- Cookies!
(Jen yelling) (Jen gasping)
(beeping) (whimsical music)
Welcome to an episode of,
I don't really have a name for these, this series.
I guess it's just "Jen Tries Something,"
where I'm trying something new,
and there's nobody else in the office, so. (laughing)
Today, I am going to be attempting to bake
Christmas cookies without a recipe.
A lot of people have done these types of videos.
I know the Try Guys have tried to bake bread
without a recipes, I know people have tried
to bake different types of pastries
and meals without recipes.
I decided I wanted to try to make some delicious cookies
with a little bit of a seasonal flair.
I do have a little bit of experience baking.
I like to bake brownies, I can bake cinnamon buns,
but I've never really gotten into cookies.
I have a lot of ingredients here.
I have pretty standard ingredients
that you would use for baking.
So I got butter, wait no, these are eggs. (laughing)
Okay, (beep).
Then I got butter. (bell ringing)
The problem with this butter is that it's salted butter.
I don't know if you're supposed
to use salted butter with baking.
I'm not actually sure. (bubbles popping)
I've had salted and unsalted butter,
and I don't really think
there's that much of a difference, taste-wise.
I have some ground cinnamon, and I have some ground nutmeg.
The thing about nutmeg and cinnamon
is that these ingredients are very, very reminiscent
of the holidays, for me and for a lot of people.
I feel like cinnamon is just so wintery and sweet,
and nutmeg, if I'm gonna be real with you guys,
I don't really know what nutmeg smells like.
I feel like it just smells like worse cinnamon.
(sniffing) Ooh!
Spicy.
That's kind of a surprise, but fun.
Okay, I have your standard baking ingredients, okay?
I got flour, obviously. (bell ringing)
I got plain sugar, (bell ringing)
I got brown sugar, (bell ringing)
I also got cocoa powder, (bell ringing)
which, I don't know if I'm gonna need,
but it's if I wanna make these chocolatey.
I have some candied pecans, (bell ringing)
which are yummy.
I also have, (bag crinkling)
baking chocolate, (bell ringing)
and vanilla extract. (bell ringing)
I have found that no matter what you're baking,
even if there's no vanilla flavor in it at all,
it always will need some vanilla extract.
And then, I got baking soda, and baking powder.
I don't know the difference between these,
so I'm not really sure what or how much
to put in the cookies,
but I know that it goes into cookies, right?
Maybe?
We'll see.
I just want these to taste not like crap.
For me, right now, I know that, eventually,
I'm going to have to mix all of my ingredients together
to make a dough.
I've heard that it's best to separate your wet ingredients
from your dry ingredients.
I guess I'm just gonna start with beating some eggs?
Most cookie recipes, I feel like,
have at least one or two eggs,
so we're gonna go with two eggs, I think.
So I'm also gonna try and crack them one handed,
because that's just a fun little skill.
Let's see if I can pull off a one-handed egg crack.
(banging egg) (cracking egg)
Yep, nailed it, (beep).
So there's some shell in there.
There's a lot, Jesus.
I did wash my hands, okay?
So for anyone's upset that I'm touching,
don't panic, these hands are clean.
I'm gonna crack a second egg one-handed.
This will go a little bit better, obviously,
because practice makes perfect.
(whimsical music) (cracking egg)
Got it.
Just (beep), there is a lot of shell in there.
Okay, so I just beat this egg.
I'm gonna put in,
(bottle popping) (Jen gasping)
Whoops. (beeping)
I'm gonna do, how 'bout a teaspoon of vanilla extract?
(romantic holiday music)
One.
Two.
I'm gonna put in just a little bit of milk,
because I feel like cookies usually have milk.
I know that they're not supposed to be
a super wet dough.
I just put in a tablespoon of whole milk.
Okay, we're gonna put that to the side.
And move on to my dry ingredients.
I have a fancy little mixer.
Cookies!
(Jen yelling) (Jen gasping)
(Jen yelling in slow motion)
(Jen gasping in slow motion)
(beeping) Okay, it's fine.
It's fine, moving on.
Back to dry ingredients.
This is sugar.
I think I'm gonna do one cup of plain sugar.
I'm gonna use a cup of brown sugar as well,
because I feel like brown sugar is commonly used in baking.
I think about three-quarters of a cup of brown sugar,
why not, put that in there.
I know I have to use flour.
I think, probably about two cups of flour makes sense?
