Skip to main content

The Great American Cookie Quest

Now, we haven't been the most successful in making a good cookie in our house.




I had an old recipe that I thought worked perfectly to get a good crunchy cookie with a chewy centre.


However, when we last made them they ended up being a disaster. We were a bit 'gun ho' with the recipe (that basically means we didn't follow it properly!) and have learnt from our mistakes. We didn't have any chocolate chips, so we broke up a bar of chocolate. However our chucks were too big, we put too much chocolate in, and our cookie mixture wasn't floury enough, so they just kind of disintegrated on the baking tray when baked. Whoops! Think floppy brandy snaps with chocolate chunks in. Despite looking awful, they were delicious, and we cut cookie shapes out of the congealed mixture with a cutter, but they weren't the cookies of our dreams.


Whoops!

So we thought we'd try again with another recipe. Miss L liked the look of this one from Cookies and Cups and set to work. Again, it wasn't quite the recipe I would have used. I wanted a huge American cookie that is fluffy and chewy. You know the ones. Think Millie's Cookies. This recipe came out more like a Maryland Cookie biscuit. I basically need the recipe with just the right amount of butter to flour so that they spread nicely on the baking tray when baked.


Don't get me wrong, they were delicious, but again we didn't nail the recipe.

For starters, we made our dough balls too small on our first batch, so they ended up cooking really quickly, in about 6 minutes...rather than the 9 it said on the recipe. They burnt a bit, and were quite dense.


Our second run with the mixture was better because we made the cookies larger, and flattened them down to spread them out a bit. This time they were done within 8-9 minutes and were fine. I kept checking them when cooking, so they didn't over cook and burn. Overall, it was a valiant attempt, but I think we can do better. Third time lucky, eh?


If you like a thicker cookie, then why not give the recipe here a go. Like I said, the original recipe is from Cookies and Cups, but I've adapted it here for metric measurements.






Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Guest Recipe - Nonna's Pavlova

When I was younger my Mum (or Nonna, as she's affectionately known to the kids) used to ask me what I wanted for my birthday meal. Every year, it was always the same answer. Prawn Cocktail, Coronation Chicken and PAVLOVA. I was classy for sure. My Mum makes the best pavlovas though. There I said it. Every year on my birthday I looked forward to that creamy, sweet, crunchy, chewy, bowl full of pavlova goodness. It's one of the highlights of the birthdays of my past. Time goes on though, and despite loving them I rarely make a pavlova...in fact this one was only my second attempt! It came out well, though I've noted a few things to improve it next time. I got a bit scared of over-whisking and the egg white collapsing, so I don't think I whisked enough. I did do the 'tipping the bowl over' tip (see below) though which worked, so it couldn't have been that loose! I topped the pavlova with fresh fruit such as strawberries, nectarine, pineapple and kiwi. My Mum a...

Low Fat Spring Rolls

  It has to be said that spring rolls are my downfall! I love Asian food anyway, but getting a delicious crispy, tasty spring roll full of veggie goodness is my absolute favourite. That being said, they're not particularly good for the waistline - as with all things deep fried! So I set out to create a guilt-free version that I could make at home, that would please the kids. Now this recipe makes large spring rolls, but you could always cut the pastry into four and, using the same method outlined in the recipe, make smaller spring rolls. You can also use whatever veggies you like, but just make sure they're really thinly sliced. You could also add vermicelli rice noodles - just soak them in boiling water until cooked, then drain and allow to cool before adding to the mix. Also, we just use a soy sauce dressing, but why not experiment? Lime, ginger and honey with soy sauce would make a good dressing, as would sweet chilli sauce mixed with soy. You don't want the vegetable ...

Blogging the Culinary Everyday

So unless you've been living under a rock in the last 6 weeks you'll know that as a country we have been in lockdown because of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. My patience is getting thinner, my waist line is getting bigger and I'm feeling down in the dumps. The only things I have found that gets me out of this slump is cooking. This is something that my 8 year old daughter, Miss L, is finding too. It breaks up the day and you get to eat wonderful things you've made (hence the growing waist line). We've had to have been resourceful with our ingredients, though, not knowing what we're going to be able to get hold of. It's been a culinary mystery tour! The enormity of the situation is overwhelming, but with cooking we feel like we have some control . But then again, maybe this is exactly the right time to learn some new skills and develop ourselves. There are so many skills that are going to be learnt with this blogging venture, for me a Miss L. That'...