Cake Failure

Well, as I was sitting down to prepare for today's Tuesdays With Dorie, I received an e-mail from my mother.

"come help me" was all it said.  I figured she wanted help setting up some software or moving some heavy object in her room.

Nope, she wanted help getting to the emergency room at the local hospital.  She looked bad and felt worse.  All thoughts about Tuesdays with Dorie left my head. 

To make a long story short, she's going to be fine.  She's weak but in stable condition.  I'm exhausted from hours of stress and worry ...

TWD?  The cake?  Another day.  I'm going to sleep.

Sorry.

TWD - Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins

It's Tuesday!  That means it's time for Tuesdays with Dorie!  This week, we've got Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins chosen by Rebecca of Ezra Pound Cake.

I love cornbread.  Yes, you loyal fans know that I love many foods.  Cornbread is another favorite of mine.  I remember my mom making tamale pie as a child.  I loved that (still do).  Without cornbread, tamale pie is just ... well ... not the same.

And, I love sweet cornbread with honey and butter.  Oh, I could get sick eating too much of that.  Actually, I have.  I think I'll avoid the getting sick part and eat almost too much.

I liked this recipe.  It was quick, easy, and went together well.  I liked that Dorie advised us to not stir the batter too much.  Far too many people stir quick bread batters until they're smooth.  That results in not-so-delicious output.

I modified this recipe a little.  Around here, we can't normally get red bell peppers.  What we can get are related, but bitter with a nasty skin.  Again, not-so-delicious.  I wasn't going to put those into the delicious batter made with corn meal expensively imported from the US.

Also, buttermilk ... another non-starter here.  I just used regular milk instead.  Couldn't get buttermilk here if I wanted to.

Lastly, the sugar.  I know my family.  They'd want this to be a little sweeter.  I increased the sugar by a tablespoon.

Anyway ... here's what I did ...


Procedure

Mixed the wet ingredients together well.  Used one of my favorite tools ... a whisk.

Whisked together the dry ingredients, too.  Then, whisked in the wet.  Finally, whisked in the corn.

Sensing a pattern here?  I like my whisks.

I spooned the batter evenly into one of my silicon muffin pans.  Some rats ate at one of the holes when we shipped it over here.  Very annoying!

I baked the batter for 20 minutes.  A nice golden color, toothpick comes out clean ... done!

Recipe made one dozen (minus one) muffins.  Evil rats!

Test Results

Primary Test Group:  Yummy, kuya!  Is that all?

Potential Improvements

I would prefer them slightly sweeter.  I like a sweet cornbread.  Yes, I know hard-core purists will say "that's not real cornbread".  I say that hard-core purists take the fun out of life and should take up some kind of useful habit ... like drinking.  Perhaps that will let them relax.

Potential Variations

So many.  I'm not sure I'd modify this much.  The tooth was good, it was nice having the whole corn.  I might consider replacing some of the all-purpose flour with masa harina (corn flour).

Conclusions

Winner.  Definitely would make again to go with some BBQ.

TWD (Catch Up) - Grandma's All-Occasion Sugar Cookies

Due to various illnesses, injuries, and equipment malfunction during the months of November and December, I am very behind when it comes to Tuesdays with Dorie (not to mention the Daring Bakers ... imagine, I missed their pizza bake!).

I'm trying to play catch-up now.  The leaders of both groups have been kind and let me stay on even though I missed a few events.  I suspect it's that I bothered to contact them and explain the circumstances.  You know, not just drop out of sight with no word.

Still, I'd like to thank the leaders of both groups for being understanding!

Today I'm doing Grandma's All-Occasion Sugar Cookies.  This was selected by Ulrike of Küchenlatein.

Since this recipe is from a book in print (Dorie Greenspan's Baking), I'll not post the exact ingredient list.

Now, I have no complaints about this recipe.  It's simple, tastes good, and seems relatively foolproof.  The complaint I have is about cookie recipes in general.  In this recipe's case, it claims to make fifty two-inch cookies, 1/4 inch thick.

