdown.

Keith was with me as I filled the cookies. We both tried it together and I think we made two of the most awful faces I've ever seen someone don while eating cookies.

The chocolate cookies were hard, chocolate-y in a weird way (like hot chocolate instead of a chocolate candy bar) and the icing was so runny it just dripped out of the sides of the cookies. Neither of us could even eat a whole cookie - it was that bad! I told Keith I was going to keep them in the fridge for a day or two so I could take pictures for the blog and then I would throw them out. He offered to take them to his co-workers, but I was embarrassed to be associated with something so awful. We joked about bagging them up and leaving them on a counter somewhere - just walking by and saying "wow, someone brought in some cookies", but I felt bad for tricking anyone into eating these disgusting cookies - so they were fated for the garbage can.

I plan to retry this cookie, but I think next time I am going to make up my own recipe, prepare the ganache according to standard practices and see how it goes. Stay tuned for a redo!

Overall, the pictures turned out better than the actual cookie. So learn from me - skip these two recipes from the book and just enjoy my photos.

Valentines Day Cookies

For a couple of years, one of the cookies I am most asked for is a red-velvet sandwich cookie, recipe courtesy of Paula Deen. These cookies are delicious and very much like eating a piece of cake. The problem with the original recipe is 1. It has a thick layer of cream cheese icing, which while delicious is not safe for shipping and 2. The cookie layers are very much like cake and they tend to stick together, stick to your fingers, just generally make a mess. None of these are good qualities for a cookie sold on the internet and often shipped to family and friends.

Last night, I accepted my own personal challenge to turn the original sandwich cookie recipe into something a little easier to work with. Using my personal cookie ratio, I made adjustments to the recipe (mostly removing wet ingredients). The first batch was delicious, but still a little poofy and cakey (as you can see in the photo below):



By the time these came out of the oven, I was so psyched up for having a new recipe in the bag that I became really frustrated about the cakey-ness and immediately set to work making more adjustments to the recipe.

One ingredient that has a big effect on the texture of the cookie is eggs. The original recipe called for 2 eggs and that seemed like it might be too much for a chewy cookie texture. I also adjusted the leavening and sugar. After deciding on my adjustments, it was back to the mixer for batch #2.

Finally, success!! A red velvet "cookie" that is truly a cookie. Although the texture is no longer like cake, I managed to retain the delicious flavor of red velvet cake.

I googled online to find out if there was a way for me to prepare a cream cheese flavored royal icing, but apparently that concoction is a chemical impossibility. So, I settled for cream cheese icing on these. Here's a sample of the finished product:



These turned out cute and just in time for valentine's day. I am still working on the icing issue - since cream cheese icing doesn't set up and cream cheese spoils, these are not ideal for storing or shipping. I had a great idea this morning for an alternative to standard cream cheese icing and I plan to try it out tonight. I'll keep you posted on the results. As soon as I nail an icing solution these will be available on the website.

Pucker Up Keylime

About two years ago, I began working on a keylime cookie at my father's request. I spent several months baking and adjusting and taste testing several cookies. Finally, after about 5 months, I found the perfect flavor combination. Believe me, creating a keylime recipe is no easy task. There is a lot of time involved in zesting and squeezing tiny limes - in general, I try to do a couple of pounds at a time and freeze the leftovers. Lime juice and zest will both last for a while in the freezer in an airtight container (although sometimes the zest can get a little discolored).

Anyways, despite having created a delicious cookie, my recipe produced a cookie that was just a little too delicate. In fact, I sell this cookie on my website, but find that some of the cookies usually end up broken with each shipment, which is not good service. So this week I set to work trying to create a better constructed keylime cookie with the same great flavor.

There are three books I have been reading and absorbing over the past couple of months - Ratios, Bakewise, and How Baking Works. All three books address the chemistry of baking and teach how ingredients work. The book, Ratios, was quite interesting in that the author proposes any recipe can be changed from crepe to pancake to biscuit to cookie to cake with just an adjustment of the ratio of ingredients. He proposes a couple of basic cookie ratios in his book - while I didn't find his ratios to be perfect for my purpose, I was able to use the information to find a common ratio among my favorite recipes, which has helped me to find my own perfect ratio for the chewy cookies I love to eat! -- I mean bake. :)

So, after working on juicing the tiny limes, I set to work on my new recipe. I adjusted the butter, flour, sugar and amount of lime juice. I was worried about adjusting the amount of juice, because I didn't want less lime flavor, so I added a little extra zest. As it turns out the new recipe was fantastic. The cookies are stronger - so far only one has broken in my cookie jar - and they still taste delicious. My keylime recipe also incorporates white chips for a little bit of sweet taste to offset the tanginess of the lime. I did find that with less lime juice, I may need to cut back a little on the chips, because these were a little too sweet.

