Final Idea and Recipe
By: Doug Silver
Tags: Humor, Design Process, Baking

Summary

Cookies: Easy to make, hard to master. As a somewhat prolific baker myself, I knew this challenge was going to be deceptively deep.

But first — I need to think of some ideas. My mind wandered from the places I call home to the people in my family, and I eventually came up with a sweet and novel idea.

Final Idea and Recipe

They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but you can turn an old pie recipe into a great new cookie recipe. Borrowing elements from both a traditional apple pie and an upside down pineapple cake to create a wholly new cookie, the Upside Down Apple Cookie.

The Upside Down Apple Cookie is creative because it approaches something tried and true from a new and delicious angle. The soft, cakelike quality of this cookie melds well with the subtle crunch of apple and bite of cinnamon.

Ingredients for a dozen Upside Down Apple Cookies:

1 Cup of butter, room temperature

1 1/2 Cups granulated sugar

2 Eggs

2 Tsp. Vanilla extract

1/2 Cup sour cream

2 Cups all purpose flour

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1 Tbsp. cornstarch

1/2 Tsp. salt

3 Apples

1 Tsp. Cinnamon

1/2 Cup butter, melted

1 Cup light brown sugar

Baking steps:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Set aside your muffin pan. In a large mixing bowl, add in the room temperature butter and sugar and mix until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs, vanilla extract, and sour cream and mix until combined. Add in the flour, baking powder, cornstarch, cinnamon, and salt. Mix until it becomes cookie dough. Add apple slices into cookie dough and lightly fold over. Set this aside for later. In another bowl, stir together melted butter and brown sugar. Use a tbsp. of the mixture from the previous step to cover the bottom of each cavity, and spread around for even coverage. Put an apple slice into the bottom of the mixture and lightly press it there. Add 3/4 of a cup of cookie dough to each cavity. Flatten it out. Place into the oven and bake for 25 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown and the brown sugar is bubbling up the sides. Let cool for 10 minutes, then flip pan upside down and wait for them to cool for longer.If the apple sticks to the pan, position it back onto the cookie. Enjoy!

Idea Generation

In anything I do, I tend to base my ideas on what I’m already thinking about.

To this end, I made a two part mind map. One part was about “What’s on your mind?”, and other was “What’s possible in MN?”. Anything that conflicted with each other was crossed out. I thought about all sorts of things, but the biggest thing on my mind was missing home in California. Therefore, many of my cookie ideas consisted of ingredients and flavors that I was used to having there (either from family, friends, or restaurants). I also was looking forward to Applefest, an apple celebration held in Bayfield, Wisconsin every October. This led me to think up some appropriately themed ideas.

I also sent out a message in one of my large group chats asking for cookie ideas. While the vast majority were either unserious or infeasible, some ideas piqued my interest enough for me to flesh them out into full cookie ideas.

From there, I started to create actual cookie ideas. These ranged from old treats with new twists (baklava cookies) to concepts that were completely “out there” (caffeine cookie). In addition to ingredients and concepts, I also detailed potential issues that could arise with each concept. I then called my aunt, a pastry chef, and pitched some of my rough ideas to her, wanting to receive feedback from someone in the industry.

Initially, I settled on making the apple pie and taro milk tea cookies as my two idea tests. However, upon arriving to United Noodle grocery store to buy taro powder, I was left to discover that there was none to be found. I still wanted to take ingredients from the store I was at, but had no idea what to do. Then, while walking the aisles, I found powdered Ube. Having had this ingredient many times in the form of Halo-Halo (a Filipino dessert that my best friend and I shared many times), I decided to make a spur-of-the-moment purchase. Therefore, the two ideas I landed on were an Ube cookie and an apple pie upside down cake cookie. I cooked a dozen of each in order to give out 11 of them for user testing and feedback.

Idea Test One

The first cookie idea I tested was the Ube cookie. This involved making a classic sugar cookie mix, then adding in Ube powder for taste and looks. This was meant to be sweet, but not too sweet. Ube itself is kind of understated, so this was to my advantage. I also mixed in some evaporated milk to give it more of a “halo-halo” taste.

Frankly, it ended up being more of a scone than a cookie. However, when I gave out my dozen for “user testing”, there was an appreciation for the subtle flavor and “breakfast food” quality of it. There were also comments on the dryness of the cookie, which could be attributed to the lack of temperature control in the Comstock kitchenette ovens. Overall, I decided this was not the idea I would be going forward with.

Idea Test Two

After the first cookie, I decided to go for something a little lighter and sweeter.

Even though this was an apple pie cookie, I based the recipe on an upside down pineapple cake recipe, due to the fluffy and sweet qualities. I used a muffin pan instead of a regular baking sheet to account for the fact that the cookies would rise more than average. I also doubled the proportion of baking powder and cornstarch (compared to my base recipe). I put a simple brown sugar and butter syrup in the bottom of each cavity in order to add a sticky-sweet quality to the cookies. Finally, I used a minimal amount of apple and left out the cinnamon I had bought, hoping to see what the reaction was from my testers before making any significant changes.

During user testing, these cookies had an extremely positive reaction, with many people asking for the bake sale details after eating one. Critiques included not enough apple and cinnamon flavor — which is what I decided to iterate on in the next version of these cookies.

Iteration

Taking the feedback into account from the original Upside Down Apple Cookie, I tried to create more ways to invoke an actual “apple” flavor in the batter.

These included:

Putting applesauce in the dough, which actually was pretty terrible for the consistency

Putting applesauce in the middle of the cookie, which would taste good, but reduce shelf life substantially

Putting more apple chunks into the batter itself. This ended up being the ideal solution, as it was kept shelf stable while not affecting cook time or consistency.

Another way to fix the problem was by adding cinnamon. Many people actually associate the taste of cinnamon with apples, so by putting the spice in the dough, it made people think that there was more apple than there actually was present.

Timeline

Wednesday, 9/4/19: Log into Medium and create initial blog post.

Thursday and Friday, 9/5/19–9/6/19: Contact friends and some pastry chefs to do some user research. Stop into a local Mpls bakery (Salty Tart) to get some inspiration.

Friday and Saturday, 9/7/19–9/8/19: Head over to a friend’s apartment and get baking! These days will be filled with iteration and testing, and by the end I will have come up with my final design.

Sunday, 9/9/19: Get feedback from dorm floor on final cookie, go back to drawing board and test again if something is wrong. Run to friend’s apartment to cook again if needed.

Monday and Tuesday, 9/10/19–9/11/19: Complete blog post, take pretty pictures, and complete before the end of Tuesday.

Wednesday, 9/12/19: Bake the final cookie, take it to class the next day, and revel in baked goodness.