OK, so let's look at this for a bit.  I'm going to be very generous.  There is about 4.5 cups of material in this recipe.  Now, the liquid parts will soak into the dry parts.  I'm going to ignore that because ... well ... I'm being generous.

4.5 cups is about 1.1 liters.  Or, 1100 milliliters ... 1100 mL.

The cookies are 2 inches in diameter and 1/4 of an inch thick.  That's 5 cm in diameter and 1.25 cm thick.  We'll just treat them as a simple cylinder for the sake of computing their volume.  So, their volume is height * area.  The area is the Pi times the square of the radius.  So, the area is apporoximately 19.6 square cm.  This makes our volume 1.25 cm * 19.6 square cm ... which is 24.5 cubic cm.  By sheer coincidence, a cubic centimeter is also a milliliter (oh how I love the Metric System so).

So, if we take the total volume of the ingredients, 1100 mL, and divide by the volume of each cookie, 24.5 mL, we get about 45 cookies.  A whole 10% less than 50!  So, there's no way this recipe can possibly make 50 cookies of the size it claims.

Now, the dough was actually closer to about three cups in size.  That's closer to 733 mL.  That has a theoretical yield of approximately 30 cookies.

What to know how many cookies I made from this?  Yes, you guessed it ... 30.

Procedure

I whisked together all of the dry ingredients.  Ooh, look at that big, big whisk.  I like that one very much.

Next, I creamed the butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla together.  That big red block behind the mixer is a transformer.  It changes the power from 220 volts to 110 volts so that my American-bought KitchenAid doesn't fry itself.

All the wet ingredients creamed and ready to receive the dry ingredients.

This is after I added the dry ingredients and scraped down the sides of the bowl with my silicon spatula.  When using a scraper blade like I am here, be sure to be careful when adding the dry ingredients.  They like to puff up and out.

I decided to use the cut-and-bake option.  So, here's my dough getting ready to go into the fridge for a couple of hours.

Here's the dough rolled, sealed, and about to get cold.

OK, fast forward 2.5 hours.  I pulled the dough out of the fridge two hours after I put it in.  Rolled it into a more cirular form.  Then, sliced it in 1/4" slices.

I baked the cookies for about 10 minute (rotating at the half-way point).  Here they are after they came out of the oven and received a generous dose of cane sugar.

Test Results


Primary Test Group:  Very good, kuya!  Make more!

Potential Improvements

Next time I want to try rolling the dough out.  Use my cookie cutters.

Potential Variations

Maybe use brown sugar on the top and see how the flavor goes with the cookies.

Conclusions

These are good cookies.  They'll definitely be made again!

TWD - Cheesecake Results

.Whew!  Just made it again!  These past few days have been really busy with all kinds of unforeseen "fun".

Making cheesecake here can be fun.  Just getting the cream cheese and sour cream can be a driving adventure!  Sour cream is available in two stores within 25 miles of here.  Cream cheese in maybe four stores.  And, neither is cheap.

Still, that's part of the fun for me!  Finding the things which are hard to find ... or making replacements when they can't be found.

Enough of my babbling, onto the results!

Test Results

Primary Test Group: Delicious!  The starving demons ate most of it very, very quickly.

Test Group Random House Visitor:  Wow, delicious!  Did you really make this?

Potential Improvements

Shorter, denser ... oh, right, that would make it a New York style cheesecake.  For what it is, it is good.  I just prefer what I prefer.

Conclusions

This is another good recipe from Dorie. It's just not to my liking.  I'm rather picky.  Cheesecake is New York-style ... period.

A lot of people love this cheesecake.  It has a nice texture and is rather unique in being so tall.  Honestly, that's what I didn't like so much.  The height.  It was out of balance with the crust which I love so very, very much.

Tall-and-Creamy Cheesecake.  Was it tall?  Yes.  Was it creamy?  Definitely.  Was it good?  No question, yes. Was it great?  I didn't think so ... but, many did.