Despite too many white chips - the cookies were wonderful. This is one of my most favorite recipes! I find that ironic, because I am not really a fan of lime flavor. In fact, I have never eaten keylime pie - but I am told the cookies taste just like it. There were only enough cookies to give to one taste tester - because my boyfriend's favorite dessert is keylime. So these are going fast!

If you want to try some, visit my website

Cashews & Caramel

For the week of February 1, I decided to make a Cashew Caramel cookie also found in the Martha Stewart Cookies cookbook.

My boyfriend, Keith, is allergic to peanuts, so I never get to make any of my old standby peanut butter cookie recipes. He loves cashews, so I was looking for a recipe which would be like a peanut butter cookie but utilize cashews instead. This was the one.

Also, I had some Kraft Caramel baking bits, which I wanted to use - but I hadn't come across the perfect recipe for them until now.



The actual recipe calls for preparing the cookies and then melting down a bunch of the little caramel squares and making a drizzle on the top. For one, the drizzle seemed like it was going to make a mess of gooey cookies that would be stuck together in my cookie jar. Two, I really wanted to use the caramel bits, so I altered the recipe and mixed the bits in just like chocolate chips would go in a cookie.

The recipe was pretty straightforward - you make your own cashew butter, which called for Canola Oil (which I didn't have) so I just used plain vegetable oil instead. You make up the cookie, which comes out the same consistency as a peanut butter cookie recipe. According to Martha, you are supposed to drop the cookies in a ball on the sheet cook for 6 minutes, then open the oven and flatten them and cook for 6 minutes more. I am not a fan of opening the oven in the middle of the baking process or touching piping hot cookie dough - so I opted to flatten them before sticking them in the oven. The baking time was incorrect again, so you would just have to keep an eye on them to see when the edges are getting brown. I felt like it took at least 13 minutes.

The cookies turned out fantastic! They look a lot like a pecan sandie cookie. They don't have a really strong taste of cashews, despite having over 2 cups of cashews in the mix, which was disappointing. They were pretty delicious though. Eating them right when cooled was the best time because they were still soft and the caramel was melted. The next day I found the cookies to be very hard (more like a shortbread) and the caramel bits also got a bit chewy, which made them get stuck in your teeth. I am not sure why Martha had this categorized as a chewy cookie, because the chewy-ness was gone after they cooled. Here's a picture of the final project:



These were very popular. I didn't take them to work. My boyfriend ate a bunch of them and shared them around his work. All of his coworkers really enjoyed them.

My only tip would be to pop them in microwave for about 10 seconds if you're eating them after they're cooled. It makes the fresh and chewy like just out of the oven and the caramel gets all melty again, which is delicious.

Another thing which was nearly as exciting as these yummy cookies what the final completion of my lightbox - which I used to take these photos. I am working on my presentation as I am new to food photography, so any comments or suggestions are welcome. I am expecting to post beautifully lit photos from now on with each recipe. Until next time...

Banana Chocolate Chunk Cookies

For the week of January 11th, I made a Banana Chocolate Chunk Cookie. A recipe I found in the Martha Stewart Cookies book. I was looking for something simple and when I flipped to this recipe, it called for 1 ripe banana, which I just happened to have. In fact just minuted before finding the recipe, I was thinking the banana looked like it was getting a little too ripe and I needed to find something to do with it - so this seemed like a perfect match.

The cookies only call for 1 banana in about 3 dozen cookies, so it didn't seem like there would be much banana flavor, but boy was I wrong! These cookies were amazing. I made them at 1pm in the afternoon and they didn't last through the evening. They definitely didn't make it to work or any remote taste testers.

Unfortunately, with the quick disappearance of the cookies, I didn't get any photos. So a few days later, I decided to make another batch to take to work. Once again these cookies were very popular at the office.

