Comments on: Election 2008: If you can’t stand the heat, don’t bake cookies!

By: Melissa

Melissa — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:00:09 +0000

I’m late in commenting on this post but I’m really glad that you touched on the fact that the cookie submissions for the “election” were meant to be in the vein of sharing a family favorite recipe. As you alluded to, so many people misunderstood the point of the whole endeavor and blew it up into a baking contest whereby the candidates’ spouses were supposed to whip up an original recipe and go at it, bake-off style (as if they don’t already have enough to do during election season). That vast misunderstanding gave rise to all of the unfair allegations of plagiarism, etc. It’s not surprising that many members of the press and the blogworld took up the story and ran with it but it is unfortunate. It’s great that you “got it” and shed some light as to the real intent of the cookie contest. How refreshing!

By: Barbara

Barbara — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 23:06:01 +0000

I am unimpressed by any of the Presidential cookies. But s’mores pie sounds good…or s’mores tart with a graham cracker crust, a chocolate ganache center, some marshmallow fluff spread on top and then piped on top would be a pouf of meringue nicely browned for that toasted marshmallow flavor…

Exactly what I was imagining, Barbara -now I just have to get a moment to do it! - PJH

By: Deirdre

Deirdre — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:15:43 +0000

Gourmet magazine had a S’mores pie recipe last November I believe — it is very good and worthwhile — at least it would give you a start for a different recipe.

By: Kimberly

Kimberly — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 01:30:59 +0000

Ok, now can I have the recipe for the s’more pie. It sounds yummy! I guess I like simple cookies I grew up making oatmeal cookies with butterscotch chips or raisins. So my vote is for Cindy McCain’s cookies.

I don’t have a recipe for a s’more pie… I was just thinking how good it would be. My vote would be graham cracker crust, chocolate pudding filling, and a nice layer of Marshmallow Fluff on top. Or a chocolate custard filling and meringue, which would make it more like toasted marshmallow… OH BOY - now I really DO have to make up a recipe! -PJH

By: Zane

Zane — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 21:01:20 +0000

About an hour ago I was thinking to myself “Gee, I really should bake something, it’s been a couple days”. I opened up my unread feeds for the banter and low and behold what do I have, Cindy McCain’s Butterscotch Oatmeal recipe. However I noticed as well as everyone else it seems that it was to plain. I started thinking to myself and added the teaspoon of imagination you mentioned earlier to create the Smoatmeal Cookie. Half smore, half oatmeal cookie, all delicious. Substituted 1 cup of oatmeal for crushed graham crackers and seeing as I only had a handful of butterscotch chips on hand I substituted the rest with semi-sweet chocolate chips (both big and small). Really delicious, crunchy yet chewy I highly recommend. Next time there will be more graham less butterscotch and some marshmallow! Thanks for the post!

Zane, sounds GOOOOOOOOD! Thanks for sharing. I LOVE s’mores… now you have me thinking about a s’more pie: graham cracker crust, chocolate filling, marshmallow topping… - PJH

By: Coco

Coco — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:50:12 +0000

I made both Cindy McCain and Michelle Obama’s cookies last week and thought they were both mighty tasty. The shortbread cookies were definitely more unique (although I didn’t use any dried fruit) and I kind of wish that Cindy had put some sort of spin on what was otherwise a pretty familiar butterscotch chip cookie. I don’t care that she didn’t invent the recipe, but it would have been nice to see some sort of alteration based on her and her husbands’ tastes.

That said, both batches went preeeetttty fast around here!

By: Cindy

Cindy — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 21:11:05 +0000

I made a similar comment to my husband about the recipe origination controversy! But I can’t bake any of them - it’s over 110 outside here in Tempe, AZ and baking heats up our condo way too much!