Kim is going to love these. I know she probably wouldn't cross the street for a cookie, but potato chips are her weakness. Junk Food Cookies, posted by The Amateur Gourmet, are chock full of junky goodness, which can include chips, if you so desire. Before we get to that part, let's talk about the base of the cookie - the batter.
I was really excited about making these, in part because of a technique I've never heard of before, and also because I wanted to play with my new Kitchen Aid stand mixer. After creaming together the butter, sugars and corn syrup, you add the eggs and vanilla and let the mixer do its job for ten minutes. Yes, you read it right - TEN MINUTES! You would not believe what happens to the mixture when it's been beaten for that long. It gets incredibly fluffy and it looks like way more stuff than you originally put in the bowl. Wow. I was impressed. I would post a picture of the miracle, but you can head over to The Amateur Gourmet and see it there. His pictures are far superior to those that I take with my iphone.
Follow the rest of the instructions carefully, so as not to over mix the batter. I have a feeling that if you spend too long incorporating the dry ingredients and all the additional goodies, you'd beat all the lovely volume right out of the batter, and there'd be no getting it back.
As for the junk food, I threw in most of my pantry. You are supposed to use one and a half cups of your favourite baking ingredients and one and a half cups of your favourite junk food. If I remember correctly, I used mini Rollos, white chocolate chips, dried cranberries, pecans, Rice Krispies, Special K Vanilla Almond cereal (what the heck...it was there), and crushed pretzles. (Sorry, Kim. No chips this time. I didn't have any in the house. The closest I had was Jason's Humpty Dumpty snack mix, and somehow I don't think that would do.) I think I put in more than three cups total. Hmmm...I wonder how that will pan out. (Pan, get it? You bake cookies on a pan? Oh, never mind.) See, I actually haven't baked them yet. After combining everything you need to put your cookie blobs on parchment paper and chill them so that they will hold their shape better when they are baked. The AG says to use an ice cream scoop. Well, I don't have one. I used two big spoons and hoped for the best. My dough is currently in the fridge for the night, so I will remain in suspense until the morrow. Good night.
It is now about 24 hours later and I have baked my cookie dough blobs. Let me tell you, it was harder to bake them than I thought it would be. I preheated the oven to 400, just like the recipe ordered me to, and put in the first pan. After nine minutes, they were not quite done. I gave them an additional two minutes and then they were overdone. Hmmm...The next pan went in for exactly nine minutes and I took them out and left them on the pan, because experience has told me (and so have a few foodies) that the cookies will continue to bake after being left on the hot pan after coming out of the oven. Ok. Third pan. I lowered the temperature to 350 and gave them about 15 minutes. I think I got it right. Pan number two went back into the oven for five more minutes because they really weren't done. Then I sampled a bit of cookie from each pan. Nom nom nom. Were they good? Well, yes, but not the spectacular cookie-consuming experience I had expected. Now, that may not be the fault of the recipe. It might have been because I couldn't get the temperature or baking time just right. Either way, I was a little disappointed. Boo. Lucky for me, they won't go to waste. I have a husband who never met a cookie he didn't like. And he said he liked these.
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Will I make them again? Probably. And next time I'll put in the chips, just for Kim.
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