Dried fruit or pureed is the usual way to go. Then there's always bar cookies. I've heard of orange drop cookies but that was using the shredded rind and juice for the liquid. I make Italian wedding cookies and I could see adding some fresh fruit to those but considering how gooey all the water in fresh fruit would make a cookie, I wouldn't bother. I make muffins with chopped up fresh fruit. Just as easy.

I dunno ... Seems like once it's off the cob, corn doesn't hold up well. If you're looking to enhance the corn flavor, can you toast a bit of the dried polenta before combining everything?

I was inspired by cornbread with whole kernels in it. I wouldn't mind if it melted into the rest...though then the membrane would be left and that wouldn't be good. Just on that basis, I'm willing to forgo the corn, or maybe just do a few test pieces with a batch of regular, but I'd like to know if little chunks of strawberries would hold up (as in not rot) in cookies the way they do in cake, and stuff like that.

Interesting question. I've never tried to use fresh fruit in anything I wanted to keep, breads, pies, fruit breads... yes, but cookies... no.

I have made apple cake and blueberry muffins and a pear cake as well as a rhubarb cake. Once the fruit is baked it's fine. Doesn't mold any faster than the dough or batter surrounding it. And I sure have made corn bread with with corn kernals and carrot cake and muffins with actual shredded raw carrots. It all keeps as well as a cookie with raisins.

We bake several different cookies with fresh fruit - mostly raspberries and pineapple. Both should be frozen when you add them to your batter. Dried fruit - raisins, cranberries, chocolate chips (you didn't know it was a fruit?) - doesn't have to be frozen, but it works better if they're cold.

Yes. The frozen fruit will retain it's shape longer in the mixer.

Oh! Generally, the mixer is me. :) Small batches are easier by hand. :) I'm glad I don't have to do that step. I'm going for simple. Tonight, I cooked a bunch of stuff, and I have bread rising, and everything is washed except the floor, so I might be able to actually make the cookies tomorrow morning. It seems easier to breathe after sundown, but cookies are easy, now that I know what I'm doing.

I found a basic recipe on a blog--I love that someone else did the trial and error! It calls for a little honey for flavoring. I'm substituting the corn kernals and I'm going to add some mini chocolate chips, I think. :)

Chocolate chips and corn kernels? in the same cookie?

That's the plan. :)

I'm thinking chocolate chip cookies with bits of habernero/jalapeno pepper ...

Hm... I think you'd have to have super dark chocolate chips for that. I'm not big on heat in sweets. A little Mexican chocolate is nice occasionally, and habaneros are very floral, but I dunno about the cookies. Dave, you make them and tell us how you like them!

The cookies are delicious. I think the flavor is from the polenta. I'm not sure the fresh corn added much more than the interesting texture of the damp kernals and a few too big pieces of membrane. Unfortunately, the polenta also added grit. I think they've improved over night in the cookie tin, which retains moisture, so maybe by tomorrow the grits will have hydrated enough. I checked the recipe, blog text and comments. The recipe called for cornmeal as an alternative to polenta, and nowhere did it say that the polenta should be prepared or soaked.

The base cookie tastes similar to Toll House, but less molassesy, subsumed by the corn flavor. The 50+g of mini semi-sweet chips are good. Not enough to be make it a chocolate forward flavor. Just enough to make it a corn flavor with a hint of chocolate. It's really good. If the grits soak down enough, they'll be lovely. If not, they'll still be eaten because they taste really good.

Sorry...I am not tempted....gritty chocolate flavored corn muffins....;-)

ROTFL! Linda I'm far more likely to report fails than hits. The grit is definitely a fail, but it is going away as I thought it would. Next time, I'll make sure to use a softer polenta or cornmeal, and won't have a grits problem.

OTOH, these are COOKIES and taste like cookies; they don't taste like muffins. And the chocolate tastes good and exactly as I thought it would. I'm not saying you need to try them--they may not be to your taste--but most people would like them. Because they're cookies. And taste like cookies. And people like cookies.