Energy Cookie Project: Update

You'd think serving three meals a day to hungry athletes and staff all summer long would max out the kitchen staff. You'd be wrong. The energy cookie project was an ongoing project throughout the hectic summer. Every week or two a fresh batch with a slightly tweaked recipe would appear at lunch and Matt, Chris and John would be waiting for comments and feedback.

After 5 or 6 iterations a final recipe has been nailed down:  the sugar content has been reduced, applesauce stands in for butter and half of the ingredients in the recipe are locally based. The only outstanding question is whether to stay with the milk chocolate chips or go with dark chocolate. The latter is more heart healthy but its also more expensive and it hasn't been tested yet. Using applesauce rather than butter means the cookies hold together better with less breakage. Next year the goal is to use our own homemade applesauce.

The basic list of ingredients (which Matt can recite by heart): unsweetened applesauce, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, baking soda, baking powder, whole wheat flour, oats, orange juice, sunflower seeds, sliced almonds, chocolate chips and dried cranberries.

The last remaining frontier is to test the heat-sealed biodegradable packaging and ascertain it keeps the cookies fresh and zesty for 6 - 7 days. The energy cookie is just the first of what will become a line of retail products from the kitchen.

Chris, Matt and John with their latest batch of treats.

Biodegradable and heat-sealed packaging is being tested.