I think the real question is: would I make it again?  Sure.  My family loved it.  And, I think that's the real test.

TWD - Tall and Creamy Cheesecake

I told myself that I'd start posting on a regular basis.  And, here I am!  Of course, I barely made it in time.  Still, it's Tuesday for the next few minutes.

I'm doing last week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection.  I looked for pears for this week's and was unable to find some ... not even in cans.  So, I elected to go with something yummy.  I'll find some sweet mangoes and make this week's on Thursday.

The fact that I love cheesecake almost as much as I love pizza had no effect on my decision.  None.  Really.  Honest!

Dorie's Tall and Creamy Cheesecake was chosen by Anne of Anne Strawberry.

Procedure

I preheated the oven to 350F (175C).  And, I put on a large pot of water to boil.

Then, I took some graham cracker crumbs.  They're not simply for sale where I live ... so, I let the graham crackers have a few thousand turns in my food processor.

Got a little melted butter.

Stirred the melted butter and a little sugar.  Dorie mentions in her book that she likes to use her fingers to to mix these up.  I, of course, wanted to do as Dorie suggested.  Those who try this should remember: wait until the melted butter is a reasonable temperature.  When it comes out of your microwave, it's hot.  Hot butter will burn you ruining your day and probably your manicure.

So, for the sake of your nails, wait until the butter has cooled some.  Or, do what I did, just use a fork.

Here's a close-up of the finished crumb-butter-sugar mixture.  It seems deceptively dry.  Just lightly buttered crumbs.  Don't be discouraged, this is how it is supposed to look.

I wrapped the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan with a couple layers of aluminum foil.  Made sure I was careful.  I knew the cheesecake was going to spend 90 minutes in water in the oven.  Didn't want my yummy cheesecake to get destroyed before I had the opportunity to eat it.

Take your skin-burning crust mixture and put it into the bottom of your pan.  Press a relatively even layer across the bottom.  And, make it go about half-way up the side, too.

Ooh, look at the lovely yellow lighting.  I mentioned that I was working on my photography skills.  Here, I failed.  Eek.  Sorry!

Here's my mixer doing its job.  I have the side-scraping blade in that I purchased.  Notice how it does a good job of scraping the sides and incorporating all of the material.  Definitely worth the money I paid!

This cheesecake isn't heavy like a New York style cheesecake (my favorite, by the way).  It gets a lot of mixing.  Lots of air gets into the filling.

The filling ... finally done.  Everything incorporated.

Poured into the springform pan.  Oh, looks almost good enough to eat already!

I put the springform pan into a large roasting pan.  Then, I filled the roasting pan halfway up the side of my springform pan with the boiling water.

OK, here's the pan in the oven. 

Ahh, the finished cheesecake.  It came out of the oven and the top was very wobbly.  I was worried about this.  I thought maybe it was undercooked.

Still, I trusted the recipe.  I let the cheesecake sit on the cooling rack for an hour.  Then, transferred it to the fridge for cooling overnight.

Waiting overnight for a cheesecake ... not a good thing.

To Be Continued

Tomorrow we'll have the test results.  I'm still a little concerned about the texture.  We'll see.

Mmmm, cheesecake for breakfast ...

TWD - Pumpkin Puree

With my oven's thermometer on strike, we've had repairmen in the kitchen a few times in the past couple of days. So, cooking has become a bit of a juggling act. Need to keep the thing cool so that the guys can do their job.


That said, I don't want to completely give up on Tuesdays with Dorie while I'm waiting for a working oven. The most recent recipe, Pumpkin Muffins, gave me an opportunity to do something ... while not the complete recipe, as I'm hesitant to do baking while the oven stays on temperature the way a small child holds still in a candy shop when told that everything is free.

The recipe called for pumpkin puree. If I were still in the US, I'd just drive down to my local mega-store and grab a can off the shelves. I can still see in my head the can with the white paper wrapper that I've bought for years when making pumpkin pies and pumpkin bread.

