Martha Stewart Cookies

I decided it was about time that I started working my way through the Martha Stewart's Cookies recipe book that we purchased after first checking it out of our local library. Just like Martha herself, I found the cookie pictured on the cover to be so compelling that I had to try it first.

Martha may have used her jail time to study up on copyright law as so many prisoners do use their time to study law. From the way the ingredients are listed and the method for mixing so precise, I have to think she's done it to make copyright infringement easier to prove or she's trying to get her recipes around the copyright. So I'm a little hesitant to copy the recipes wholly from the book. Can anyone tell me what is legal and what isn't about copying recipes?


An example of messing with my mind is the ingredient listing for flour is: "1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour". I don't know of a real-life kitchen where 1 tablespoon is not within the precision error deviation for measuring 1 1/2 cups. (Some estimate the error rate for measuring flour to be as high as 20%. 1 tablespoon is about 4%.)

The sequence of mixing various ingredients together, the length of time, and use of submixtures also makes me wonder whose alchemy class the originator of this recipe graduated from. Nevertheless, I followed the instructions to the letter in the hope of getting cookies that looked like the book cover. Unfortunately, I didn't use the same photographer. But with a little photoshopping I came close.

Results: I love gingerbread cookies and chocolate chip cookies. So you'd think a gingerbread chocolate chip cookie would be heaven, right? Need I use the example of dill pickles and bananas? Actually, this combination isn't that bad but it is a little disappointing. Maybe they'll grow on me. We find that many of our cookies are actually better a few days after cooking and this may be the case with these. They're certainly soft and moist and taste especially good warmed up. They're not too sweet or messy.