Chewy Sugar Cookies

Before anybody gets excited, let me say straight away that I have no intention of selling my baked goods. That said, my friend and I play a game called "Sellable?"

To be Sellable, the first test is that it needs to taste delicious. That's pretty obvious. It also has to be attractive. And it must be something I can reproduce with consistent results.

Once we determine that something is Sellable, we work backwards from how much we think people would pay for it to decide whether it's cost effective to make, and if it is, how many would go into a package, and that sort of thing.

Monica and I recently made some darling fish cookies. So darling that I made another batch, nicknamed them Your Aquarium and gave them to my friend. The thing is they're tiny (read: "tedius") and I'd never be able to reproduce them with consistent results. Therefore, Not Sellable. Which isn't a problem when your sole motivation is to bake lovely treats for people you're fond of. They don't have to be Sellable. "Sellable?" is a game.



Which brings me back to the Chewy Sugar Cookies, from Cooks Illustrated November December 2010. Totally Sellable. But won't be sold. Then again, I have been known to barter...