I would definitely suggest this recipe. It has a surprising amount of banana flavor, it's an oatmeal based cookie (even though you can barely tell there is oatmeal inside) and it calls for chocolate chunks. However, if your store is like mine, they don't always keep the chunks in stock, so I just substituted regular chocolate chips. The baking time is wrong in the recipe (at least for my oven) which produced a few overcooked ones in the first batch. Even the overcooked ones were delicious, as they had a little bit of a crunchy outside.

The cookies are cakelike and soft. I am more of a chewy cookie girl, but honestly, I couldn't stop eating these. The recipe says they're only good to store for 3 days, but they won't last that long - so make extra!

With all the busy holidays, my light box is still not complete. I wanted to get pictures of these, but there was a very small window before they were all gone. Maybe I will make them a third time and post up some photos for you to see.

Christmas Time Cookies - Cherry Cheesecake

Ok, I didn't post in a timely manner. I'm catching up now. I will admit that for the week of December 21st, I did not bake anything for this blog. The reason being, my website had a ton of Christmas orders and I literally spent the entire week prior to Christmas mixing, baking and packaging every night. I could have never gotten it all done without the help of my sweetie, Keith, who learned how to use the sealer and packaged over 15 dozen cookies for me in one sitting.

Other than Christmas cookies, I have been trying to formulate a new recipe for Cherry Cheesecake cookies, which hasn't been going so well. I have made about 5 attempts over the last several weeks and they have nearly all come out either too gooey or too sweet (tasting more like a sugar cookie than cheesecake). I have a great recipe for a lemony cheesecake cookie, which is a slice cookie and comes out with a shortbread texture. The taste is good, but I was looking to create a drop cookie with a hint of some kind of fruit topping.

For my first idea, I thought I would use cherry pie filling, which I had pureed in the blender as my fruit topping. I wanted to make a cookie dough, which just had ribbons of fruit topping mixed in. I made up my dough and gently folded in about 1/4C of the pureed fruit just a couple of times. Here's what the cookies looked like when they were baked:



Although they had the look of a cookie with a ribbon of cherry filling running throughout, the consistency was very moist and not at all cookie like. So I went back to the drawing board, trying to work out the moisture issues with the recipe. The first problem is that cream cheese, which is essential to making a cheesecake tasting cookie has more water than butter. Second problem is a little of the moisture from the cherry puree was also getting into the cookies - all this equals too much moisture and not good cookies.

So I adjusted my recipe, tweaking the amount of butter and cream cheese to try to get a desirable moisture level. I also decided to try making them in to thumbprint cookies, so the cherry puree wouldn't actually be added to dough mixture.



Although these cookies came out less moist. They had lost the cheesecake flavor from reducing the amount of cream cheese. The cherry puree thumbprint idea worked well. I may use this in my next attempt. Alas, after several tries, we grew tired of eating bad cherry cheesecake cookies, so I decided to put these on the back burner and move on to something else.

There will be more cherry cheesecake posts to come.

No, I haven't been cheating on my plan...

Okay, so I haven't posted in more than a month. I know, I'm a slacker. The holidays were busy and I was sick for a while. I did do some baking, I have just failed to write about it here.

So here goes:

For the week of December 14th, I prepared Rolled Sugar Cookies from the Martha Stewart Holiday Cookies magazine (circa something like 2003). I've had this magazine around for years and this has been my go to sugar cookie recipe, when I have the time to mix and chill and roll and chill and cut and chill, etc....it does take a tremendous amount of time to prepare these cookies. However, if you carefully follow the steps outlined in Martha's recipe, you will prepare a perfect sugar cookie in any shape you desire.

For all the years I have prepared these cookies, I have been told they were the best sugar cookies ever. For a few years I put them into Christmas cookie baskets that were given away to friends and family. One year, I asked my dad if he enjoyed the snowflake shape sugar cookies from his basket and he said he hadn't seen any cookies like that. Turns out my step mom ate them all before he got home from work. I've also had people tell me they hate sugar cookies, try these and change their tune.

This year, I decide to bake these cookies not only for the purpose of blogging about them, but also as a activity for Keith and his kids. So, I spent an evening preparing and chilling and baking cookies in various holiday shapes.



