Sunday, April 26, 2009

why is everything so hazy?

I'm super fuzzed out this morning from not sleeping well for several consecutive nights (perfect timing for the first rehearsal of that piece in the post below, sigh... and tonight is likely to be no different), but here's something I learned last night: following directions makes a difference. I learned it a few weeks ago when, with my second go-round with chocolate sugar cookies, they didn't spread during baking as planned, presumably because we melted the butter instead of having it at room temperature. And this week? It's crispy salted chocolate chip oatmeal cookies that schooled me.
I made these with Rose-Anne a few weeks ago, and I mis-read the recipe: instead of creaming the sugars and butter together until "fluffy and light" I just creamed them together. The resulting cookies were good (pretty awesome the next day, actually) but not in the way they were described in the recipe. We were going for "thick and shattery" because that sounds like an awesome thing for a cookie to be, and instead we got "very thin and crunchy." So it goes. But last night (with my brand new electric hand mixer, OMG) I made them again (using bittersweet chocolate chips because I didn't have white chocolate) and thick and shattery they are! They look very substantial but they are feather-light and explode in your mouth. And beautiful? The prettiest damn cookies I've ever made.
Live and learn. Time for more coffee before I head to rehearsal and get my mind blown.

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