Author’s Note: For the last few posts, those of you reading me on iPhones may have noticed that some of the photographs are not oriented correctly. They’re sideways. After attempting to fix this problem for days, I finally went to my IT guy. He can’t fix it either and thinks it may be a problem with the latest IOS update. Sorry about this. Hopefully, this glitch will be gone soon. Be patient. Thanks.
And now, on with the cooking show…
Calling All Bakers.
Those are the latest batch of my chocolate chip cookies pictured above. I make them every Friday and they’re pretty darn good. (If I do say so myself.)
They come out yummy, crispy and uniform in size- I use a cookie scoop- and I’m always pleased with the end results.
But on Friday, July 1, I had a glitch in the bakery works. And I’m turning to you, Dear Readers, to see if you can guess where the problem lay.
Sherlock Holmes sidebar: Think of this as a contest. I spent weeks finding out the correct answer and if anyone one of you can guess it, there will be a homemade batch of the above-pictured beauties delivered to your door.
Here’s the back story…
I always do everything EXACTLY the same way when I make my cookies. Same ingredients, same cookie sheets, same oven temperature, same baking time of day.
Every Friday morning, I take a stick of unsalted butter out of the fridge at 6 am to let it soften. I start mixing the ingredients by 8 am and they’re in the oven for 12 minutes by 8:15 or so.
Nothing ever changes.
But this particular Friday was the one following my first cataract surgery and I could not see well enough to read the fine print of the recipe. Instead of putting a 1/2 teaspoon of salt and baking soda into the bowl, I mistakenly added 1/4 of each.
The result?
This was a bad batch. They were smaller and paler. (I did not give them away. But I couldn’t bear to throw them out, either. I froze them and I eat one once in awhile. They looked lousy but they taste just fine.)
That left me one batch short, however.
And I was out of flour.
With the oven on and all the gear still mis en place, I hightailed it over to the nearby convenience store.
Thrifty Scotsman Sidebar: The nearby convenience mini mart is good in an emergency but its prices are extortionate. $8 for a small bag of flour! It killed me but I paid it. Never again.
I scampered home with my new bag of flour, took out another stick of butter from the freezer, made the cookie dough all over again- this time using the correct amounts of salt and baking soda- and voilà!
I got the same small, lousy-looking cookies on Batch 2!
I was stumped. But this time I did not throw them out. I delivered them- with apologies- to their intended recipient.
He was not all that concerned.
“I bet they taste just fine,” he said graciously.
And they did.
But the mystery of why they had come out looking so puny haunted me. And I was determined to find out what exactly had caused this sea change in my heretofore perfect cookies.
Maybe it was my oven temperature? So I called to have it re-calibrated.
The repair guy who came out assured me that the oven temperature was fine. Nothing amiss there.
I checked and re-checked the recipe I used. And even though I had purchased a new bag of flour, everything else was still exactly the same stuff I always employed in my regular Friday bakeoff.
Then I went on the internet and read up on cookie fails.
Nothing seemed to apply to me.
I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why that second batch of cookies had come out so small and pale. This mystery was driving me nuts.
Finally, in a frenzy of curiosity, I sought out a baker in my neighborhood. And I found one.
Here at Lakeview Kitchen and Market.
He patiently listened to my story, thought about it for a minute and then he told me what had happened and why.
Any guesses?
Winner gets a visit from Ellen the Keebler Elf. Sweets for the sweet. (And smart.)
Bye, sweeties.
Make it a chocolate chip cookie kind of day.
Did you buy some gluten free flour at the mini mart by mistake?? Total shot in the dark. Don’t even know if such thing exists.
On a side note – my apologies for the less than warm greeting as we were leaving camp. Always my worst moment. A fever pitched hour or two trying to get the cabin packed up and the depression of having to leave, always blows me off course. From the moment you said you weren’t getting there til Sunday, I feared that exact “ships passing in the night” encounter. Was that two nautical references in two sentences? Totally unintentional.
Thanks for playing, Dicky, but no. The flour I bought was ordinary all-purpose flour. As for our “brief encounter,” don’t give it a thought. You were a perfect gentleman. I,too, was disappointed that we never got a chance to hang on the pontoon boat and sing us some Hank Williams. Next year, my friend.
Ellen, I think that should be the yeast of your problems.
Two stories: Before moving from New York to Chicago, my mother gave me some crash cooking/baking lessons. Delicious pineapple upside-down recipe. First time, under close supervision. Second time me on my own, with her in the living room to consult in case of problems. Third time, she was off on an excursion. The cake just wouldn’t rise. I kept ramping up the temp on the oven, to no avail. Hours later, she came home and pointed out the pilot flame had gone out. Oy!
The other story concerns legendary chemist I.M. Kolthoff, after whom one of the buildings I currently work in was named. While Piet, as he was called, was still a teenager growing up in Holland, his mother inadvertently put baking soda rather than table salt into the soup she was cooking. Without flinching, Piet went to his basement home laboratory, grabbed a bottle of concentrated hydrochloric acid, and carefully titrated the soup to neutrality.
Very very “Sabrina,” Doc. Your cake. Her soufflé. As for the other anecdote, you hit on something I have always known. Cooking-especially baking- is pure chemistry. But no guess as to what went wrong?
Please forward your cookie recipe.. Would love to try it out myself. Maybe I can be the other test kitchen??
Warm regards,Diane
I’ll gladly bring you some cookies, Diane. But the recipe must remain a state secret. Love, Betty Crocker
The key lies in your eyes
What if I’m the only one to guess.?
You haven’t been. Kauf just sent me his guess through email. So far, no winners. (But I’ll try to come up with a parting gift for playing.)
Didn’t soften the butter enough the last time cuz u were in a hurry?
That’s it! The butter was too cold the second time. Thanks, Betsy. Wherever you are, I owe you some cookies!🍪🍪🍪
I’m obviously late to the party (I hate when work gets in the way of reading your blog).
I would have guessed that you left out the dark rum or the Kahlua (or both). Bet that would have made for an interesting batch of cookies. Oh yeah, you also left out the ice cream that goes with the cookies (Baskin Robbins Peanut Butter and Chocolate of course).
All interesting suggestions, Steve. Very, very decadent. I’m sure they’d improve my recipe. Thanks for the cooking tip. 😊
I’m such a lousy cook I use the smoke detector as a timer!
In our house we pray AFTER we eat!!
Very funny, Rodney. Love, Julia Child