Dog Poison Cookies Versions 2 & 3

The best thing about experimental baking is that even if the results aren't what you had in mind, or if they just plain don't come out right, as long as everything is thoroughly cooked and not burned, it'll usually taste good. Unless you're going to get really experimental, that is...

Since I really want to perfect these Dog Poison Cookies of mine, I have been trying out a few different things.

Version 2: Oats

I felt like they were pretty great on the first try, but I wanted to make it a bit heavier and healthier, so I added some oats and made other small adjustments to the first recipe.

Dry:

• 4 oz Whole Wheat Flour
• 1.5 oz Flax meal
• 4 oz. AP Flour
• 4 oz. oats
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 t baking soda (probably should have kept at 1)

Creamed:

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 stick butter
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 egg
• 1.5 teaspoons vanilla

Extras:

• 4 oz. raisins
• 3 oz. chocolate chips
• 3 oz. chopped macadamia nuts

Instructions:

1. Preheat to 375 degrees F.
2. Mix/sift the dry stuff in regular old bowl.
3. Cream the butter and sugar in large/mixer bowl. Add egg and vanilla and mix well.
4. Add dry, mix well.
5. Add extras, mix briefly.
6. Bake 10-15 minutes, checking and rotating after about 7 min. Mine took about 15 minutes with two sheet pans in the oven at once.

These came out really great. Almost exactly what I wanted. I'm worried that the extra baking soda caused a strange sharp taste, but otherwise these had nice full mouth flavor. I'll admit that they were a little dry, no doubt due to the vast increase in dry ingredients, but that should be easy enough to remedy. Also, the chocolate was a little lost in these I think, and perhaps they could have been a touch sweeter.

(EDIT 7/31/2009: See new and improved version of my Dog Poison Cookies here)

Version 3: 100% Whole Wheat
(modification to chewy chocolate chip recipe in King Arthur Flour's Whole Grain Baking)

This recipe is a complete tangent from my evolving recipe above. I wanted to follow specific instructions for using all whole wheat flour, which increases my chances of getting things healthier, so I went with this recipe. Note: It requires overnight refrigeration of the dough.

Ingredients:

Creamed:

• 1.5 sticks butter
• 7.5 oz. brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt (1/2 teaspoon table salt, probably)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3.6 oz. corn syrup
• 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 2 eggs

Dry:

• 9 oz. whole wheat flour

Extras:

• 5 oz. chopped macadamia nuts
• 6 oz. chocolate chips
• 7 oz. raisins

Instructions:

1. Melt butter.
2. Mix butter with sugar, heat a little to dissolve sugar well, let cool.
3. Add everything but eggs, flour, and extras.
4. Add eggs, mix well.
   
5. Add flour, mix well.
   
6. Add extras, mix until evenly distributed.
7. Put in fridge OVERNIGHT.
8. Preheat to 375 degrees F.
9. Drop dough onto cookie sheets in desired size.
10. Bake smaller cookies (about 1 Tablespoon each) for 12-13 minutes, checking and rotating halfway. For larger cookies (about 3 Tablespoons each), bake time was about 16 minutes in my oven.

These "chewy" cookies were indeed chewy, and had a new tang that I wasn't sure was great or just good. May have been caused by increase in raisin ratio, but more likely it was the vinegar. They were also fairly sticky, a big turnoff to the fingers. I love their taste, with such great dynamics between the chocolate, nuts, and raisins, but they aren't really what I want in these cookies. The texture just isn't right. I think the next version will be a convergence of versions 2 and 3 in this post.

(EDIT 7/31/2009: See new and improved version of my Dog Poison Cookies here)

BRIAN OUT.