Cookie Exchange Update

So – I’m 0 for 2 on the cookie exchange front…well, maybe .5 for 2. The yummy Martha Stewart cookies I was embarking on for my work cookie exchange did not yield the 50 cookies they should have. I managed to salvage about 30…but that’s only half of the 5-dozen I was required to produce. As I have to bring them in tomorrow and I’m busy tonight, I will be stopping at Loblaws for the Pillsbury Christmas cookies in a tube that you just cut off the roll and bake. I figure that’s better than just buying store bought cookies to supplement the shortfall – at least this way I’m actually baking them!

I really can’t tell you what happened this time around. The recipe said the batch yielded 50 and in the picture they were so big and round – I was excited. But of course this is me in the kitchen…there has to be some kind of catastrophe.

As my cookie sheets couldn’t handle more than 9 cookies at a time, I had 2 cookie sheets going – while one was baking I was preparing the other. I was even lining the sheets with parchment paper as Martha recommended on her site! However, it seems that by the time I got to the last two batches, the cookie sheets were too hot and the dough was melting before it even went into the oven…but my question is…why weren’t they just baking on the sheet rather than melting? Logically since the cookie sheets were already hot, shouldn’t they have been baking the cookies and therefore probably just meaning less time for me to bake them in the oven?

Apparently not as my cookies just stayed mush. The didn’t get crisp (as they were supposed to) or spread nearly as big as the were supposed to…it just doesn’t make sense to me.

Now don’t go on thinking that the first few batches were masterpieces or anything…they spread so big that they just melded together and became one big cookie. But being the (sometimes) smart girl that I am…I took out my trusty Stella Artois beer glass and used it as a cookie cutter to produce perfectly round cookies. Sure there were some bits and pieces left over …but those yummy ends will be for me to snack on (see the problem with baking??? you eat junk you normally wouldn’t!). So anyways, that’s how I was able to produce at least 30 mini cookies (they are not nearly as big as they were in the picture)…if those last two batches had worked out…I’m sure I would have had 60….

Martha Stewart…I will never be…this is why I need to bake in a team…Arnelle – it’s on to our biscotti!

me.