Monday, April 26, 2010

Tuesdays with Dorie: Chockablock Cookies

I was so glad that Mary of Popsicles and Sandy Feet picked Chocolablock Cookies for this week's TWD recipe, because after weeks of dueling with bundt pans and tart shells, I was ready for some good old-fashioned cookie love.

But it turns out these chockablock cookies are not your grandma's cookies.
These could also be called "Kitchen Sink Cookies," because they seem to contain everything but. In keeping with the theme of excess, I used as many ingredients as possible. Four kinds of nuts! Three kinds of dried fruit! Three kinds of chocolate! My only regret was not having multiple kinds of oats or coconut to toss in the mix as well.

On a scale of "somewhat" to "very awesome," I would rate these "quite tasty." (Okay, maybe the scale could use some tightening up.) They probably won't replace chocolate chip cookies as my ultimate comfort snack, but they were fun and interesting, and I loved the chewy texture and how every bite had something different.

My one complaint?

They're not so easy on the eyes. With all the add-ins, they're kind of homely little things, bumpy and craggy, hiding their pockets of chocolate instead of flaunting them. What's a photo-obsessed food blogger to do?

Well, I quickly figured out that I couldn't really force them to be more attractive. So then I thought that maybe they would look more delicious if they were presented next to something less so, like a nice refreshing goblet of broccoli:

This might work for confirmed broccoli haters, but I happen to like the green stuff, so it didn't quite work out. What if they were posed next to a huge furry novelty spider?

Well, they're the better looking of the two options, but I'm not sure this picture would pique anyone's appetite. Except maybe the spider's. He looks hungry. I do, however, think we have a winner when the spider is presented on a serving platter:

Coffee, tea, or me?

Yes, when faced with the choice between chockablock cookies or medium-rare furry spider, these cookies are the clear beauty pagent winner! Besides, who needs looks when you taste so good on the inside?

And a final story about these cookies: I made them the day before I had a big race coming up. I decided to make some extra-large cookies to have as a post-race victory meal, sort of a reward for all that running. So I chose the two most delicious looking cookies of the bunch, and packed them in my car to eat after the race.

Well, many hours later, I finished (yay!) and was ready for my big reward. I pull out the cookies, only to find two mashed, mangled discs pancaked together and fused by the powerful Southern California sun. These puppies had been simmering in the heat of my car for 10 hours and were barely recognizable as cookies. They were also extremely fragile and fell apart at the mere grazing of fingertips upon their surface.

So, in a supreme example of poetic justice, I was desperate to eat these ugly cookies--the cookies whose appearance I had already planned on mocking on the blog!--and they were too far gone to be eaten, at least with any semblance of manners or dignity. Wah-wah.

But don't worry, this story has a happy ending. There were plenty of homely but intact cookies waiting for me at home, and I learned a Very Important Lesson about not judging...or something like that. Mmm, cookies!

27 comments:

  1. Congratulations on the run, and on the life lesson through cookies :P
    I am not a fan of these kind of cookies, I like to be able to taste the cookie too!

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  2. I just love cookies and feeling very hungry.

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  3. Love that last picture. I had the same struggles with the photography. But always good to have a challenge, right?

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  4. Congrats on the race! Too bad you couldn't eat your cookies to celebrate. Love that gooey chocolate picture of the inside of your cookies.

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  5. I agree, they were not the most beautiful cookie but they were tasty!

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  6. Congrats on finishing your race! I will always pick a cookie, no matter what it looks like, over a spider. Eck!

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  7. Im glad you liked the cookies. WE loved them over here!

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  8. I love your comparisons--they definitely look more appetizing than the spider or broccoli ;)

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  9. Great post and congrats on the run!

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  10. Hee..hee...I love the picture of the cookies with the spider. Thanks so much for baking along with me this week.

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  11. aww the poor melted cookie! i had the same happen to a bag of choc almonds in my car, it was like choc soup with almond croutons!

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  12. Hahahaha you are HYSTERICAL! The plate of broccoli had me cracking up! But seriously, everything you do is amazing - you can even make these cookies look gorgeous!

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  13. I called mine "kitchen sink cookies" too! I must admit that I recently stumbled upon your blog and have probably wasted two hours of work time reading through all of your posts. So funny and beautiful photos!

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  14. Great post! I love your attempts to make these cookies look attractive. You could have posed them next to your ziploc bag full of molten cookies...that might have made them look even more tempting...

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  15. YOu're funny! I love the spider!!!!

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  16. Ok, as I was scrolling down and reading the post, the furry 8-legged actually scared the beejeebees out of me.
    Always love your posts. Ooh, that is a lot of yummy things in yours!

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  17. Hahaha, love your story about the cookies in the car! I liked these cookies, didn't love them: oats just aren't my thing I guess...

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  18. Great looking cookies! Love how you tried to make them prettier! :o)

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  19. LOL - yup, these cookies are not easy on the eyes, but gotta give you an A for .

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  20. oops, didn't finish my sentence...

    ...gotta give you an A for effort!

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  21. Anonymous6:58 PM

    You really packed a lot into those cookies!

    As a broccoli lover, I have to say that the broccoli looks better than the cookies. Broccoli is beautiful!

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  22. I'll fight the spider for them!

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  23. haha! they sure weren't pretty, but they were "quite tasty."

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  24. Ditto on Jillbert. Brocalli better. Entirely TOO much stuff in these. Well, too much fruit anyways....

    Plastic bag of cookie stuff - a few messy fingers never hurt anyone.

    congrats on FINISHING the race.

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  25. Your blog is like a box of (homely) chocolate(ty cookies)! Never know what I'm going to get, oh hey, today it's broccoli and spiders :)

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  26. You've definetely turned up the humour on your blog Liz - love it. Great use of "props"!

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