Last Wednesday, I was fortunate to taste some of the best cookies I have ever had. The chef was a girl in my professional cooking class who is also trying to get into the baking and pastry program at JCCC. These cookies were huge and not just traditional chocolate chip cookies. I was a pig and grabbed 3 different varieties. The first one I had was a peanut butter cookie with chocolate chips and pretzels. AMAZING. The sweetness of the chocolate balanced beautifully with the saltiness of the peanuts and the crunch of the surprising pretzels. The other two I took home to share with my husband, Kevin. We split a white cookie with dark chocolate, white chocolate, and raspberry chips that was good, but not as good as the peanut butter. We saved the best for last. It was what she called her "earthy" cookie. It was a oatmeal chocolate chip cookie with walnuts and dried cranberries.
Because imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I am trying to emulate these cookies without losing, as they say in Project Runway, my design aesthetic. These cookies have two of my favorite combinations: oatmeal and chocolate chips, and peanut butter and chocolate. I also decided to add craisins for half of the batch. YUM.
While I was making the cookie dough batter, Kevin decided to be a foodie too and wanted to figure out the difference between a Cara Cara orange and a Navel orange. He asked me about it, but I had no clue. When he cut into the two of them, the Cara Cara had a much darker almost reddish color, while the Navel was the traditional orange. The flavor of the Cara Cara was much richer and more complex. After eating it, the navel orange was almost bland. It got my creative juices flowing for creating something using the flavorful Cara Cara's.
Amanda , one of my best selling cookies for years was and remains under two new owners, the Cobblestone. It is actually a tollhouse cookie with old fashion rolled oats,amber raisins, and walnut pieces.(and of course the chocolate).I always use brown sugar too. A 4 oz. scoop baked only till just beginning to crack, one big round mound. the center remains gooey when hot, chewy for days when cooled. (hard to do consistently, judging by the success or lack there of, of the folks who bought my place...Kent Gritzke
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