A chocolate-chip cookie recipe I created in elementary school won the bake sale. I made them as an adult and they're still a huge hit with family and friends.
Gabi Stevenson
- When I was in fourth grade, the cookie recipe I created won a bake sale at school.
- I haven't made them since then, but I recreated them from memory as an adult.
When I was in elementary school, I entered the fourth-grade bake sale with a cookie recipe I created myself.
The recipe was a play on the chocolate chip cookie, but with some added ingredients and textures. I didn't have a very complex palate, but I knew I wanted to play with salty and sweet.
Because the cookie was topped with a coat of melted chocolate, pieces of Twix, and broken pretzel pieces, I named the creation "Muddy Sticks 'n' Stones."
I got first prize in the cookie category at the bake sale, but I never made the cookies for anyone again. I wanted to recreate them as an adult and see if they were as good as I remembered.
Because I never wrote the recipe down, I started with Nestle Toll House's chocolate-chip cookie recipe and figured out how many toppings I would need from there.
The recipe made the perfect standard chocolate-chip cookie, with my addition of Rice Krispies for extra crunch:
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or vanilla paste, like I used)
- 2 large eggs
- 2 cups (12-ounce package) semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 2 cups Rice Krispies cereal
I had a good amount of leftover cookie dough afterward, but I knew I'd be able to freeze it and save it for later. To top 12 cookies, I used:
- 1 package of Twix (2 bars)
- 1 cup of pretzel sticks
- 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted
After preheating the oven to 375 degrees F, I added the flour, baking soda, and salt to a small bowl.
After I combined the ingredients with a fork, I put the bowl to the side.
In a separate bowl, I added the butter, granulated sugar, packed brown sugar, and vanilla extract together. Then, I beat them together with an electric mixer.
I started by breaking up the packed brown sugar with the mixer turned off so it would be easier to incorporate with the other ingredients. The mixture felt very creamy after it was thoroughly combined.
In the same bowl, I added the eggs. I made sure each egg was combined thoroughly before moving on.
The electric mixer made combining the ingredients a quick and easy process.
Next, I added the small bowl of flour, baking soda, and salt to the dough. The key here is to add it bit by bit to make incorporation easier.
I can be a little clumsy with the electric mixer, so I made sure to add the flour mixture in very small quantities to keep my counter (and walls) clean. Next time, I would use a bigger bowl to catch any flying bits.
Once the dough was complete, I added the semi-sweet chocolate chips.
The key here was mixing in the chocolate chips until they were evenly distributed. There's nothing worse than taking a bite of a chocolate-chip cookie that doesn't have any chocolate chips.
After all the Toll House ingredients were combined, I carefully folded in the Rice Krispies with a spoon.
I wanted the puffed rice cereal to added a crunch and an airiness to the cookie, so I combined them with a wooden spoon so I didn't crush them.
I used an ice cream scooper to form the dough into even balls on an ungreased baking sheet.
My baking sheet fit 12 cookies, giving them enough room to bake without touching.
I put the cookies on the middle rack of my oven for nine minutes.
The Toll House recipe calls for nine to 11 minutes in the oven, but since I didn't know if the Rice Krispies would affect the cooking time, I started with nine minutes and worked my way up.
My cookies were completely done at 10 minutes and 30 seconds, but still moist and chewy once they cooled.
Once the cookies came out of the oven, I let them cool for 2 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack.
Before moving to the cookies, I let them sit on the baking sheet briefly so they wouldn't fall apart in the transfer to the wire rack. I went about my day while I waited for them to cool completely.
Before I began adding my toppings to the cooled cookies, I melted some more chocolate.
At this point, I was getting worried about how sweet the cookies were going to be. My younger self was definitely able to handle her sugar, but I would be sharing these with my adult friends and family. I had to trust myself.
If I had created this recipe as an adult, I would have melted the chocolate in a double broiler on my stovetop, leading to silky smooth chocolate. I wanted to stay true to my elementary school instructions, and the microwave still works for melting chocolate.
It was finally time to add my melted chocolate, Twix pieces, and pretzel bits to the cookies.
I started by dunking just the top of the cookie into the chocolate using one hand. With my other (much cleaner) hand, I smoothed out the chocolate with a butter knife and filled in any gaps.
For the last step, I quickly added the pretzels and the Twix pieces to the chocolate before it dried.
I added two to three pretzels pieces and two to three Twix pieces onto each cookie, depending on the size.
The final result reminded me of how proud I was the first time I made these cookies.
Looking at the wire rack of delicious treats, I couldn't wait to dig in and see if they tasted the way I thought they did.
With the cookies done, the only thing left to do was to take a bite.
"Muddy Sticks 'n' Stones" are not for the faint of heart, but for anyone with a sweet tooth, they're a fun twist on a classic cookie. Next time, I would add some flaky sea salt on the top to really play with the balance of salty and sweet.
My mom, who helped me make the original cookies about a decade and a half ago, really enjoyed the cookies and talking about the memories we made in the kitchen. My other family and friends tried the cookies once the chocolate on top had completely dried, and enjoyed the semi-hard coating.
It was a cool experience to look back at how I expressed myself creatively as a kid. One day it was writing in a notebook, the next day it was baking cookies.
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