Maybe like a cup and a half? (bell ringing)
I don't actually know how much cookies usually have,
and I don't want it to be too dry.
And then, butter.
Butter is very important.
I think butter is the key ingredient
to so many baking things.
So we have some softened butter.
I don't wanna put in a cup of butter,
but I'll put in half a cup of butter.
So I'm gonna put this in, and we're just gonna cream
the butter into the other ingredients.
(mixer whirring)
Half a teaspoon of cinnamon? (bell ringing)
It smells good.
Maybe a half teaspoon of nutmeg.
Pop that in there.
I don't wanna add both baking powder and baking soda.
I think baking powder is what you're supposed
to use for desserts, because there's a photo
of cake on this can, which makes me think,
baking powder is for sweets, and so, I'm gonna do, like,
I don't know, a half teaspoon of baking powder.
Let's hope that everything is the way it's supposed to be.
We're gonna mix this up again, and then,
we're gonna add our wet ingredients.
(mixer whirring)
I'm gonna add my mixture of egg, milk and vanilla extract
into the bowl. (mixer whirring)
It's a pretty wet dough, which is a little bit concerning.
I'm gonna add a little bit more flour,
just because I don't want it to be super sticky.
So I'm gonna add, maybe like a quarter of a cup of flour.
(mixer whirring)
That flour, I think, actually helped a lot.
(sniffing) It smells really good.
It smells kinda like gingerbread
because of the nutmeg and cinnamon, but not too much.
I'm gonna cut up these candied pecans,
and I'm gonna add them to this, and then,
I'm also gonna include some semi-sweet chocolate chunks.
So this is gonna be like a nutty, chocolatey holiday cookie.
There's something really fun about just making things,
messing things up with your fingers.
It does make you feel closer to your food,
in a weird way, because you're literally all over it.
(mixer whirring)
(Jen chewing) (Jen smacking lips)
Yeah, okay, I feel great about this.
It's very sweet, it's a little bit grainy,
but you can taste the nuts, you can taste the chocolate.
I'm gonna clean this table a little bit,
and then, the next time you see me,
it's gonna be time to put all of this dough
on the baking tray.
(magical music)
I'm just gonna butter the pan,
so that it's a little bit greased
so that the cookies don't stick,
'cause I forgot to buy cooking spray.
Ookay, that's a lot of butter.
From what I remember, they need to be in tiny little balls
because they're gonna expand and rise.
You should keep each cookie about, I don't know,
like an inch away.
So put him as my first cookie.
(bright holiday music)
There you have it.
Look at my babies.
We're gonna go pop these in the oven,
and once they're done baking,
we'll have some cookies to sample.
(bell ringing) Here we are, back on set.
We have transferred my beautiful cookies
from their baking trays onto this plate.
On our way back with the cookies, after we baked them,
we ran into a bunch of people who wanted to try them,
and the reactions were pretty positive.
People had nice things to say.
I'm gonna take a little bite,
just to give myself an idea of what I'm working with here.
(Jen crunching)
They're pretty good, honestly.
And don't just take my word for it.
So I thought, who better to judge my cookies
than Mr. Sweet Tooth himself, and often,
a judge in our Tiny Cooking Competitions,
my friend Michael?
Come here, Michael, come here, buddy.
(audience applauding)
Hello, Michael.
Welcome. - Hello, Jennifer.
- Welcome to my video.
- It's an honor just to be nominated.
- Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
- I have no doubt that you will be the winner today.
- There's no way I can lose this video.
Even if these taste like absolute crap.
- I am so excited to try these.
So I'll just say, off the bat, beautiful shape,
lovely color, it looks like a cookie.
(crunching) Mm. - Mm-hmm.
- Oh my gosh.
Jen, these are delightful.
I will say, I am biased, often,
in favor of very soft cookies.
- Yep, these are hard as rocks.
- These are rock hard cookies, ladies and gentlemen.
That being said, I still like them a lot,
which just goes to show how good of a job you did.
- Thank you! - Mm-hmm.
- All right, well, everyone, there you have it.
Baking holiday cookies without a recipe,
it turns out, I did okay.
Happy Holidays, everyone.
If you would like to recreate these cookies for yourself,
don't, there's probably a million other good recipes
out there, but enjoy your holiday season.
Be safe, eat cookies in peace,
and we'll see you in the new year!
(whimsical music)