Here? When I asked about pumpkin puree, the one store that knew anything asked if it was for my baby ... Gerber, I guess, makes pureed pumpkin for the little ones. The others stores just looked at me like I was asking for moon rocks.

So ... make it myself. I'm enjoying that more and more. First, a trip to the mercado to get the closest things to pumpkins they have here. I think they're some kind of squash. But, the taste is pretty close.

Ingredients

• 5 kilograms pumpkins

Procedure


I took my pumpkins and sliced them in half around the middle. I wanted to use our big lechon knife, but, it was a little large. So, just my big Wüstof chef's knife I've had forever.


I scooped out the guts and the seeds. The guts won't go to waste ... we fed them to the pigs. The seeds I put into a roasting pan and have currently drying. I'll post more about the roasted seeds when they're done and tested.


I covered the pumpkin halves with foil and put them into my possessed oven for two hours at something close to 350F (175C).


When the pumpkins came out, I scooped out the majority of the meat ... careful to stay away from the sides and the bitter portions. I want sweet puree, not bitter junk. Again, the pigs got the remains. They were happy. They're getting fatter, that makes me happy, too.


The pumpkin meat was still a bit stringy ... fibrous. So, I put it into my blender and pulverized the meat.


Finally, I put the puree into a strainer for a couple of hours to drain off extra water.


Into a container and into the freezer ... to wait until my oven will cooperate and let me bake properly again.

Conclusions

Easy, easy to make. Probably will make a great baby food for my new niece due here in a week or so. We'll make more for her.

TWD - Lenox Almond Biscotti ... Golden Crunchy Ambrosia

Well, it's Wednesday night here. I almost made this ThWD (Thursdays with Dorie). Glad I made these. I'm not sure many around here will like them. Biscotti isn't exactly a mainstream food item here in the rural Philippines.

Interestingly enough, half-way through the process (before the second baking) they're excellent and make a nice sliced cookie (I ate the ends).

(I'll have a high-end photo shot tomorrow ... it's late and the biscotti is still cooling ... test results, too ... I wanted to get my initial photos and reactions from these amazing things up today)

Procedure

Fundamentally, one makes this like a cookie. That's all it really is. Cream the butter, sugar, eggs, and almond extract well.


Whisk the dry goods together. Interestingly, this recipe includes a little corn meal.


Look at that gooey glob of goodness. I mixed just enough ... wanted to avoid making gluten. In bread, so good ... in cookies and similar ... so very bad.


I formed the dough into a pair of logs on a parchment-lined half-size baking sheet. This was messy. The dough loves to stick to everything.


Into the oven until it's golden brown ... oh, look at that. It's delicious already! I couldn't resist!


After the first run in the oven, our yummy biscotti gets sliced, diced, and lined up for more baking. Not too long, though, don't want them to by dry and nasty.


Just a twice-baked cookie that you form into a log, cook, let cool, slice up, and cook again.

Very, very easy. Very, very good!

Test Results

Primary Test Group: Really good! How do I say the name again?

More test groups tomorrow ... I have a meeting at which I'll see all three test group leaders, my new cookie client, and someone who might buy these for his new cafe.

Potential Improvements

Not sure how I'd improve the final product. But, I might chill the dough a bit before making logs to make it easier to work with.

Potential Variations

I'm thinking about making a batch and dipping half in bittersweet chocolate. Decadent, life-shortening, worth it.

Conclusions

Either all of the biscotti I've had in the past at trattorias and torrefaziones have been garbage. Or, I made these wrong.

They're the best I've ever had. Not even close.

TWD - Caramel Peanut-Topped Brownie Cake

I missed last week due to being excessively busy. I wasn't going to miss this week. This week's recipe is Caramel Peanut-Topped Brownie Cake. Picked by Tammy at Wee Treats by Tammy.

