Thursday, October 29, 2009

Baking Blunders

About a week and a half ago, Emma had her Stake Activity Days activity at our Stake Center. Since I'm the Ward leader, I was in charge of getting all 6 girls there and back, and entertaining them during the 45 minute drive each way. It wasn't an easy task. But we survived.

One perk was that during the activity, they had the girls assemble cookies in a jar. You know, where you add the flour, sugars, salt, and chocolate chips in a cute little mason jar? Yeah, those. You've probably received them for Christmas from neighbors or friends. They're cute, and I always thought it would be a fun idea for neighbor gifts. After this, I'm rethinking that idea.

So we made the cookies. I followed the directions and everything. It wasn't pretty. I don't know if the recipe was skewed to fit in the jars, or if they just didn't think about it too much, figuring nobody would really go home and make them.

I did.

And here's what I ended up with. These cookies are so flat and gross. They are burned on the edges and raw in the center. And they were nasty. Yes, I tasted them. I wasn't about to let an ugly cookie go to waste. I don't discriminate on looks. But they tasted as good as they looked.


So I improvised. Not being a baker by nature, I had to call upon my 4H skills from years past, and dig deep. I added a cup of flour to thicken up the batter. Still looked weird, so I added some oatmeal. After mixing it for what seemed like an eternity, it finally came together and resembled cookie dough.

I baked them. They looked pretty good.


See? Better. They were fluffier, not raw in the center, and the edges were nice and golden brown.

But they tasted like crap.

See, you should never discriminate based on looks alone.

So I'll stick with my own cookie recipe. One that never fails, and makes a million cookies. I should know to never trust my baking abilities to the hands of strangers. Never again, I say! Nevah!

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8 comments:

Christian and Karen Robinson said...

I am a cookie recipe snob myself. I read cookie recipes entitled "Grandma's Best Chocolate Chip Cookies" and "Better than Sex But Not As Good As An Excellent Back-Scratch Peanut Butter Bars". I don't buy it. I have my tried and true and never deviate!!

amy k said...

Good point and wise advice to follow. Jacob is our coookie maker at the house (and a really good one too.)

Jill Johnson said...

You could use them as frisbees!

Kelli said...

I bet the kids would have fun finding things to do with them. That could be some cheap entertainment!

Dalynne Denhof said...

LOL, we made them too, and ours looked the same way! it's nice to know that it wasn't just us--it's the recipe, calls for way too much butter i think. it was a nice idea to begin with :)

Tami Allred said...

Hey my Anna was there that day too and the jar is still sitting on the counter cuz I hate cooking and cleaning. I saw a couple of friends on fb wrote sort of the same thing you did the very next day, except no one mentioned they tasted like crap, so thanks for the warning, I was just going to add flour. hahahha so much for my culinary skills

Kathie said...

I have gotten those cookie in a jar things before too and they don't work--at least when I make them now I have someone who can back me up when I say "It wasn't my fault, I promise!"

grannybabs said...

I've had jar mixes work really well - sounds like someone messed up the recipe.