Throwing Cookies?

A while back, Jeff Blanford, Olive’s pottery instructor told her about a time he took cookie dough and threw it on the wheel to make a cookie bowl.  Olive and I looked at each other and knew it was inevitable that we try it.

The day had come. We whipped up a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough, making it extra thick, and headed over to Jeff’s studio to see what would happen. Interestingly enough, the idea he had, made us think in new ways.  Would the butter melt when spinning and being shaped (yes!). Should it be refrigerated to make it more stable or would that result in too hard a dough? Would shortening work better than butter based on its melting temperature? Is wheat more stable than white flour? You get the idea! Changing the context changes the process. It’s one of my favorite things about having Olive learn along side Jeff, he’s always thinking of something new.

OK! Back to the cookies. Heavy cleaning of pottery batts, utensils and sponges. Fresh water… and the spinning began.  It was harder than one might think. You have about 36 seconds to make that clump of dough into something that resembles a bowl or it becomes a clump of mush (see melting butter above). The wheat flour made it gritty, white flour might have been better. And, of course, how does one resist eating the dough that remains on your hand? We finished up – and Olive moved back into traditional clay pots.

With cookie pots in hand, we returned home, added a few chocolate chips to decorate them and popped them into the oven. In less than 6 minutes, they were a puddle of dough. The think about cookies? Regardless of form, they taste delicious!!

Centering was tricky! Olive waits for Jeff’s helping hand to start creating.