Tag Archives: cookies

Travel/Food

Crumbl

Leave a comment

By: Sylvia Yannsdottir & Maya Song

Image by Revoleikooc via Wikimedia Commons

Introduction to Crumbl

Crumbl is an extremely popular, and widespread cookie shop across the United States of America. With its vibrant appeal, fun flavors, and trendy advertising, it has become one of the most well known dessert places, with over 1 million desserts sold every single day.

Crumbl was based in Utah, and founded in 2017. Since then, it now has 1071 store locations across the United States of America.

What’s the appeal?

One thing that makes Crumbl truly unique is the flavor variety and creativity. The company is known for its weekly rotation of 6 new, fun flavors that come out every Monday. Crumbl is also widely known for keeping up with current trends.

Crumbl’s flavors are mainly inspired by popular existing treats, or candies, and the company frequently collaborates with exciting brands to come up with new flavors.

While they maintain a surprising variety of flavors, the company keeps one cookie the same every single week, the Classic Milk Chocolate Chip cookie, which was their first invented flavor.

Rise to fame

There are a lot of aspects to what has made Crumbl so remarkably well known, and to sum it up a mix of its innovative design, publicity, and its appeal have led it to its success.

When we analyze Crumbl’s design, one thing that stands out is the iconic pink box. Since the company started, desserts come in a signature bright-pink box, with the company’s well known logo on top. Aside from that, stores are also designed with bright, intriguing colors.

A key factor to the success of Crumbl is its publicity. Specifically directed towards younger generations, a huge wave of influencers across social media platforms post reviews, start trends, and add to the fame of the brand. Crumbl would not be the company it is today if it weren’t for social media platforms.

Lastly, its appeal. The typical Crumbl cookie is neatly and creatively decorated to correspond to its flavor. With all of the flavor options, it’s hard to resist trying one.

Criticisms

Whenever there is something new, and popular, there will always be something that needs improvement.

One huge criticism about Crumbl is the nutritional value. Although of course, it is a dessert company, it has a ridiculous amount of calories per cookie. One of the typical cookies has anywhere from 800-1000 calories, which is kind of insane if you think about it.

Typically, when you go to Crumbl you’d get a box of between 4-6 cookies, and indulging in this sweet treat can easily be up to 6,000 calories, which is almost double the amount of calories a grown person is encouraged to consume in a single day.

While it is known that desserts aren’t going to be the healthiest thing ever, it eventually gets to a point where it’s just too much. Along with that, there are thousands of content creators who’s pages are dedicated to trying, and reviewing Crumbl every single week. Not only does that normalize an extremely unhealthy habit, but it is rather concerning in general.

Aside from that, another thing that Crumbl could improve on is its pricing. A lot of people can agree that it’s rather overpriced for what it is. Oftentimes, a box of 6 cookies is $26. When you compare that to other places, it’s quite a bit pricier.

Competitors

Crumbl is not the first innovative dessert brand like this, and definitely won’t be the last. There are of course a lot of other dessert brands out there, but specifically there are a few that have reached a similar status as Crumbl.

One very popular dessert brand out there is Insomnia Cookies. Insomnia Cookies is a dessert brand that was founded back in 2003 in the United States, with over 150 store locations now.

Insomnia Cookies are known for having freshly baked goods, especially their cookies. Just like with Crumbl, there are a lot of flavor options, and typically their cookies are large, and have fillings in the interior of the cookie.

A few aspects that set Insomnia Cookies apart from Crumbl is the availability of the cookies. A big part of the brand is how it’s known for staying open until 3 in the morning serving its fresh cookies. Besides that, there’s a variety of other dessert options that come with the cookies.

Some people say that they prefer Insomnia Cookies over Crumbl cookies, because of the freshness, the more realistic nutritional value, and availability. Others would choose Crumbl over Insomnia Cookies because of the flavor variety, constant change, and because Crumbl is typically seen as a rare treat.

Personal Opinion

We would highly recommend trying Crumbl cookies. We say this because they are genuinely delicious, and it’s really fun to go try out new flavors with friends or family.

Although they’re not the best for you nutritionally, life is about balance and we believe it’s more than okay to have them occasionally.

