The Importance of Baking Soda

So, I tried again on the snickerdoodles. I blamed the recipe the first time of course. (As if the Joy of Cooking could be wrong). I turned to the internet for a different recipe that was reviewed by others first so I could know for sure if it would work. It was in reading the reviews that I learned the error of my first batch: baking soda.   Here is a rule to live by: If your baking soda is flat, you cookies will be flat. 

So, thanks to a recipe on allrecipes.com, I made amazing, mouthwatering snickerdoodles.

Today I am trying a twist on my own chocolate chip recipe. My general manager at work is this amazing chef who used to have his own bakery. He asked me to try adding molasses to my chocolate chip cookies... so here I go.

I mix together butter flavored shortening, brown sugar, an egg, vanilla, milk, and molasses.  I am not used to working with molasses (having only one experience with the stuff when I was in about 6th grade that turned out with horrible, bitter, crispy cookies). My manager had told me to add about 6 tablespoons of it to my recipe, but after smelling it I couldn't bring myself to add more than 4 tablespoons... so I'm a wimp... I can live with that.

I mix the dry ingredients (flour, wheat flour, baking soda, and salt) together in a separate bowl and then mix it into the wet mixture. I added one cup of chocolate chips to the mix and dropped them onto the baking sheet.

Batch one came out a little more doughy than intended, but surprisingly still taste good. The molasses was more of a subtle hint of flavor (which is not how my kitchen smells). My home smells strongly of molasses, but the cookies are great, although they could be cooked a little longer.

Batch two was a little over done- crispy, but not burnt. I prefer mine more chewy than crispy.

Erg, if I had a dime for every time I've burned my finger baking cookies, I would have enough to buy a bakery. I tried turning my cookie sheet on the rack because my oven doesn't cook evenly.

Ah, and the third batch is beautiful. Not picture perfect or anything- but nicely browned edges and fully cooked in the middle.

Came out with nearly two dozen decent sized cookies. It's a good thing I am taking them up to work tonight to my manager to try them, otherwise this little project might be detrimental to my figure.

I'm still deciding how I feel about them overall- perhaps if I were more of a molasses fan I would know. Anyways, I will post my manager's response after I take them.

Happy baking to you all!

P.S. If you wish to have one of my recipes over the course of this year, please just let me know. I am not publishing them online because many of them are not my own and I'm not sure how much I can put here without getting in trouble. Any recipe I do not own I will tell you where to find, and if it's mine, I will freely give to any who ask so long as they adhere to certain conditions to protect my ownership of the recipe.

The Beginning

Dear friends, family, and strangers,

I have been married for about 8 months now. I love my husband, and I hate my job. I spent my free time in college baking whatever I craved and then inviting friends over to devour it with me. I always said that if my degree didn't take me anywhere, I'd just start baking. Well, here I am- nearly a year out of college and my degree is sitting utterly useless.

For New Year's my husband had the grand idea of us making just one resolution together that we would actually keep. While becoming better people, doing our laundry more often, and losing weight were all good options, we instead settled on something that might actually happen: bake at least one batch of cookies every week this year. I want to be good at something, and I love baking cookies. Therefore, with his support I have taken on this resolution to bake.

Today is January 11, 2010- so that means that today I am making my second batch of cookies for the year.

Last week I started the year with a tried and true recipe I created in college for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. (I wanted a positive start).

Today I decided to pull out my copy of The Joy of Cooking and attempt the recipe for snickerdoodles.

I set out my butter early this morning to soften, and after taking my husband to work, I began. I mixed together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt with exact measurements. (Although I did decide to use half regular flour, half whole wheat flour).

Then, in a separate bowl I creamed together the butter and sugar, then mixed in the eggs. I stirred the flour mixture straight into the creamed mixture.  The dough came out a bit sticky, but still ok for making balls out of the dough.

I rolled the balls of dough in a cinnamon sugar mixture and put them on the pans. That's where I ran into trouble. See, I've never made snickerdoodles before, and I had no idea how much they spread when baking. I also didn't realize that when the recipe said they had to be 2 3/4 inches apart, that the recipe meant it. So I put the balls on the sheet and tried to flatten them a little with my hand, and beyond that, I tried putting them all a little more like 1 1/2 inches apart. BIG mistake! My first batch came out all running into each other and almost as flat as a tortilla. My second sheet I learned my lesson about the spreading and put them far enough apart, but they still came out super thin.  The third one I re-rolled the cookies into balls and I think if I hadn't forgotten to take them out in time, they would have turned out fine, but alas, I have two batches of cookie tortillas, and one batch of burnt cookie.

Perhaps I should try again this week.