The Great Cookie Election

I'm no politico, and I admit that I had to do my fair share of research the past fews months to get caught up on the buzz words of this election. My poor, patient husband had to field all the stupid questions I was too embarrassed to ask anyone else. Like, "Does pork barrel spending have something to do with pork belly futures contracts?" And, "What exactly is a Libertarian, anyway?" What? I told you I had some catching up to do.

So, in an effort to avoid having my children grow up to be just like their uninformed mother (and after reading an article that stated children have correctly predicted the last few presidential elections), I wanted to hold a mock election for kids. I looked online for ideas on how to stage an election for preschoolers, but didn't come up with much for that age group. Then I thought of the chocolate chip cookie tasting I've been wanting to host. I combined the two ideas and came up with Decision Cookie '08.

I think it went well. I don't know how much the kids took away about the political process, but everyone got to eat cookies so I think everyone went away happy. I picked three recipes that I was sure would produce distinctly different cookies, came up with some questions that would help preschoolers compare them (Is the cookie flat or fluffy, chewy or crunchy, etc?), and designed a tasting placemat so they could circle the cookie they liked best. (Underneath each of the cookies above is a clip art cookie.)

The recipes were Nestle Tollhouse (the one from the back of the chocolate chips bag), Cooking Light, and Alexis Stewart's Brown-Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies. My personal favorite was the Cooking Light recipe, and I based my decision on both taste and looks. Nestle Tollhouse tastes and looks like a chocolate chip cookie, but the Cooking Light cookie dough makes such a good-looking, fluffy, chunky cookie. On the other hand, Alexis's cookies are U-G-L-Y and, as Jennifer pointed out, would probably be a better cookie without the chocolate chips. In the end, the Nestle Tollhouse recipe received the most votes from both adults and kids, but not by much. Cooking Light's and Alexis's recipes tied for second, but they lost first place by just one vote. It was crazy close.