I'd never made caramel before, so I was excited. I got started late (Monday night at 9pm). I knew I could get it all done in time! Except ... oops ... "cool to room temperature". Maybe I'll be a little late on this one. (it's still Tuesday as I post this)

I knew I needed some bitter-sweet chocolate. And I knew that was going to be the hardest ingredient to find in this town. Fortunately, I got lucky. The first place I went had it. Naturally, they'd have baking chocolate ... they are both a baking supply store and a cake bakery. They use what they sell. Their cakes are good!

Running down the list of ingredients, I notice that we're out of eggs ... again. By All That Festers In Dank Places ... how do we manage to run out of eggs over and over and over? Nevermind, we do.

Fortunately, the little sari sari store next to us was open and had eggs in stock. Whew. Problem averted.


I was also leery of using the "heavy cream" that was available in town. It's a strange, very, very white thick mixture of dairy, soy proteins, and emulsifiers. Made to live here and work. It did work in the caramel. So, I guess all is good.

It turned out well and I'm planning to make a second so that everyone can have their fill.

Procedure

So very, very easy. Melt the chocolate and butter. Whisk together the eggs and sugars. Then, whisk in the vanilla and corn syrup. When all is incorporated nicely, whisk in the melted butter and chocolate (it had cooled enough, I didn't even have to temper it).

Then, still with a whisk, mix in the dry ingredients. Done! ... with the cake. Cook for 30 to 45 minutes at 350F (175C). Check for completion as one always does (thin knife or toothpick) with cakes and brownies.

Making caramel was easy. I thought I was going to completely screw it up. Turns out, I'd watched enough episodes of Good Eats that I didn't fail on my first try. I'd never made caramel before, so I was worried. The result was very good. I realized only after I finished it that I could have whipped out my Alton Brown-like infrared thermometer with aiming laser ... and checked the caramel's progress with something accurate ... like numbers. Next time.

Once the cake is done, let it cool to room temperature. Take it out of the spring form, clean the spring form, and put the cake back in. You use the sides to hold in the caramel and sugar while they cool. Spoon the caramel-covered peanuts onto the top of the cake. Then, pour caramel over to cover.

Let cool ... devour.

Note: As with a couple of previous recipes, the cooking time was significantly different from what the book said. The book called for 40 to 45 minutes, my cake was done at 30 minutes. So, if you're playing along at home ... check and check again. Some of these recipes have listed times that just don't seem right.

Test Results

This didn't make a very large cake. So, there wasn't a lot to go around.

Primary Test Group: Marasa! Oh, this is so great!

Test Group C: This cake is dangerous. It is so bad for me. Do you have more?

Test Group M: Skipped because he doesn't like sweets or chocolate cakes much.

Potential Improvements

Thicker caramel, thicker cake. Next time I make this, and I will, I'm going to make sure that the caramel is heated to the point where it will solidify when brought back down to room temperature.

Potential Variations

I like the basic chocolate and caramel combination. The topping could be something besides peanuts. Perhaps walnuts? Not sure.

Conclusions

Definite winner. Make again without question.

TWD - Chocolate Chunkers

Regrettably, I missed last week's Tuesdays with Dorie. I was travelling briefly with my family. And, to be honest, I can't stand Whoppers. So, I was only disappointed in that I missed cooking something with the TWD crowd.

This week's recipe is Chocolate Chunkers. Chosen by Claudia of Fool for Food.

I wasn't going to miss this week's! The recipe sounded quite good. Although, at first glance, it didn't really sound like a cookie to me. Not enough flour ... and molten chocolate in the dough ... huh?

Hmmm ... as in the past, I forged onward ignoring my initial thoughts. TWD is about us all making the same thing and seeing how they turn out (hopefully, well).

Procedure

I followed the directions found in Baking by Dorie Greenspan. Well, not perfectly.

Instead of sifting the base dry ingredients, I just whisked them.

And, instead of melting the butter and half of the chocolate in a double-boiler, I just nuked them. Separately, of course, as each take different times to melt and I didn't want the butter to separate before the chocolate even got close to melting.

Oh, and lastly, I cheated on the chocolate and nut ingredients. I had some left over chocolate chips from other baking. And, I had a 250g bag of white chocolate chips I was saving for something interesting. I thought this was interesting enough. And, I used the remnants of some cashews, walnuts, and raisins that I'd had.

