Blueberry Chocolate Soft-Bake Cookies

Buddy Bake Time with Susan and Lauren!!

Susan, Lauren, and I are all UCSD students, but we are also all Homestead High School alumni. I've known these kids for years now and to be honestly, don't remember for sure how we met. I believe it was probably freshman year when I started hanging out with the Sunnyvale kids...yeah that sounds about right, and through band of course. So yeah, we have known each other for some time but unfortunately have not hung out a whole lot over our time here in college. SO FINALLY, we are baking together.

Today's cookie was a special one. I think TOMO? picked it? Either way, they looked delicious. They had the makings of a perfect cookie...blueberry, WHITE CHOCOLATE, SOFT-BAKE!! I was seriously super excited to bake these. Also, as much as I enjoyed baking they Coffee Crunchies, they still got a little overcooked, so I really wanted to succeed and not have any burnt cookies.

Ingredient-wise this was way different than the last two cookies...lots of wet ingredients...MILK even, which I have only used in a couple of recipes to date. Just to make these even more promising, they involved cinnamon, which, lets be honest, it is hard to have too much of. We started mixing the dry ingredients, and by we, I mean Susan, putting way too much baking powder into the bowl...but don't worry, she salvaged it and ensured only the proper amount, or at least close to it, was present.

From this point on, it was messy!

The dough was super soft and mushy, and just plain wet. It was definitely looking delicious, and much more like dough than had the previous two bakes. So we loaded up the cookie sheet (yes the recipe only called for one) and we threw them in the oven. Due to previous burnt cookies, I was determined to get these out in time. I think I got them out 7 minutes early again, and found that they were basically PERFECT. Just had to let them cool for a few seconds before I tested the fresh-baked half of the cookie tasting.

That time finally came, and I wished it would never pass. These cookies were amazing; Cake-like, almost snickerdoodle-esque until one got some of the white chocolate, then it became a succulent combination of cake and white chocolate, but it wasn't over...then the blueberry hits ya, (and thanks to Lauren's very selective process) we had some of the ripest blueberries ever in the cookie. The explosion of fresh blueberry onto the tastebuds wrapped up the experience known as the Blueberry Chocolate Soft-Bake Cookies. Also, because of preparation and ease of assembly, these cookies are getting the first ever 10/10! Yes, it finally happened, the best cookie I have ever made, and thus far tasted. I didn't think this book had what it took to satisfy my sweet tooth, but it did.

I would also like to thank Lauren for all of the very nice pictures, she documented this bake very well.

Coffee Crunch Cookies

Buddy Bake time with Brittney!

Me and Brittney are newly found Chem buddies. We apparently had Chem 6B together during Spring last year then enrolled in 6C unknowingly together again for summer. We both talked to Anthony who pointed out to us that we are in the same class, then eventually met up to study together like 3 weeks into the summer session. After finals, once there was finally time to bake again, I posted the PB cookies and she asked to be in the next buddy bake. About 5 minutes after she asked on facebook, I called her up and within the next hour we were at the store getting ingredients for these next cookies...Coffee Crunch Cookies.

After such a fail on the PB Cookies, I was really excited to get back into it and have a successful cookie. I let my buddy choose them and I was immediately anticipating success because unlike the peanut butter cookies, this required old fashioned wet ingredients...butter and sugar. Alternatively, I was a bit wary because I am not a huge coffee fan. They were pretty simple cookies, nothing crazy about them. I freaked out a little bit when we were supposed to have dough. Once again, kind of like the PB cookies, we had a dough that was very crumby, and not very stick-together-y. We continued anyway, and found that although kind of difficult to form cookies with, it was possible, and we eventually had two cookie sheets worth of cookies.

SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE ABOUT THIS OVEN. It is ridiculous. I thought that I took cookies out of the oven early back at our on-campus apartment (like 3-5 minutes), but that has nothing on what has to happen at this place... 8 minutes went by of the 15 (to 20) required by the recipe and the first cookie sheet was basically overcooked. :( I hate when cookies get burned, and theres basically nothing I can do about this. I even turned down the setting on the oven because I was anticipating the fast cooking.

I guess for next time, I'll just have to set it even lower and check just as early. Anyway, the rest of the cookies came out okay, still a little crispy on the bottom, but otherwise pretty delicious. We both happened on the rating of 7/10. Thanks Brittney!!

Peanut Butter Cookies Buddy Bake

MMMMMmmmm. Peanut Butter cookies right?? How could these ones go wrong?? They did, and they went horribly wrong. After searching through the recipe I realized that there were a few things that were a bit abnormal, I suppose all of which may have affected the outcome. These included peanut butter (we used the stuff that separates), honey, oil (instead of butter) and Anthony baking with me...

But before I get into the baking, let me fill you in on him. His name is Anthony and we are officially neighbors, but we actually met a couple of years ago, initially because we lived in the same res hall, but also because we would compete together (until he couldn't keep up with the novice boat) on Crew haha. Anyway, we both moved into the same complex and he was around, so I made him bake with me. Also, Anthony has a hard time with the days of the week, so take it easy on him.

There he is...

So, we mixed the wet ingredients which were the three things i listed earlier (no sugar or butter, weird right?) And after that, put the dry ingredients in (which, interestingly enough, had nutmeg and cloves, never used them before). After mixing them all together, the "dough" was very dry, and as Anthony said, "If we added raisins, it would look like trail mix." After rechecking the recipe like three or four times, I knew that we hadn't missed anything, and since I had seen dough reminiscent of this before, I figured, well, maybe it'll come out alright. I tasted the dough and it tasted alright. I was hoping it would have tasted a bit stronger, but no.

After the dough problems I had an even worse one...I burnt the cookies. As you know, this is never okay. You can see in the picture how badly some of them were burned. Luckily, our oven is too small to hold both pans at once, so the second one I was smarter about and got them out 3 minutes earlier. We tried the burnt ones and they were disgusting. Not only were they burnt, they were like powdery when the fell apart in your mouth...another sign of being too dry i suppose. The unburnt ones came out and they weren't much better. The only difference was the burntness of them. Anthony agreed, but kept eating them...

Well, to rate the cookie, I'd have to say 1.5/10....to be generous. Never again with this recipe