Category: 128 Cookies

In which I document my endeavor to bake every cookie in the cookbook: The Cookie Collection by Brian Hart Hoffman

  • S’Mores Chocolate Chunk Cookies (Cookie #5)

    Tonight I finally got around to making the S’Mores Chocolate Chunk Cookies that have been on my mind for the past week. I bought marshmallows to make a marshmallow coffee syrup which by the way went so horribly wrong. I made the syrup and then put it in a jar in the fridge and the next day it had solidified into a gloopy sugary slime monster and I instantly threw it away. Thanks to that syrup failure, I now had marshmallows in the house which meant I was one step closer to having the ingredients needed to make the next cookie on my list. After acquiring graham crackers I was all set to get baking. All I had to do was find a day where I had the energy and time to bake amidst job hunting, quitting a job, and working out the details of a new job offer. The hardest days are when I want cookies the most and yet they are also the days I struggle to rally myself off the couch.

    Tonight, thanks to a splitting headache due to stress and lack of water, I was unable to scroll on tiktok any longer and it was finally cookie time.

    These cookies came together really easily and quickly and overall they went pretty well. Of course, as I was sliding the tray of cookies into the oven, I saw a note on the recipe that said they used dehydrated marshmallows and specifically: “Do not use regular miniature marshmallows in this recipe. They will melt and burn”. Well joke’s on them because I didn’t use regular miniature marshmallows, I used regular full sized marshmallows cut up into small pieces. Because OF COURSE I used regular ones, who would think otherwise?! They should really put that note in bold at the top of the recipe if they want anyone to read it.

    Notes:

    The recipe says to use dehydrated mini marshmallows (like the ones found in hot chocolate packets) but if you use regular ones they actually turn out ok. Some of the marshmallow chunks did melt but they sort of caramelized and I didn’t mind it.

    This cookie might be more s’mores flavored if you increased the graham cracker crumbs and decreased the chocolate (by a quarter or maybe even half).

    Overall, this is a good cookie but it just tastes like a good chocolate chip cookie. If I was blindfolded I’m not sure I ever would have guessed that the intended flavor was s’mores. If you already have marshmallows and graham crackers, go for it, but I wouldn’t venture out of my way to get the necessary ingredients in order to make them.

    Overall: 2.5/5

    Texture: 4/5

    Flavor: 2/5 (lacking s’mores flavor)

  • The “Ultimate” Chocolate Chip Cookie

    I think if you are a person without a go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe, than this would be a good one to have in your pocket. My forever favorite, or what I’m assuming will stay my forever favorite, is the Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies from Handle the Heat with the only alteration being that I require the butter to be browned.

    The Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe this book provides is a solid cookie. If I could only use one word to describe these cookies it would be: fine. I think this recipe could possibly be improved by browning the butter (there are few things that aren’t improved by the addition of brown butter) but that definitely ups the challenge and effort required. Overall its not a standout cookie and I think it lacks some complexity. Most cookies develop more flavor when frozen or chilled overnight, but these had a similar texture and flavor after one hour of freezing and after two days.

    Overall: 3.5/5

    Flavor: 3/5

    Texture: 4/5

  • The Best Cookie Yet

    This cookie far exceeded my expectations. I was going to see family for dinner and I offered to bring desert. I made these cookies with one person in mind, a person who loves cookies but doesn’t love anything too sweet (for our holiday cookie bake off she made Adobo chocolate chip cookies which contain soy sauce and pink peppercorns). These Strawberry and Rosemary Shortbread were a hit and the rosemary helps give them a flavor that is more complex than your average shortbread.

    Notes: You DO NOT need as much strawberry sugar as the recipe calls for. This is just a topping so you need 1/4 cup MAX. To make the strawberry sugar it calls for 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup freeze dried strawberries, I would use two tablespoons of each. I’ve been adding strawberry sugar to everything I’ve eaten since making these cookies and I still have so much left.

    Notes: I was running late making these and I cut them while still warm. The cookies were delicious but really crumbly so next time I would cut them while warm but leave them in the pan until cool.

    Lastly, I baked them for 35 minutes. They were browning at the edges but when cut still seemed undercooked in the middle. Not sure if this is due to underbaking or due to cutting and eating them while warm.

    Overall Rating: 5/5 Stars

    Texture: 4/5 (see notes above)

    Flavor: 5/5

  • A Delicious Puddle

    This cookie (Spiced Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookie) has potential. As you can see, there were some technical difficulties. A few factors to take into account: I made a half recipe and I am notoriously bad at halve-ing recipes successfully, also the recipe calls for rye flakes with the option of subbing in more oats if you don’t have rye flakes. I have no clue what a rye flake looks like let alone how it affects baking, but based on how my cookies turned out I would guess that the rye flakes act as a better binding agent than the oats.

    Notes: Next time I would either buy rye flakes or sub the 1/2 cup rye flakes for 1/4 cup flour and 1/4 cup oats rather than just 1/2 cup of oats. Also the recipe calls for dark chocolate but I used milk chocolate which I had in the house. Would not recommend milk chocolate, it makes them a bit too sweet.

    Going off of how my attempt turned out I give these cookies the following rating:

    Overall: 2/5

    Flavor: 4/5

    Texture: 2.5/5 (big possibility this was user error)

    I want to try these again because I think I would love them if they were the thickness of the cookies shown in the recipe and if I used dark chocolate.

  • Cookie #1

    Cinnamon Pinwheel Cookies

    These were fun to make if you’re down for a project. They’re cute once baked but certainly more work than just rolling the dough in cinnamon sugar (which I imagine might yield a similar flavor?). I’m tempted to say you don’t need as much cinnamon sugar as the recipe calls for because when baked there is the texture of just chewing on raw sugar which isn’t my favorite. I also think less filling would keep the spirals from falling apart which many of mine did.

    Overall: 3/5

    Texture: 3.5/5 (originally 2/5, see update below)

    Flavor: 4/5

    UPDATE: Ok, so I hadn’t baked all of the dough the first night and I cut up a few more to bake the next day and cooked them for about 2 minutes less. Specifically, I baked them until they were no longer shiny, but before they started to brown. I like them so much more this way! If you don’t like a crunchy cookie be sure not to overbake them.