Tuesday's Twist: A Twist From Time

Tuesday's Twist:  A basic recipe with a fun twist.  In other words, just another excuse for me to play around with weird recipes I've been dying to try.

I tried really hard to make something for today that wasn't a dessert, really I did. But it just didn't turn out.  Then these cookies sort of happened.  It's like I can't help but make cookies.  You see, there are 1,000's of flavors floating around in my head, ideas to try, combinations to experience.  But I can't eat just cookies, and cookie dough doesn't count for as much variety as I'd like.  Try as I might to bring you something else, cookies just, well, happen.

I can turn just about anything into an excuse to whip up a batch.  My mom found my grandma's old Kitchen Aid mixer and I knew I had to test it out.  It hasn't been used since before I was born.  Would it still work?  I don't have a stand mixer and I've been drooling over a Kitchen Aid of my own for a long time.  Our current mixer is almost worthless, with beater bars that fall out if you don't hold it just right.  Speed and power are not strong points here either.  Last time I attempted to make marshmallows it was a complete disaster ending in an overheated motor and a severed attachment stuck in an unfinished puddle of disappointing marshmallow goo.  That was fun (read sticky, frustrating mess).

Though I've wanted to try this cookie recipe for quite some time, I vowed not to try it with our sorry excuse for a mixer.  I envisioned whipping up these cookies on a brand new mixer, but then this old mixer appeared and I needed to umm, test it out.  Look at that attachment, it's like a combination of a whip and a beater bar.  Or at least I think it is.  It should work to whip egg whites, right?  Only one way to find out.

I should have saved this for a Flashback Friday post, but I just couldn't wait.  While this mixer is over half a century old, I was pleasantly surprised to find it works just like new.  It's stronger and quieter than the hand mixer I've been using.  It could use a paint job, but it whipped up the egg white base effortlessly.  These cookies have no butter, oil or flour yet they're still rich and gooey.  They have the crackle of a brownie edge and the chew of a cookie.   Melt-in-your-mouth goes without saying.

Though I was eager to try a half dozen variations, I planned to stick right to this recipe for the first run.  And then I realized we were out of semi-sweet chocolate chips.  I found six other kinds of chips, but all the semi-sweet must have been used in Christmas fudge.  Knowing chocolate-mint is always a winner around here, I went with mint chips.  I might post my own variation here, but for now you can find the recipe over at Divine Baking.  And if you're more interested in Kitchen Aid history than cookies, check out the fun facts on this timeline.

Food for Thought: "There is not a human being from whom we cannot learn something if we are interested enough to dig deep." -Eleanor Roosevelt