Friday, January 11, 2008

Happy fluffy cookie day!

you may remember my cookie lament some time ago. Ever since I got married, I have been unable to make a decent cookie. they always turn out WAY flat. i've tried all sorts of things! i tried a brand new box of baking soda...i've tried refrigerating the dough first. I even tried martha stewart's chewy cookie recipe, & i folloed the directions to a T... but no luck. the only thing i haven't done is substitue the butter w/crisco. that's my last resort.

anyway, the other day, i made cookies, & thought i'd try adding a bit more baking soda....maybe it would make them rise a little more. no luck.

not only were the completely flat, but they were hard & crunchy on the outside--almost burnt, and completely *uncooked* in the middle! >:( So before cooking the next batch, i added a bunch of extra flower. My cookies turned out perfect!
Chris even said they were the best cookies i've ever made. the truth is, the best cookies i ever made were before we got married, when i wasn't stuck to the Toll House flat cookie recipe, but whatever. Anyway.... this was a huge accomplishment for me.

Also, i thought i'd google fluffy cookies & see what i could come up with. I found this GREAT website that breaks down what the different ingredients do for a cookie. to summarize, " For light, puffy cookies, use shortening or margarine and cut back on the amount of fat; add an egg, cut back on the sugar, use cake flour or pastry flour, use baking powder instead of baking soda and refrigerate your dough before baking." it goes into a lot more detail, if you're interested.

... so i think the next time i make cookies, i'll make them w/a little less butter & a little less sugar, & see what that does.

but at least for now, i'm no longer a cookie failure.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Woo-hoo! So glad to hear of your accomplishment and you inspire me that I, too, may one day have post-wedding cookie success! :) So glad you found that website...I'll defn look at it...

Glenna said...

Yea!!

Sounds like a great addition to the girls weekend would be a cookie lesson. We can stick that in right before the flour throwing :)

Anonymous said...

I had someone tell me recently to take out some of the white sugar and add a small package of vanilla pudding powder. They said it made really fluffy cookies! Worth a try maybe?!

Anonymous said...

I like mine soft and chewy. And thanks a lot, now all day for some ODD reason I've had a major cookie craving! :)

~just me~ said...

sounds interesting jessica. will have to try that. that website said to use brown sugar or molasses instead of white sugar.

Ruth- tee-hee! go make some & let me know how they turn out. :)

Glenna- sounds good!

Gwendolyn said...

I've never perfected a cookie recipe. Mine never make it to the oven. You have, however, given me a craving for cookie dough and I do have that recipe perfected. he he

~just me~ said...

Gwen- yah... i seldom cook mine either. the whole reason i made the cookies to begin with, was b/c i was craving dough. but our heater was broken, so i turned on the oven to warm up the house... & then i figured, "if i'm making cookie dough, and i have the oven on, i may as well try cooking some." :)

Anonymous said...

I have heard that "flat cookie syndrome" is due to the temp. of the butter. It needs to be at room temp and I have heard that Butter Crisco works well, also. As for me, I rarely make cookies from scratch... I'm just too busy. Also, I try not to make them at all.. because then I eat them all and my kids are like, "Where did all the cookies go?" Yeah, not good.