Celebrities Can Cook: Trying cookie recipes from three celebrities

While many used their day off on Presidents Day to catch up on missing homework or hang out with friends, I decided to break a sweat measuring, mixing and baking cookies. Celebrity cookies to be exact. I spent hours — obviously with the occasional cookie dough snack break — recreating three “famous” recipes recommended by celebrities — which I’ll definitely try again.

Donna Kelce’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

Mother of NFL players Travis and Jason Kelce, Donna Kelce has been in the spotlight recently since Travis and Taylor Swift started dating, and so has her chocolate cookie recipe. 

This chocolate chip cookie recipe included most of the typical ingredients such as creamy butter and brown sugar but had a few additional intricate steps. I had extra time to prepare for the rest of the process while I melted the butter and then let it sit for 15 minutes and dissolved the baking soda in hot water.

After letting the dough chill in the fridge for three hours, it was rock hard and almost impossible to scoop. However after a couple scoops of cookie dough I quickly saw that the cookies would be well worth my sore arm. The dough had a rich combination of flavors, most likely from resting in the fridge. It tasted sweet but also slightly salty and the chocolate chips added an extra texture to cut through the sweetness of the dough.

After baking for 12 minutes, the cookies had a crispy, golden exterior while still remaining chewy in the middle — giving that irresistible feeling of cookie dough. A cup and a half of butter was also required for this batch and therefore, was a prominent flavor. The recipe also called for both milk chocolate and white chocolate so each bite was a delicious combination of white chocolate, milk chocolate and a butter cookie.

My taste buds are in love with this recipe even though I can’t say the same for my arms. Despite the more tedious process, these buttery, chocolaty, chewy cookies were by far my favorite. Apparently, the Kelce family has more talent than just football.

Taylor Swift’s Chai Cookies

Next, I tried Taylor Swift’s Chai cookies. This recipe was essentially the ingredients of a sugar cookie with the contents of a bag of chai tea, plus icing.

When I first pulled the cookies out of the oven, I was worried they would be undercooked but was quickly proven wrong after taking a bite. They were light and airy, with a soft texture similar to that of lofthouse cookies — the kind with brightly colored icing and sprinkles that parents would bring for elementary school birthday parties.

Then I made the icing but after tasting the cookie the chai flavor wasn’t very strong so I decided to add chai into the icing, hoping to intensify the flavor. But this process proved to be a struggle. Nearly a full cup of powdered sugar later the icing was still too thin and when I attempted to ice the cookies it ran all over the countertop.

Once the icing dried, I was able to test the cookies again. Overall I was disappointed by the lack of chai flavor. It tasted like a regular sugar cookie, and while there’s nothing wrong with that I was expecting a stronger chai flavor as indicated in the name.

I’ll still definitely be trying this recipe again though rather than reaching for a regular sugar cookie recipe and won’t forget to put on some Taylor Swift music while mixing in the flour.

Kristen Bell’s Everything Cookies

Finally, I tested out actress Kristen Bell’s “Everything” cookies. This recipe had the most random assortment of ingredients I’ve seen from apple sauce to agave nectar and even vinegar.

This batch was the easiest to put together, without spending hours waiting for it to chill in the fridge or dealing with problematic icing. I threw the ingredients into the bowl, mixed them together and threw them into the oven.

Straight out of the oven, these cookies were a mix of flavors from cinnamon to nutmeg. The oats created a nice texture that reminded me of the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies my mom bakes around the holidays. The inside was full of melted chocolate while the outside was slightly crunchy.

My favorite part was the mix of flavors of nutmeg and cinnamon and the melted butterscotch and chocolate straight out of the oven. But sampling them the next day, after they had cooled, the outside lost its crunch and some of the flavor was lost.

Still, Bell’s “Everything” cookies are easy to make and a powerful mix of flavors. Forget “The Good Place” how about good taste?