Crumbl is an extremely innovative brand, has come really far, and has maintained its platform very well. It’s very exciting to think about what will come from it in the future.

Travel/Food

Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Cookie review by: Sallys Baking Addiction

Leave a comment

By: Alice Rapacz

Ingredients:

  • 1 and ⅔ cups all purpose flour
  • ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ½ cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
  • ¾ cup packed brown sugar
  • ¼ cup granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg, at room temperature
  • 1 tablespoon milk
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • ¾ teaspoons red food coloring (more if you want them brighter)
  • 1 cup white or semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions:

  1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
  2. Using a hand held mixer or stand mixer, on medium speed cream together your butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until creamy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the egg and vanilla extract and combine on high speed.
  3. Add the dry ingredients into the wet and add in the milk and food coloring. Mix on low speed until combined. Add the chocolate chips and mix on low speed.
  4. Cover the dough and chill for at least 1 hour or up to 3 days. If you chill the dough for longer than 2 hours allow the dough to sit out at room temperature for at least 15 min before rolling out the dough.
  5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
  6. Scoop and roll each cookie to about 1 ½ tablespoons. Arrange on the baking sheet 3 inches apart from each other and bake for 11-13 minutes.
  7. Cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack to let them cool completely.
  8. Enjoy the cookies now and with any extra cover and store at room temperature for up to 1 week.

Review:

I thought this recipe from Sallys Baking Addiction was great and easy to follow. I started by getting all my ingredients measured out and ready to use, which made the process very smooth.

The dough came together really well. I was able to follow the instructions with ease and just combined all the ingredients together. One extra thing I did was when adding the dry ingredients to the wet, I did them in batches. This made it easy not to have the bowl overflow with all the ingredients when I turned on the mixer.

I let the dough chill for around 4 hours so when I went to roll it out, even after 15 minutes it was still very hard. I had to let it sit out for an additional 15 minutes before it became soft enough to roll into balls.

I baked my batches for 11 minutes because I like my cookies soft, that time seemed perfect. They came out of the oven with a soft interior and they had a slight crunch to the exterior.

Flavor wise I thought they tasted pretty good. The chocolate chips added a needed bit of chocolate flavor, because although there was cocoa powder in the cookie, I felt it wasn’t chocolatey enough on its own. Besides that, they were the perfect sweet treat for the night. I added white chocolate chips and semi-sweet chocolate chips, the two paired well with the cookie, and while warm and gooey they coated your tongue and they were very delicious.

This recipe, I have made before for my neighbors and let’s just say, I didn’t even get to eat one because they were gone that fast. Nonetheless, this is a great and easy recipe that is a crowd favorite and I think you should give it a try the next time you are craving something sweet.

Travel/Food

Jam thumbprint cookie review

Leave a comment

By: Norah Hoglund and Max Cahoon

Image created with Instagram AI

Overview

Jam thumbprint cookies are a classic Christmas or holiday cookie for this time of year. They not only look cute but they also taste really good. We tried out a recipe for them and are going to share our thoughts on it.

Link to the recipe:

https://www.loveandlemons.com/thumbprint-cookies/#wprm-recipe-container-53346

Review

Taste

These cookies had two components: the cookie and the jam. The cookie was like a shortbread cookie, and it was sweet and crumbly. They were also very buttery and they were quite a good cookie. If they didn’t have the jam in the center they would have been a bit boring, so good thing there was jam in the middle. It added a different tart flavor to the cookies as well as a fruity flavor and a different texture. The cookies would have been a bit dry without the jam but it made their texture perfect. We rate the taste an 8/10.

Baking process

The process of making these cookies was fairly easy. The cookie part was pretty straightforward to make and wasn’t really any more difficult than any other cookie. The hardest part was putting the jam in the middle of them, because it was sort of hard to be precise with a spoon and to not spill over the edge of the indent that was made in the cookies for the jam.

Another thing about the recipe is that it says to wait until the bottoms are lightly browned, so we put it in for 12 minutes but the bottom edge didn’t look brown at all, so we put it in for a little bit longer which made the cookies a little more dry. Other than that, these cookies were pretty simple to make. We rate the baking process a 7/10.