In other words, I improvised a bit to use up some of what was lying about. Clear the pantry of the old stuff, so-to-speak.

I used a pair of soup spoons to scoop the batter (I hesitate to call the stuff a "dough") onto my parchment-lined half-sized baking sheets. This worked really well with the sticky, gooey, chunky mess.

I was very careful this time with the cooking. I didn't want another episode of Burning with Dorie. Thing is, my first batch, I nearly did! I came back from setting up my food camera at exactly 12 minutes into the cooking. I thought "oh no! Even on parchment, that batter is going to make a horrible mess!"

Fortunately, that was the perfect time! A little cooling time on the racks and all was good!

Test Results

Primary Test Group: Marasa! Delicious, show us how to make them! Where did you learn?

Test Group C: "Time to be quiet, I'm eating."

Test Group M: "Prefer the delicious chocolate chip. Not a fan of raisins or all chocolate cookies and cakes."

Conclusions

I wasn't really a big fan of these. Yes, they were good. But, they promised "cookie" ... and they weren't really a cookie. They were more of a confection.

I like cookies that have chocolate in them, not cookies that are chocolate. If I want a candy bar or a flavor-filled piece of chocolate, I'll buy one of those.

When something promises "cookie" ... it should deliver.

My personal disappointment aside, I'm glad I baked these. First, the appreciation of the Primary Test Team. They devoured their samples immediately. Rabid, starving wolverines show more hesitation when eating than the testers did. In fact, I hid the samples intended for Teams C and J to ensure I could deliver.

I'd never baked this kind of item before. Yes, lots of cookies, cakes, etc. But, nothing with molten chocolate in the batter like this. An interesting twist.

And, lastly, I'm happy to have participated along with the other TWD bakers. I'm having fun ...

TWD - Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters

After my emotionally damaging experience with the Daring Bakers, I approached this week's Tuesdays With Dorie selection with trepedation. What would it be? Would be pride take another serious beating?

Oh my, it's cookies! Hooray! Oatmeal, peanut butter, and chocolate chip cookies, to be exact.

So easy to make, too! Just use the normal cream method for cookies ... slam it all together ... bake ... eat.

I read the recipe and it said not to use natural peanut butter. Yeah, right. Like I'm going to use some brown-tinted industrial goo in good cookies. No thanks.

I used the peanut butter I made earlier this week. The cookies turned out amazing. Really very good. Lots of peanut flavor.

Test Results

Primary Test Group: Delicious. At them all quickly.

Test Group C: Bring more next time.

Test Group J: Really good!

Test Group M: Doesn't like peanut butter cookies.

Conclusions

Glad that it was something where I could coast a little.

Burning Tuesdays with Dorie

I joined the Tuesdays with Dorie virtual baking group. This sounded like something fun. And, because they require that you own the book from which we're cooking, gave me an excuse to buy another cookbook. I love excuses to buy new toys.

This is my first official posting for the group ... very exciting!

As I write this, keep in mind that perhaps I'm a little annoyed than others might be because I had to first make the granola to use in this Science Fair Gone Wrong episode. Don't worry, everything turns out OK in the end. It's a happy story with a sad middle. I'm still thoroughly impressed with the quality of Dorie's book, Baking.

Ingredients & Procedure

Normally, I list exactly what I use. But, since this is from a book that is in-print, I'm going to respect Dorie's copyright and leave the ingredients to be a mystery to those who don't have the access to the book. Sorry.

I will, however, say what I did differently. Not a whole lot, really. First, I used cashews rather than peanuts. Why? Because there were no peanuts for sale here right now. Supplies of some kinds come in waves. Right now, it's ebb tide for peanuts. Next week we'll have tons.

I also substituted oatmeal for wheat germ. Why? Again, not available here. And, not just "now" ... more like "never". I put 1/2 cup into the food processor and gave it a few pulses ... the oatmeal quickly got the consistency of wheat germ. And, I had the 1/3 cup that I needed.

