Daily Plate: Omega-3 Ginger Snaps

In the lab part of my Food Science and Technology class, we’ve been split into four groups, with each group assigned to develop a food with a different theme. My group is in charge of creating a food with a “functional ingredient.” We decided to make a product containing omega-3 fatty acid and thought ginger snaps would be a good choice, as ginger’s strong flavor could mask any potential off-notes in the flavor of the omega-3 source. And who doesn’t love baking cookies?

While each of us in the group is more or less against food companies marketing junk as health food by fortifying their product with the newest “buzz” nutrient, we thought it would be an interesting exercise to try to see the challenge through the opposing viewpoint’s eyes. So far, it’s been a lot of fun. Last week, we identified our “gold standard” to try to match—Trader Joe’s ginger cookies—and this week we finally tested recipes to come up with a winner.

We compared two different recipes, cooking one batch of each for twelve minutes, and one for fifteen. Our favorite was one of the fifteen-minute batches. Next time we’ll work on getting them to be the right size and shape now that we’ve got the flavor down. We’ll also add the omega-3 then. We went with a vegetarian source, since the idea of putting fish oil into cookies seemed a little strange.

At the end of the course, we’re going to do blind tests to see if we can fool anyone into thinking that ours is the “gold standard.” Our professor, who was more than happy to help out with the taste-testing, says we have a good shot. We shall see…