Overall

Overall, this recipe is pretty simple and straightforward and yields good results. The taste and texture is good and the blend of flavors is pleasant. The one thing that we would change is the instruction about looking for brownness, because you can’t see if the bottoms would be brown.

Overall, we rate this recipe a 7.5/10. We would recommend this recipe to anyone who enjoys baking, cookies, and especially the sweet jam.

RECIPE

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350° F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the two flours and salt.
  3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter, sugar, vanilla, and almond extract until fluffy. Gradually add the flour and mix until completely combined.
  4. Scoop rounded tablespoons of the dough and roll them into balls. Place them on the prepared baking sheets. Gently press down to form discs and use your thumb, or the back of a 1 teaspoon measuring spoon, to make an indentation in the middle of the cookies. Use a spoon to spoon ½ teaspoon of jam onto each cookie.
  5. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until the bottoms are lightly browned. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely
  6. Then enjoy.
Travel/Food

Christmas cookies

Leave a comment

By: Sophie Elmstrom & Lily Sheldon

Photo by Jonathan Meyer on Pexels.com

The holidays have come to an end, but that doesn’t mean that all of the recipes that come with it do!

During the holiday season there are so many treats to make, with Christmas cookies being a staple recipe. There are so many different cookie recipes for the holiday season. We wanted to share a few of our favorite cookie recipes to make.

Sugar Cookies:

Sugar cookies are a classic, and are a very common cookie, not just made for Christmas, although once you add the red and green sprinkles it will add Christmas cheer! This is a very simple recipe, so it’s easy and quick to make. It’s sure to be a staple cookie to add to your holiday baking. These cookies have cream cheese in them, and that adds a richer flavor to them.

You can find the directions here: https://www.nourish-and-fete.com/sprinkle-sugar-cookies/

Hershey’s Peanut Butter Blossoms:

These cookies have a delicious peanut butter cookie base topped with a Hershey’s Kiss that is perfectly melted on top. These are a fan favorite, and they don’t take long to make either. With a simple list of ingredients, and a short baking time of 8-10 minutes, these cookies have the perfect texture with a slightly crispy outside and warm chewy inside, and the kiss on top adds the perfect flavor and richness to the cookie base.

Here is a simple recipe: https://www.hersheyland.com/recipes/peanut-butter-blossoms.html

Christmas Bark:

Christmas bark or “ Christmas crack” is a saltine layered base with chocolate and toffee pieces on top. This is a very versatile cookie, with the option to add any combination of chocolate and toppings to the saltine layer base. Here we have a version with milk chocolate and toffee pieces, which is our personal favorite combination. Other ideas you could make are white chocolate with peppermint, or milk/dark chocolate with various toppings such as M&M’s, pretzels, etc. This is a crunchy treat that is so delicious and a fun bake for the holidays!

Here is a recipe: https://therecipecritic.com/christmas-crack-recipe/

Sandwich Cookies:

These sandwich cookies are flaky and buttery, they crumble in your mouth. This recipe is very complicated and takes a while to make because you have to refrigerate the dough for the cookies before you roll them out and cut them. Even though these take time to make, they are so worth it and don’t have to be made in just the holiday season, you can make the frosting different colors for different events and enjoy them all year long! Make sure to bring these to a cookie competition, it will be a sure win for you.

Here is the recipe: https://inspiredbycharm.com/cream-wafer-tree-cookies/#Ingredients

Wreath Cookies:

The wreath cookies are an easy to make recipe without using an oven. All you have to do is melt marshmallows and combine them with rice crispy cereal, shape them into a wreath and add some green food coloring and you’re done! These cookies are very good and chewy and once you show them to people they will be begging for more. We’re sure you could make these into different shapes for different holidays and events.

Here is a simple recipe: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/10070/christmas-cornflake-wreath-cookies/

Travel/Food

Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies review

Leave a comment

By: Norah Hoglund and Max Cahoon

While chocolate chip cookies are very delicious, what is even better is peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. We tried this recipe out because right now is the perfect time to make cookies and share them with your friends and family. Just make sure no one is allergic to peanut butter!

