There’s this recipe that’s been floating around Tumblr for a while. It’s a very popular recipe, but we had our doubts about its feasibility because it seemed far too simple and convenient. According to the recipe, all you have to do is microwave cookie dough in a mug for about a minute, then bam! Fresh chocolate chip cookie in a convenient single-serving size.

We decided to try our hand at it. Megan graciously allowed her kitchen to be used as the test site for the endeavor. It must be noted that Helen was somewhat apprehensive about the whole experiment due to her record of being unable to bake edible items (see pancake story in last issue).

We collected supplies (one egg yolk, some flour, some sugar and butter — funny how when you put enough of those things together, it tastes good no matter what) and then set about mixing them in a sturdy mug. As it turns out, there’s a technique to separating the yolk from the egg (you crack the egg in half and then pour the yolk from shell to shell until there’s no egg white left), but it’s a devilishly hard process for our first-world selves who are used to having no hard labor involved in our meal preparation.

We quickly discovered that people use mechanical mixers for a reason. It’s very difficult to get the lumps of butter and flour into a smooth consistency, especially in a mug rather than a bowl. Not to mention, it’s difficult just to get said lumps off the whisk and into the mug instead of a on the counter or ourselves.

Actually, that was a pervasive problem throughout the whole experiment: actually getting the materials into the mug without spilling. When Helen put in the butter, she missed the mug the first time around and then the second time too. Plus, she’s also quite sure there were some eggshell bits in the first mug.

We made four attempts total, in batches of two. Our first two turned out like cookie-dough scented charcoal. The problem was that the top stayed deceptively gooey while the bottom burned, which led to overcooking in the microwave. Also, Megan discovered that, yes, there is such a thing as too many chocolate chips. The lump of chocolate charcoal attested to that. As it turns out, burned chocolate chips are exceedingly difficult to wash out of a mug.

Our last two attempts, however, fared much better. We microwaved one for a minute and fifteen seconds, and we just ate the raw cookie dough out of the other. The one we’d “baked” turned out alright, if a bit eggy in flavor.

The one we hadn’t cooked was actually the best.

Next, we tried making pudding from hot chocolate mix, another relatively simple recipe from tumblr. This was a simple recipe, with just milk, eggs, cornstarch, vanilla extract, sugar, butter and four packets of instant hot chocolate mix. All we had to do was whisk the ingredients together over a stove, and to our pleasant surprise, we had a very decent chocolate pudding in about 20 minutes.

So, our final verdict: Both recipes are good. Both are certainly doable, although the cookie in a mug might take a few extra tries (don’t cook it for longer than a minute and 15 seconds tops, don’t get fooled by the gooey top, and have towels on hand, because things might get messy). The pudding should be simple enough for anyone with the ingredients to make, but that one will take longer, around 20 minutes. So, good luck — we hope you learn from our mistakes to avoid the messy cleanup we had to endure.