Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

nuts.
coconut.
chocolate.

white chocolate

My husband doesn't like coconut or chocolate in cookies :-
I will eat just about anything, but don't really like candied fruits

@bitchincamero ~ i'm butting right along with you. Doesn't the word cookie automatically mean Chocolate Chip right off the bat? It does in my head, then I think of the gazillion others that I love.

Have to agree with the dried fruit. Does.Not.Belong.in.a.Cookie.

Um...not sure I should admit this...but anise. Ick.

Anise is the only stopper for me, now that I overcame my long-time aversion to coconut.

@brooke - I'm with you on the candied fruit. Not a fan in general, but definitely not in a cookie!

Coconut

Dried apples, although I'm okay with raisins and crasins

I've seen a fashion for 'storebought cookies chopped and baked into homemade cookies' like chopped Oreo in a chocolate cookie that looks, em...kind of gross

coconut, raisins (ptooey!), anise. Any one of those is a dealbreaker.

anise and candy bars (my mom makes these cookies that are snickers bars enrobed in sugar cookie dough- shudder)

Just thought of another one - Hershey's Kisses. Do not like in a cookie. Tastes like a mouthful of wax. And I'd prefer semi-sweet chocolate chips over M&Ms.

@PerkyMac- I agree! those cookies with the kiss in the middle that everybody makes this time of year are terrible.

I'm sorry, but that is blasphemy. Those kiss cookies combine the best things: chocolate and peanut butter. I'll eat all yours.

Raisins
Coconut
Peanut butter (btw, Pesto, IMO peanut butter+chocolate=gag)
m&m's

Raisins
Anise
Bananas
Too many major flavors
too much sugar

never came across I cookie I didn't like,

Mental note send Perky banana cookies.
You know what made me go ewww? During the turkey day baking festivities all the damn blogs had pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and that made me skeeve. I love pumpkin cookies and like choco chips but do not mix them together for me please.
Somebody thought this would be big.

Nuts
M&M's
Coconut

@Perk ~ You are SO invited to come to lunch with us!! We are planning to go between Christmas and New Years.

mincemeat. yuck! one of my friends serves, as the only dessert at her christmas dinner, cookies made from store bought mincemeat. eeeew.

raisins, oatmeal, candied fruit, peanut butter, coconut. probably more things but those are the biggest offenders.

Really.......so many of you mentioned nuts. No peanut butter cookies, or walnuts in your chocolate chip, pecan tassies, almond crescents, macadamia or pistachio studded cookies? I can't imagine.

What about candy besides kisses and M&Ms? Has anyone used toffee bits or Reese's Peanut Butter Cups or butterscotch morsels? Do they still make the mint chocolate chips? I love them! I like coconut and oatmeal (not together).

What about jam? I love linzer cookies with raspberry jam, but any jam would be fine with me - orange marmalade or strawberry or even wine jelly.

Mincemeat cookies? Double yuck! Rancid is a given. That happened to me last year and I didn't realize the flour had gone rancid until I came home after giving chocolate chip cookies as a gift. Thank goodness I kept a few for myself - can't believe I didn't try one before that. I had to call the recipient and tell him to toss them. It took weeks before that horrible taste was gone from my mouth. Yup - rancid ranks #! for bad ingredient. :-X

- raisins, but I love blackcurrants >.>
- all chocolate, except for white chocolate
- all nuts, with the exception of almond cookies and walnuts in oatmeal cookies (rarely, I'll get a hankering for peanut butter cookies...but for some reason, I always end up choking on them to the point my eyes feel like they're going to pop out)
- salted, to the point that I can taste the salt

- hate red and green candied maraschino cherries but like candied citrus peels and ginger
- brown raisins but like sultanas and currants

Raisins! I don't mind them straight out of the box, but they do not belong in cookies, bread, or anything else. And although it makes no sense because they are practically the same thing, I don't mind dried cranberries. Wierd, I know...

Well, this thread has just solidified my recently acquired knowledge that baking for anyone but one's self is generally thankless and you do it at your peril. I have a neighborhood of retired folks around me, and since I cook a lot I tend to take plates of stuff to them as they no longer cook. All but one of them has insulted the food in some subtle way or other, so of course they are no longer in the giving loop. When someone brings me homemade ANYTHING I would never ever ever say, "I don't eat apples, or it looks funny, or I only like pie with a top crust" etc. What on earth is wrong with people? Thank you so much is the correct response, and then if you don't care for it, throw it away.