Review

Taste

These cookies had such a good taste; we would say they were probably some of the best cookies we have ever made. The peanut butter makes them really really good because the saltiness of the peanut butter contrasts the sweetness of the cookie and it is a really great flavor, especially if you love peanut butter. A lot of people know that chocolate and peanut butter go really well together, and that fact does not change in this instance.

All of the ingredients in this cookie just go very well together and make for a great cookie. It is also not too sweet, due to the peanut butter. When they came warm fresh out of the oven, they were the best. We had them with milk and we agreed that they were some of the best cookies ever.

The only downside is that once you taste them when they are warm it’s a little underwhelming when you eat them at room temperature, but you can always warm them up.

Our rating: 9.9/10

Ease of making

These cookies were a bit of a challenge to make. We decided to brown the butter (see how in the recipe notes), even though the recipe doesn’t call for it, because it makes for a richer cookie. The recipe said to melt the butter anyway, so we browned it in a pot and added the peanut butter to the butter.

Once we had mixed together all the wet ingredients and dry ingredients, we mixed the two together. The dough then was very thick and we had to mix it with our hands because a whisk or spatula couldn’t mix it.

We filled up two trays with all of our dough and decided to put both trays in the oven at the same time, to save time baking them. The only thing we had to change was to bake them for 2-3 extra minutes.

The rest of the instructions were fairly easy and these cookies were definitely worth the effort we put into them. It was also a really fun experience making these, especially if you love baking. Our rating: 8/10

Overall

Overall, these cookies were so delicious and fairly easy to make for a high-quality cookie recipe. These cookies were very good and absolutely worth all of the effort we put into them. It was a fun experience. We rate this recipe a 9/10 and you should absolutely try it.

Here is the link to the recipe: https://handletheheat.com/peanut-butter-chocolate-chip-cookies/

Recipe

Ingredients

  • ▢ 2 1/2 cups (318 grams) bleached all-purpose flour, measured correctly
  • ▢ 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ▢ 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ▢ 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • ▢ 1 stick (113 grams) unsalted butter
  • ▢ 3/4 cup (202 grams) creamy peanut butter
  • ▢ 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
  • ▢ 1 cup (200 grams) packed dark brown sugar
  • ▢ 2 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
  • ▢ 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • ▢ 2 cups (340 grams) semi sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
  1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
  1. In a large heat-safe bowl, microwave the butter until melted. Vigorously stir the peanut butter into the hot butter until well combined. Stir in the granulated sugar and brown sugar until well combined. Add the eggs and yolk, one at a time, stirring well after each addition. Add in the vanilla. Gradually stir in the flour mixture until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
  1. Dough may be loose and slightly crumbly. It will not appear like normal chocolate chip cookie dough. If it’s unbearably crumbly, that’s likely due to discrepancies among brands of peanut butter and if you used unbleached flour. Add 2 tablespoons milk if that’s the case.
  1. OPTIONAL: If time permits, cover the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 24 hours but no more than 72 hours. Let the dough sit at room temperature just until it is soft enough to scoop.
  1. Divide the dough into 3-tablespoon sized balls using a large spring-loaded cookie scoop and drop onto prepared baking sheets. Flatten dough slightly into disc shapes with your palms. Dot each disc with a few extra chocolate chips for picture-perfect cookies.
  1. Bake for 12 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.
  1. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

NOTE: to brown butter, cook it in a pan on medium heat until it turns golden brown. This should be 5-7 minutes after it melts.

Travel/Food

BEST ICE CREAM FLAVORS

Leave a comment

By: Grace Lopez

Mystic Ice Cream flavor selection sign by: Whoisjohngalt via Wikimedia Commons
  • VANILLA

Vanilla is one of the most popular ice cream flavors there is in this world. It’s a really classic flavor to choose. This flavor is a really tasty and very awesome flavor to choose and especially if you put good toppings on it, it will make it much better.

  • CHOCOLATE

Chocolate is an amazing flavor to choose. This is also a very classic flavor to choose but a lot of people love it. It’s a really creamy fudge flavor and is perfect by itself or with toppings.

