Friday, January 18, 2008

Follow Directions?

I've always enjoyed cooking, but baking not so much. Only occasionally, when cooking a new recipe does it turn out less than edible. Most of the time at least one person at the table enjoys the meal. (The person most appreciative is Michael.) With my baking attempts, I have regular flops . My oldest doesn't understand how that happens. She said to me, "mom, how can you fail if you follow the recipe?" Ah, therein lies the problem.

With cooking, I rarely follow a recipe exactly. I suppose it is based on my personal preferences. I adjust ingredients to my liking. Don't like Rosemary? Omit. What? No garlic, how can a main dish survive without it? I'm finding out that in baking recipes aren't very forgiving. They allow very little room for creativity.

Over the weekend, 15 minutes before walking out the door to meet family for dinner, I decide to throw in a batch of cookies. Darn! I forgot to buy oatmeal again. Let's see...a quick cookie...not in the mood for chocolate chip...peanut butter! Mmmmm...one of my favorites. The problem is, I haven't found a tried and true recipe yet. I have a file of new ones to try. I quick printed one off the computer and actually followed the recipe as I didn't have much time to question if it sounded right to me.

Michael was a little perturbed that I would attempt this when he had his coat on, ready to walk out the door. (Have I ever mentioned I don't like being early and having to wait?) I had Elisabeth stir the ingredients, while I ran and changed my shirt. I put the dough in the refrigerator to bake when we came home. I was so proud of myself. This is exactly what the recipe called for. Chill before baking. (Another step I rarely folow.)

After a nice dinner out, I invited everyone back to my home for fresh baked cookies. Ones not yet baked. They obliged. I raced home, rolled the cookies, dipped a fork in sugar and pressed down on the little balls. They looked delightful. I popped them in the oven and waited for the sweet, melt-in-your-mouth confections to bake. But when the timer went off, I was more than disappointed. Out came a thin, rectangular, flat, greasy mess. The cookies had completely melted together. There was no distinguishing of individual cookies.

Confession: I had added an extra egg, and a bit of flour. Lately, I've had problems with flat cookies. I fixed it once by adding extra flour and an extra egg. But that shouldn't have caused even flatter cookies. With the remaining dough, I added a full cup of flour, some chocolate chips and tried again. I was about to throw the massive mess away, but my sister-in-law wanted to taste to see if it was edible. After pulling a piece off and chewing, she asked if I'd used too much butter. Horrified at the grease running off her hand, I looked at the recipe. After the 4th time declaring I had followed the recipe exactly, I realized that instead of 1/2 a cup of butter, I'd used 1 full cup. That wasn't really my fault. I didn't do it purposely. Did the recipe really say low-fat peanut butter and low-fat margarine??? Okay, so an extra egg, extra flour, extra butter instead of low-fat margarine, and I didn't use low fat peanut butter, should that have ruined an entire batch of cookies?

Is it any wonder I hate baking?

(Forgive the typos, grammatical errors, and such in my posts of . I've had a sinus infection since November causing dizziness, headaches and other pleasantries. If I take the time to proofread & edit I'll never post.) Christopher, feel free to point them out, it keeps me humble.

15 comments:

His Girl said...

*giggle* fun post!

Anonymous said...

Nice try, though!

Anonymous said...

ROFL! Sorry, I couldn't help it! I'm just glad to see that I'm not the only one that can mess up a recipe. Only difference is that I always follow it exactly! ;o)

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Anonymous said...

I have NO idea what's going on, but my comment posted 3 times! EEP!

Anonymous said...

I was really laughing by the time I got to the end of your tale. If it's any consolation, my 86-year-old mother-in-law still won't follow the directions in cooking and baking. You can get by with substitutions and additions/subtractions in cooking, but baking is very unforgiving to change!

Kellan said...

Funny post!! I like to bake better than cook - but not particularly good at either - good for your for trying!! Have a great weekend. See you soon - Kellan

Kristin said...

LOL, too funny. If it's any consolation, I hate baking AND cooking (of any kind.) *Ü*

Earen said...

Thank you for checking out my blog & visiting! It was fun visiting yours & reading your great baking story! I can SO relate! It seems like no matter how hard I try I seem to always mess it up. I'll be back again for sure!

Melanie said...

ROFL Oh, Joanne!

Mylinda said...

Joanne,
I have a great peanut butter cookie recipe that always works. It's a "family" recipe (read: Grandma got it someplace none of us know and she can't remember so we've adopted it as our own.) and has been being baked in my family all my life. Everytime I make it I get rave reviews, so if you want it, LMK and I'll email it to you.

Jenni said...

Oh no! And LOL!

I love baking, but hate cooking. Mostly because I like to eat the products of baking far more.

(((HUGS))) give it another try on another day; I'm betting they'll turn out great! You were just in a hurry the first time...

Anonymous said...

My daughter could be your twin. She is a great cook and loves the creativity factor. Baking is a bother as you have to follow the instructions.

My 8 year old loves to bake. She makes things from scratch, loves looking through cookbooks and is great at following all the steps.

Me, well, I do what I must.
I enjoy it sometimes.

Ann said...

I know, it's such a bummer when you're all excited to have cookies and they don't turn out. The same thing happened to me when I made oatmeal choc chip,they were a flat and thin as paper. We still scraped it all off and ate it in bowls.