When baking with small amounts of ingredients, the Minimalist Baker recommends that when making eggless dishes, “a great way to start is by thinking of what the egg does for the dish.” This applies especially in homemade baked goods where Baker also says, “For cookies it could just be a binder. If it is a cake, it could be adding moisture, richness, binding, and lift” all of which are desirable outcomes. While lots of sugar in both cookies and ice cream are wanted, Earthy Andy says that “good old fashioned H2O and foods that are dense with it helps keep the digestive tract stay clean and clear.”

Freshman Ishaan Boinepally says that he likes Ben and Jerry’s ice cream because when he would eat at other ice cream places, “I did not really like their ice cream as much as Ben & Jerry’s.” In fact, Yelp, which is a popular review platform, shows that Ben and Jerry’s is number one of the top ten ice cream and frozen yogurt near Issaquah. Ben and Jerry’s is located just above the Regal Cinema Theater in the Highlands, on the same street as Cafe Ladro.

Senior Alena Khlebnikova prefers “homemade every time” over store bought cookies. With chocolate chip cookies being her favorite, Khlebnikova also likes “a regular biscuit with chocolate on top.” even though a biscuit can be classified as a different food item than ‘cookie,’ the biscuit is still dough cooked in an oven, much like a cookie.

The website All Recipes shares a few different tips when making homemade cookies. Most notable of these tips is “Brown sugar. It has a higher moisture content than its white counterpart, so it yields softer cookies.” Sophomore Shrimayi Sinkar confirms that the ideal cookie is “homemade, because then the center of the cookie is really soft.” This is compared to store-bought cookies which generally have a consistent crispiness and stiffness throughout the entire cookie. When preserving cookie dough, the site suggests to “drop balls of dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Cover and freeze for about three hours or up to overnight.” This will allow the balls of dough to reach a solid state of desired spherical shape and keep that form in the freezer as well as when thawing. Using this method, all recipes say to “wrap in at least one layer of foil for extra protection. Freeze for up to two months.” This time frame will allow the cookie dough to maintain its quality over time in the freezer.

One recipe for making dairy and egg-free cookie dough designed by my brother Andrew Violette, for me, his younger brother, is here. This recipe takes you through all the steps, with some helpful tips built into the instructions themselves. One key set of steps is to keep the ‘dry’ ingredients separate from the ‘wet’ ingredients so as to preserve the quality of the dough.

When asked about his favorite cookie type, Junior Destry Lewis states “chocolate chip is pretty good but I do like no bakes.” Lewis goes on to say that “no bakes are oats and chocolates and they combine them, skip the egg process and they put them all together on a plate and they cook them. And they’re just delicious.” Since the definition of no bake is to not go into the oven, the cookie dough is mashed together and baked on the stovetop in a pan to get a consistency close to oatmeal cookies but having a better taste if done right. Lewis would recommend QFC to buy cookies from because “QFC has some good cookies.” However, if one needs a large quantity of cookies for a small cost, “You can get 30 cookies for $1.25 at the dollar store,” He adds however, the first time Lewis had ever had an excellent cookie was an incredible experience. Lewis also adds that “it was those store bought cookies that you find in QFC that are frosted, completely all sugar. I walked up to the QFC lady, because they give free samples to kids. I was like ‘ah this is delicious.’” Lewis also says that while “homemade cookies are the best. Every so often I want a little [sugar bomb].”

Now that you are armed with tips on excellent places to buy cookies, the best ice cream place near Issaquah, and recipes for making your own homemade cookies, experiment on your own over the summer to find and tweak a cookie recipe or cookie store that works for you.