  • COOKIES AND CREAM

Cookies and cream is such a perfect and delicious ice cream flavor. What I love about this flavor is when it comes with cookie pieces inside for this ice cream. I would choose to eat it alone but you can do whatever you want.

  • COOKIE DOUGH

Cookie dough is one of my favorite ice cream flavors to eat. I love that it comes with cookie dough pieces that you can just eat and the sweetness is just really good, so if you really like really sweet ice cream I would definitely recommend this one.

  • NEAPOLITAN

Neapolitan is such a good combination of ice cream if you would like to try all in one. I really like this flavor because you can taste all the flavors, strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate, in just one lick. This flavor is also really popular and is a really great combination.

  • CHOCOLATE CHIP

Chocolate chip are also a really popular flavor to a lot of little kids because they really like the chocolate chips inside. This flavor is also a really good chocolate and sweet flavor for any one who likes those types of flavors combined.

  • MINT CHOCOLATE CHIP

Mint chocolate chip is personally not one of my favorite types of ice cream but a lot of people really enjoy the minty flavor combined with the sweetness of the chocolate, so I would recommend the flavor to people who like that.

  • STRAWBERRY

Strawberry is one of the most popular flavors. There are a lot of people who really like this flavor because sometimes it comes with natural strawberries inside and people really enjoy that. So, that’s why they like the flavor of strawberry.

Travel/Food

Double chocolate cookies

Leave a comment

By: Norah Hoglund & Max Cahoon

Image created with Ai Generator

Are you looking for a delicious treat to bake? Check out this recipe for double chocolate chip cookies:

https://www.ihearteating.com/easy-chocolate-chocolate-chip-cookies/. These cookies are soft, chewy, and extremely chocolatey. But this recipe is not only delicious, it’s extremely easy to make. It only takes about 23 minutes to make!

You could make this for a family gathering, friend hangout, or just for a little treat for yourself when you’re feeling snacky. So next time you are craving a sweet treat, check out this recipe and enjoy!

Review:

Taste

Starting off with the taste of the cookies, the first thing to note is that they were very rich. They are basically like a brownie in cookie form. When they bake, they puff up and the top becomes crispy like a brownie. They were just the right amount of sweetness, and the chocolate chips added a change in texture that was very good. The melted chocolate chips in the middle was like a gooey mess but the crispy top added so much good texture that made every bite delicious.

Ease of baking

These cookies were relatively easy and quick to make compared to cookie recipes that have very specific and detailed instructions that can take longer. This recipe only took about 23 minutes, including baking time. It is a pretty standard recipe for cookies. One thing that was different was the recipe used melted butter instead of softened butter, which is sometimes more convenient because it’s hard to remember to leave butter out to soften. So, if you decide you are going to bake some cookies and don’t have much time, choose this recipe, it will save you loads of time!

What we would change

If we were to make this recipe of cookies again we would probably cook them for a little longer as we don’t like super super gooey cookies, but that’s just preference of course! If you like them to be a little bit extra crispy we would say bake them for 25 minutes instead of 23. Another thing we would change is adding ¼ teaspoon of kosher salt instead of ½ because these cookies were a little bit salty for our liking and if you like your cookies more sweet rather than salty you could do the same!

Overall rating

Our overall rating of these cookies would be a 9/10. The creator of this recipe did a great job with the measurements and the estimated times in the instructions are extremely helpful. We would 100% make these again and we also recommend that you try making them!

Recipe:

Ingredients

  • ½ cup butter
  • ¾ cup brown sugar, packed
  • ¼ cup granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 ⅓ cups all-purpose flour
  • ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt
  • ¾ cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
  2. Microwave the butter in a large, microwave safe bowl for about 40 seconds. Butter should be about 90% melted.
  3. Whisk the butter until it is completely melted
  4. Add both the sugars; mix until well combined.
  5. Stir in vanilla and egg until incorporated.
  6. Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
  7. Mix dough until just combined. Dough should be soft and a little sticky but not overly sticky.
  8. Stir in chocolate chips.
  9. Scoop out 1.5 tablespoons of dough (medium cookie scoop) and place 2 inches apart on the baking sheet.
  10. Bake for 7-10 minutes, or until cookies are set. They will be puffy and still look a little underbaked in the middle.