As you can see, the shapes came out great! That's all thanks to Martha's tip of rolling the dough out flat and putting it in the freezer before hitting it with the cookie cutters. The colder the dough is when you put it on the sheet, the better the shape will hold.

Well, Keith and the kids came over and we outfitted several bags of colored icing. Everyone had fun learning how to ice cookies. Unfortunately, I beat the icing a little too much and it was a little stiff. The kids had a little trouble squeezing the bag hard enough to get the icing out at first, but once we got them started they were having a great time.





Everyone made their own little pile of decorated cookies to enjoy. Here is my finished product.

Mint Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Every Sunday I go bowling with a friend of mine, Rick. Rick is also a faithful taste tester. A few days ago, he asked me if I could spare a few cookies for him this weekend. So I decided to go ahead and bake my cookies for the week on Saturday night.

About a month ago I created a dark chocolate and chili cookie, which I named "Spicy Mayan Cocoa" - one of my testers suggested that I make a companion cookie with mint chocolate as a cool alternative to the spicy flavor.

Last night I threw together a milk chocolate and mint flavored cookie. I am so pleased with the results. Usually, I go through multiple steps and trials to come up with a great recipe. This one turned out perfect on the first try. It taste almost like a Thin Mint cookie with the chewy texture of a chocolate chip cookie.
So, I decided to name is Mint Chocolate Chunk because I used chunks of Ghiradelli Milk Chocolate bars instead of chocolate chips.

I'll be bringing the remaining cookies to additional testers tomorrow - so I will report back the results.

Well, the results are in. The cookie is a hit! Several people have said "PERFECT". The only suggestion I have been given is to add some sort of mint candy - like crushed candy canes, Andies candies, etc. I may consider that as a variation. Overall, I think the base recipe is perfect just the way it is.

Sorry there are no photos this week. I've been in the process of constructing a light box for getting better cookie pictures. Hopefully it will be done in time for next week's cookies.

Can't wait to get on to next week's baking.

Pat's Blue Ribbon Cookies

I work with a man named Pat. He has been with the company for years and years. He enjoys a good cookie. In fact, he often has several when I bring them in.

When Pat realized I was a baker, he told me about his favorite cookie recipe. He found an oatmeal cookie recipe in the paper years and years ago. It was a blue ribbon winner. He clipped the recipe and he has made it every year since. It's a holiday tradition.

A few weeks ago, Pat confided in me that he was nervous about bringing his cookies in this year. He said he was worried that I would be judgemental, that the cookies wouldn't measure up. I assured him I was excited about trying his cookie recipe and that I wouldn't bring in any cookies this week so everyone could savor his holiday cookies.

Well, today was the day. The cookies arrived. Pat also brought me the recipe. So, since I didn't make cookies this week - here it is:

3/4C Shortening
1C Brown Sugar
1/2C Sugar
1 Egg
1/4C Water
1tsp Vanilla
1C Self-Rising Flour
1tsp Cinnamon
1/2tsp Cloves
1C Raisins
1C Chopped Nuts
3C Quick Cooking Oats

Grease baking sheet. 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Remove immediately to cool.

After trying the cookies, I have to say that they had a really good flavor. However, the cookie was very dense and very thick (didn't spread much). After baking many hundreds of cookies, I see several things about this recipe that are unusual and wonder if this is an actual reproduction of the original recipe - as most cookies don't use self-rising flour or water.

I think I will work on this recipe to try to turn it into a thinner chewy cookie. Check back for the updates.

Inspired by Pumpkin Pie

Finally, after weeks and weeks of trying. I have created a pumpkin cookie that is actually a cookie. Pumkpin is a difficult medium to work with. There is so much moisture, no matter how much you drain off the cookies always turn into little cakes. I have attempted this cookie nearly 15 times.

I was beginning to feel the pumpkin cookie had beaten me. Here's the results from today's baking - this is version 12, 13 and 14.

Version 12 came out a little greasy, with a very buttery flavor and was very chewy. It spread out a lot and was very very flat. The flavor was good, but it wasn't quite the right texture.