Besides those two substitutions, I followed the recipe precisely.


And, that's where things went wrong ...

See, the recipe calls for baking these delicious balls of yummy nutritional goodness at 375F (190C). Even in my addled state (I'm recovering from a moderate concussion sustained last week ... which just compounds my usual brand of stupidity), I thought "hey, isn't that a bit hot for these sugary, buttery, carb balls?" To top that off, the recipe said 10-12 minutes in the oven.

Let's pause for a minute here (mostly because I need to, the gerbil powering my brain is tired) ... I'm a BBQ fanatic. I'm in the camp that is nearly zealous about the difference between grilling and BBQing. Slapping a steak on the grill at 600F+ is NOT BBQing. It's GRILLING.

Why does that matter? Because I love a good glaze on ribs. And, a glaze is basically tasty sugars suspended in some kind of solution with a secret blend of herbs and spices. I know the dangers of getting sugars too hot. They burn. They burn fast. And your food is destroyed.

So, the Granola Grabbers ... what are they? Butter, nuts, granola (which is just nuts and sugars, mostly), flour, and a little extra. You know, your typical granola-filled mound of snack-food wonder.

What does that mean? High temperatures are the bane of their golden brown and delicious (thank you, Alton) existence. These cookies can be made at that temperature, and I'm sure many of the Tuesdays with Dorie bakers are doing so, but it makes the process risky. Home baking shouldn't be risky.

Anyway, even with some trepidation, I pushed forward. I made the recipe as it was written. Dorie is clearly someone who has forgotten more about this topic than I will ever know. I've been known to be wrong in the past (not that I'll admit to that in court).

I put a dozen heaping tablespoon-sized mounds of dough onto each of two baking sheets and pressed them down slightly as instructed. Then, into the 375F oven with them. Two thirds of my cookies were dead. Oh, the humanity! The tops looked so good. But, the bottoms, oh, the bottoms ... dark brown to black.

Maybe my oven was set wrong? No, oven thermometer read 375F on the nose. What about the time in the oven? Only 9 minutes. I check the start time and stop time on my cell phone (I have a second "hand"). So, they weren't even in the full 10 minutes.

By the looks of the results, some time about 6 or 7 minutes they would have been fine. Still, that's not what the recipe said.

I still had a third of my cookie dough left. I was not going to give up.

I fell back on my BBQ skills and decided to go lower and slower. 300F (150C) for 15-18 minutes. That seemed much more appropriate for these butter-sugar-carb balls.

The cookies turned out perfectly. Golden brown on the bottom, cooked on top and in the middle.

Why?

Why is important to me. It's why I love watching Alton Brown. It's more than just "hey, slap this and that into a pot and cook it" ... one walks away from his shows with a deeper understanding of the cooking process.

375F for 10-12 minutes is fine if you can watch the cookies like a hawk. If they cook a little faster for some reason in your oven, you're there and can take them out immediately upon completion. This is just fine for a professional kitchen. From what I saw, I think there's a 30 second window when the cookies are perfect with this technique.

However, this book is intended for the home audience. I don't know about you, the reader's home, but we have distractions here. Life happens daily. For this kind of environment, a 30 second window is just too narrow.

At 300F, the cookies stay in the "perfect" state for a lot longer as they aren't browning as quickly. This allows the distracted home cook to blink or, more likely, have to deal with one of their offspring and still produce the fabulous and delicious results that we all want.

Test Results

Primary Test Group: Delicious. Fantastic. Marasa. They even ate the burned ones!

Unfortunately, due to the burn damage, there weren't enough to pass out to the usual suspects for testing. I'm not going to hand out burned cookies to my friends ... I even told my family to toss the burned ones, but they refused and ate the blackened little guys.

Conclusions

This is a great recipe. It just needs a slight adjustment ... 300F (150C) for 15-18 minutes ... to make it appropriate for the home baker.

My entire family of highly picky eaters wants more ...