@ocarol ~ People have really strong feelings about their food - especially those of us who live to eat and are passionate about cooking and/or eating. Making food for others is how many of us convey our love, and to insult our food hurts us deeply. I had to deal with that in my own family when they no longer ate meat, or cooked foods. The elderly often skip pretense and say exactly what's on their mind, regardless of how it's received. I've learned to suck it up and not take it personally. People like what they like, and dislike what they dislike - it has nothing to do with me. Sometimes it has more to do with health, or allergies. It doesn't stop me from trying to please them if I love them. After a recent bout with pneumonia, I realized that many foods I like no longer taste good to me. I most definitely agree with you that Thank You is the correct response, but I prefer to not have my food thrown away, so I would appreciate knowing preferences.

@Ocarol: An awkward situation there. Personally, I would hate to deprive someone else of those yummy goodies you make and waste it on, say, me if I can't stand or are allergic to certain ingredients. So I do decline when I don't want that onion-garlic-cilantro pudding that took 4 hours to make.

Of course, there's an appropriate way for someone to say that they don't want something, so they don't keep getting stuff pushed on them that isn't appreciated. Hopefully, they were kind...?

An example that happened when I first physically met my husband. I tested out a casserole recipe. I knew he didn't care for crab and scallops, so I made mine out of crab, shrimp, and scallops, and made his with tuna since he loves tuna. (OK, I am sure many ppl are thinking "Eww, tuna casserole.")

When I would prep for him to go to work each night, since he worked the graveyard shift, I would send him off with a full meal packed. Well, I gave him that same container of tuna casserole to take to work for 3 days straight. He would return home each morning and say he didn't have time to take any breaks -- no time to eat, line to microwave oven is too long, etc.

Finally, on the 4th day of me giving the container to him, he confessed that he hated tuna casserole. He has always hated it, so it wasn't my preparation of it. I asked him why he didn't say so from the beginning, so I wouldn't have pushed it on him for so many days and have him go hungry. He said he didn't want me to feel bad. I dumped the dish of tuna casserole because I had my fill of casseroles having gobbled mine up. :P

@Perky--if you're using a nebulizer, those medications mess with your taste buds in a major way.

Toffee bits IMO are too hard & crunchy in cookies, and butterscotch morsels toooooo sweet.

I forgot to mention persimmons. I loathe persimmon cookies, pumpkin cookies, banana cookies--any kind of cookie that's cakey rather than cookie-y.

@ocarol, if I give someone food, I'd be happy if they informed me of allergies or strong preferences for the next time I might offer them something, but I also would hope that they wouldn't be rude about it.

And except for serious allergies (like people who can't have ANY peanut products in their homes) I would think that a plate of cookies is something that they would be able to share with guests, so it's not like I'd be forcing them to eat what I gave them.

On the other hand, there are some people in situations like my in-laws. Between them, there are a dozen adult children, all of whom want to send Christmas presents. The in-laws have told everyone that they don't need more knick-knacks or household items, and they'd prefer consumable gifts. Well, that also sort of backfired, because now they are inundated with fruit baskets and hams and cheese selections. There are only two of them, and in some cases, they just can't eat all of what arrives before it goes bad, and they don't have freezer space to store the stuff that's potentially freezable. And they don't like a lot of the items that arrive, which means that they need to find ways to serve those things to guests.

And my in-laws are not the type to throw food away. Besides the fact that they are frugal, it's probably also a sin. So instead of being a thoughtful gift, the food becomes an obligation. They don't like it, but they eat it or serve it, and they're happy when it's all gone and they can eat what they like to eat. Maybe your neighbors are in that same sort of situation.

Wow...
I am sure some combos that people COULD think up would be icky, but in general there is nothing I don't like. I bake so much at work and at home that I actually don't eat many goodies anymore, and tend to put cookies at the bottom of the list of things I would like to eat, like say cheesecake or chocolates.

I agree on not being a huge fan of the pumpkin/chocolate combo...but I don't hate it.

I also prefer a crunchy or chewy cookie over cakey ones...like those ugly sour cream cookies everyone around me seems to make. They are edible, but not preferred.

I can say I am a chocolate chip cookie snob though. I will NOT packaged CC cookies at all, and I just won't eat (unless I need to be polite) the ones that people just RUIN.
I cannot begin to tell how many people see the soft CC dough and feel the need to dump in more flour, making them cakey and tough. Yuck yuck yuck! But give me a good buttery proper CC cookie and it's all good.

Mint
Lime
Margarine

Cakey cookies don't bother me as much as cakey brownies. If I want a brownie, I'll eat a brownie. If I want cake, I'll eat cake.

walnuts--I think they taste dried out in a cookie

Looks like maybe a simple sugar or butter cookie would be the safest bet if making cookies for a crowd. KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID is the golden rule.

DO NOT WANT:

Anise
Margarine
Cashews
M&Ms (NH loves them though, ew)
Raisins
Marshmallows
Bananas
Colored sugars

I love all cookies.