I am thinking perhaps I need to add a little baking soda. Leavening is a tricky thing. Baking soda can reduce spread in an acidic cookie (pumpkin is acidic, as well as most other cookie ingredients), it can also add better color/more browning. Baking soda makes its own bubbles by reacting with moisture. Baking powder does not make new bubbles. After seeing the flat deflated cookies, it seems like some bubbles are just what the doctor called for - the cookie doctor that is...

Well, baking soda was not the answer. As you can see from the picture above, this batch is going straight to the garbage. There wasn't a lot of flour in the recipe, so even though I only added a little baking soda it was over-leavened. The cookies puffed up so large that they ran together and then deflated like a balloon, producing one huge cookie. The texture still isn't right, so I am going to retry.

Version number 14. I have lessened the sugar to reduce the spread and also increased the amount of flour. Unfortunately, it may be too much flour as they have barely spread at all. The texture is very close to what I want - a chewy cookie. On the second pan of dough, I decided to flatten them a little by hand. This time, they produced what looks like a real cookie. I still think too much flour was used as the cookies are a little tough and they are really sweet, so I may also cut the sugar some more.

These are good enough to eat, so off to the taste testers they go.

First to test - Keith. He is surprised I have actually managed to make a pumpkin "cookie". He has been subjected to all of the previous batches, some of which were just disgusting. One batch was so wet that they mildewed in the container overnight. Gross. After trying tonight's version, he confided that he actually was beginning to think I would never master the pumpkin cookie. He thinks these are really good. They taste just like little pumpkin pies. He is very pleased. Must eat more to be sure...He is very proud that I am the first known to make a pumpkin cookie that is not cake like. We have tried others being sold in bakeries around town, as I was trying to figure out what needed to be adjusted. I am officially the only one with a chewy pumpkin cookie!

Now, to take some to the crew at work. I brought in about 2 dozen pumpkin pie cookies for my coworkers and left them in the breakroom with a note reading "New recipe inspired by pumpkin pie. Please let me know what you think."

First reviews come in email form in less than 10 minutes. Paige says "Yeah baby! You nailed it, yum." Joanne calls to tell me, she agrees, I nailed it this time and when she opened the container it smelled just like pumpkin pie.

At 11, (less than two hours after leaving the cookies in the breakroom) I walk by and see there are only three remaining cookies. I look at the note, someone has written below my comment "I think I'll have another" - anonymous. Pat tells me he thinks that he will need a larger sample to do a full taste test. If I could provide him with 8 or 9 cookies of his very own, he could give me a true opinion.

Seems like this one is a crowd pleaser. I made another batch without the white chips, to try and cut the sweetness, but decided it didn't taste as much like pie without them. Here is a picture of the final product.

Inspiration

Six months ago I began working at a book distributing company. This is a dream job and a curse all in one. I love books! More than books, I love baking! The bad part is my company distributes cookbooks, which is now where all my kitchen space and money is going.

For the past year, I have become more and more serious with my baking. I've created several recipes, sold quite a few cookies, and entered the Pillsbury Bake Off contest. There are a few dedicated individuals who sacrifice their time and their waistlines in order to be a taste tester for all my recipes. These people work tirelessly tasting cookies, both good and bad, in the hopes of getting more of the goodies as a reward.

In the past several months I have acquired several new cookbooks, mostly referencing baking. Most recently, I purchased All Cakes Considered. For those of you unfamiliar with this book, it's written by Melissa Gray, a producer at the radio show All Things Considered. She has spent a year baking cakes and bringing them in to her co-workers and followed this experience with a cookbook/humor book. After reading the book, I was inspired. Essentially, I do the same thing, but with cookies. She mostly focuses on recipes found in books and collected from friends, while I have a few trusty cookbooks and really enjoy making up my own recipes.

As a person who planned on becoming a Chemical Engineer, the chemistry of baking is fascinating to me. There are so few ingredients in a cookie, usually in a small quantity, so that each ingredient and portion plays a large roll in the outcome.

So, that's the story. For the past year I have been making and testing cookies on friends, family, and coworkers. Now, after being inspired by All Cakes Considered, I have decided to get serious - For the next year, I will bake a new cookie each week. Some that I've concocted and some from cookbooks. I will share them, collect feedback, and share the results with you through my blog.

Together we will learn what goes right and what goes wrong in a recipe. And perhaps, if you love baking, you'll be inspired to do something similar.