Sunday, May 23, 2010

Cookie FAIL (Yes, Again)

Things are getting desperate. First I made the "best ever sugar cookies" which were perfectly awful. Good for building a wall, though.

Then I decided that the best thing would be biscotti. Delish, long-lasting, and not hard to make. Also, I had a great recipe from Jen Yu, who lives at altitude (much more so than we do) and thus I could count on not screwing it up.

Not so. Above, my mise en place. It was purty. I set it up with Iain, then he went into his crib to not-nap, then 1.5 hours later we made cookies.


The dough was fine. It's supposed to be hard and dry and sort of thick, because it becomes those rock hard sticks of dippable love that we all know from Starbucks.

But when I went to cut them after the first bake:


Yuck. The pistachios were like bits of stone, the chocolate chips were like molten lava, nothing wanted to cut properly. I made these last Christmas, and they were great. ???

Here's my theory: we still do not have heat. No, really. It's been in the 50s during the day and in the high 30s at night, and our boiler is not yet installed. I'm starting to be irritated. We have space heaters, which are quite efficient and work fine for keeping us toasty at night.

But I can't get my butter to room temp. That's STEP ONE of the recipe. And I just can't get it soft because the kitchen isn't warm. So when I mix, I don't get light, fluffy goodness. I get a butter/sugar paste that's pretty firm. I think that was a problem here. And my chocolate chips were kind of...husky. I think that was a problem, too. Last time I shredded bars because I lacked chips. Shredding makes for more evenly distributed chocolate, and so it didn't get in the way of my knife.

Or, maybe, I've just lost my mojo.

They taste good, though. I can't give them to the neighbors, because they're hilarious looking. But I can foist them on The Maw (see above), who finds them yummy.

5 comments:

Heather said...

As long as the little man thinks they're good, you are golden. Right?

Unknown said...

Wow, those look.... ah, yummy? Whatever you do, don't try a cake.

bugboys69 said...

Is it the altitude? Or is that just dumb?

Fiona said...

Well, the altitude probably isn't helping. But I have been using recipes from a lady who lives at a much higher altitude from me.

I think I'm just learning my new kitchen (a) and that it's darn cold in there (b). Today we ran a small space heater and it was much warmer, closer to normal.

What I really need are two large, hairy, panting canines to keep my feets warm. Know anyone who has such a resource???

bugboys69 said...

You know they love the snow just like there dad. If it was possible to loan them to you I would in a heart beat. I hope you get the boiler sorted out soon. Love T xxx