Adventures in Baking: Fail Edition
Nov. 8th, 2024 09:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
just_cydI've been baking in some form for 45 years; it stands to reason that pretty much any baked good should be well within my ability. Pies? my crust rules. cookies? I can do chocolate chip on auto-pilot. Cakes? easy-peasy.
Now some things do have environmental factors - divinity needs to be made when it's dry outside, and breads will vary in the amount of flour needed based on several factors. The one factor I always forget to consider is Room Temperature. According to The Kitchn, they cite Cook’s Illustrated’s The Science of Good Cooking, which defines room temperature as "an environment that is 70° Fahrenheit or 21° Celsius." My house is currently an unheated 66°F.
Oops.
The goal was a trial run of shortbread using this recipe. When baking to impress, untested recipes are risky, and from prior attempts at shortbread, I knew it was finicky. I put the butter on the counter about 1pm, knowing I'd be napping after work. When I checked it, it was still somewhat firm, but I soldiered on. My second mistake was not using my stand mixer. 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 1 1/2c flour, 10Tb butter, surely my standard mixing bowl can handle that? negatron. Because the butter was too cold, the ingredients didn't want to blend, so I was sending the dry ingredients all over me and my kitchen. the butter chunks were a tad smaller, but they were not emulsifying like they should be. Grabbed a fork and went at it like I do pie crust, cutting the butter into the flour. it sorta worked, but it was still white powders with chunks of butter. Tried the mixer again, failed again, and while not totally admitting defeat, I dumped the contents into a freezer bag, mushed it together, and tossed it in the fridge to think about its life choices, while I retired to the couch to do the same.
After a couple hours of sulking, I decided that I could salvage this. Fired up the oven, and scooped heaping cookie-scoop-fuls into paper lined jumbo muffin tins. I got 12 total, and tamped them down into a firm-ish glob. baked for 10 minutes (flipping things after 5), and now they're cooling on the counter. The papers sucked out some of the moisture/fat, so we'll see how the cookies do after a bit of time.
If I decide to try this for the event on the 24th, I will make sure my butter is actually softened. Or I'll stick to what I know. Trying to impress people is hard.
Now some things do have environmental factors - divinity needs to be made when it's dry outside, and breads will vary in the amount of flour needed based on several factors. The one factor I always forget to consider is Room Temperature. According to The Kitchn, they cite Cook’s Illustrated’s The Science of Good Cooking, which defines room temperature as "an environment that is 70° Fahrenheit or 21° Celsius." My house is currently an unheated 66°F.
Oops.
The goal was a trial run of shortbread using this recipe. When baking to impress, untested recipes are risky, and from prior attempts at shortbread, I knew it was finicky. I put the butter on the counter about 1pm, knowing I'd be napping after work. When I checked it, it was still somewhat firm, but I soldiered on. My second mistake was not using my stand mixer. 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 1 1/2c flour, 10Tb butter, surely my standard mixing bowl can handle that? negatron. Because the butter was too cold, the ingredients didn't want to blend, so I was sending the dry ingredients all over me and my kitchen. the butter chunks were a tad smaller, but they were not emulsifying like they should be. Grabbed a fork and went at it like I do pie crust, cutting the butter into the flour. it sorta worked, but it was still white powders with chunks of butter. Tried the mixer again, failed again, and while not totally admitting defeat, I dumped the contents into a freezer bag, mushed it together, and tossed it in the fridge to think about its life choices, while I retired to the couch to do the same.
After a couple hours of sulking, I decided that I could salvage this. Fired up the oven, and scooped heaping cookie-scoop-fuls into paper lined jumbo muffin tins. I got 12 total, and tamped them down into a firm-ish glob. baked for 10 minutes (flipping things after 5), and now they're cooling on the counter. The papers sucked out some of the moisture/fat, so we'll see how the cookies do after a bit of time.
If I decide to try this for the event on the 24th, I will make sure my butter is actually softened. Or I'll stick to what I know. Trying to impress people is hard.
