Bill Clinton’s Half-Baked Cookie Entry

It is hard to believe politicians could be caught up in controversy over something as simple, homey, and entertaining as a cookie recipe — but that’s what we’ve got on our hands. Call it culinary contretemps with a dash of … dishonesty.

Every presidential election cycle since 1992, Family Circle magazine has held a head-to-head cookie-baking contest featuring the recipes of the presidential candidates’ wives.

“The Clintons don’t exactly win points for creativity this year,” noted NPR.

Last Thursday it released the latest recipes from this year’s spouses, Bill Clinton and Melania Trump — with the first-ever submission from a potential “first man,” of course.

It seems the former president would be anxious to tie on an apron — he joked last fall he would like to “break the stranglehold that women have had on the job of presidential spouse.” But Bill Clinton didn’t bother to try to cook up a real cookie submission. He (or the campaign) simply recycled an earlier submission from his wife — the “Clinton Family’s Chocolate Chip Cookie” recipe, an oatmeal and chocolate chip hybrid that was already entered in not just one, but two, previous contests.

“The Clintons don’t exactly win points for creativity this year,” noted NPR.

Melania Trump, meanwhile, submitted her star sugar cookies as an entry.

Ironically, the origins of the Family Circle “first spouse” recipe tradition trace back to Hillary Clinton. When asked about her career in a press gaggle during her husband’s presidential primary in 1992, Clinton dismissively responded, “You know, I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession, which I entered before my husband was in public life. And I tried very, very hard to be as careful as possible, and that’s all that I can tell you.”

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An outcry over her demeaning comments to homemakers ensued. Family Circle seized the moment and began the recipe contest.

But what is going on psychologically with those who lie or bend the truth about such “little” things as cookie contests?

“The most obvious reason for a lie is self-benefit — staying in a relationship, keeping a job and so on,” psychologist Sara Pascoe of Bournemouth, England, told LifeZette. “Some people lie to make themselves pertinent and central to any ongoing discussion. Some people may feel they’re boring, and believe the lie will make them more interesting and likable.”

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren has brought recipe ridicule on herself as well.

Warren, 62, began claiming she was Native American back in 1984, according to The Federalist, as she repeatedly “checked the box” for preferential minority status. Her claim to be “1/32” Cherokee is a claim many Americans could make — but most don’t list themselves as a minority in the Association of American Law Schools directory. Then, in her 2012 Senate bid against Scott Brown, Warren touted her contributions to an obscure 1984 Indian cookbook, “Pow Wow Chow” (edited by her late cousin) as proof of her tribal origins.

Related: Look, Ma, No Recipes!

Asked why she claimed Indian heritage after those claims were largely debunked, she referred to an old family photo of her “papaw” (her grandfather) who “had high cheekbones, like all the Indians do,” as the New York Post reported at the time.

“People in Boston who were following that race were just aghast that her Senate candidacy wasn’t ruined, but she kept going — kind of like Hillary Clinton,” said one Boston sales professional. “This would have ruined a conservative’s career.”

Here’s why this is relevant again.

“Pow Wow Chow” was a compilation of “special recipes passed down through the Five Tribes families.” Of the five recipes contributed to the book by “Elizabeth Warren, Cherokee,” at least two were plagiarized — taken word-for-word from The New York Times. They had not been created by “Native American” Warren, but instead by “60-Minute Gourmet” Pierre Franey while he was chef at Le Pavilion, a fine dining establishment in Manhattan. One of the copied recipes — for cold crab omelet — Franey wrote back in 1979.

So who will win the great cookie bake-off this year, Bill Clinton (using Hillary’s recycled recipe) or Melania Trump and her sugar cookies? That’s still up for grabs. Voting is open until Oct. 4.