Most of the time, when baking, the slightest mistake will bring total devastation. Especially when you’re trying out that new, complicated recipe for company! However, sometimes you can have what my hubby refers to as “happy accidents,” when something goes wrong, but it gives you the benefit. I like those. Last night, while making a batch of 24 cookies, I finished mixing my dough, to look in the bowl and realize that my ratio of butter-to-flour wasn’t really working…and it immediately dawned on me: oops! You added a full stick of butter, instead of a half!
Fortunately, when there is a higher fat ratio to flour, worrying about gluten isn’t quite as a big deal as it normally would have been. Still could be a problem, but fixable in this case. So, I simply mixed up another batch of dry ingredients, warmed my egg, and added the sugar. Since sugar is often considered a “liquid” ingredient in baking, I mixed my sugar and egg together, then added them to the sort-of-already-done cookie dough, and mixed it in. This also created a heavier liquid-to-flour ratio, so I wouldn’t have to worry about too much gluten. Then I added the additional flour, gently stirred, and Wa-lah! A batch of 24 very large cookies. Mmmm. Here’s to happy accidents!
What I coincidence! I just posted about mistakes in baking too. I like happy accidents.
That sounds like a great mistake! The other day, my 9 year old daughter decided she wanted to make cookies all by herself (no help from me). The only mistake she made was to double the chocolate chips! :D We loved her cookies.
yummy, cookies. I had a happy mistake with cookies this week too– I accidentally bought the double stuff instead of the regular ones… yummy! :-D