Last night as promised, even though I was really tired, I made the ginger cookies. I have never had such a disaster in my life while making cookies. I'm sensing a trend here. A bad trend. On Thanksgiving, the rolls (which I had previously made twice, both times they were great) didn't turn out. I don't know why. The pie was a bomb because I accidentally added all the Cool Whip at once instead of dividing it, as the recipe clearly stated, and I just missed it somehow. The gravy was so salty I had to throw it out and start over. The only thing that wasn't awful was the turkey itself (thank goodness Kim was in charge of most of the side dishes, and my Mom brought the stuffing)! What's happening here?
So last night, I started to measure out the flour...one cup, two cups...oh, wait! That was almost a mistake. Dump the flour out, start again...one cup, and a fourth of a cup. Okay, that's better. Except that after mixing up the batter (I wasn't clued when it was very sticky- several of the 1718 reviewers said it was sticky) and chilling it for 45 minutes and baking the cookies, they spread all over the pan and started blopping off the cookie sheet onto the floor of the oven, so I tossed a sheet of foil down there to catch the blops. All the while, I'm thinking that how could 1,718 people say these were the greatest ginger cookies ever?
That's not a cookie, it's a mess!
After I finished cleaning up all that mess, I pondered. Then I double-checked the recipe. OH! No wonder the dough was running all over the place. TWO AND A FOURTH CUPS OF FLOUR! Not 1-1/4. Duh. I told you I was tired.
This morning I tried again. I measured everything very carefully and here is the new batch ready to go in the oven. I decided that since it's the Christmas season I would switch out the white sugar for colored sugar.
The recipe says to press down on the cookie dough a bit. This shows how far I smooshed them down (it helps the cookie to bake more evenly).
And here is the finished product. As for the picture I showed you yesterday? It was a stand-in picture. Not the real thing. This cookie doesn't crackle. This now looks much more like a cookie than a mess! But how does it taste? Bud ate one and said he liked it. I ate one and thought it was good too. It's a little crispy on the edges, and chewy through the middle. The flavor is nice too. For Karen, who needs a number, I'd give it a 7. Yes, only a 7. Maybe a 7.5 to be generous. I'm not sure it's my "go-to" ginger cookie recipe, but it is pretty good. Our dental assistant's review was "It's to die for. I could eat all of them. They were great!" I asked three people in the other office. The first one said, "it's really good, and I would want the recipe. They're better than the professional cookies our patient gives us," and another one said (and he's the toughest critic of all) "it's kind of sugary and granulary, but not in a bad way. I would eat these again." There you have it. Make them yourself and decide!
2 comments:
My suggestion - buy yourself the Pampered Chef Bar pan. You can never bake a bad cookie on that pan. It cooks them perfectly. NEVER burns them, and it is just the to-die-for pan when you're making to-die-for cookies! Hey, Patti - try it, you'll like it.
Wow Patti...you weren't kidding when your answer to how your Thanksgiving dinner went was "read my blog"--I hope the current cooking trend ends for you. We all know you are a fabulous cook!
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