Page 30 in the old book / page 46 in the new book
Baking cookies is not the first thing that comes to mind when deciding how to spend the day after Christmas. And in fact, I had trouble mustering up some enthusiasm for the project. Fortunately, this week’s recipe, Chocolate Raisin Cookies, is not difficult and didn’t require too much effort. Unfortunately, I had some trouble with these cookies – I made a minor substitution which might have affected the outcome, I made a mistake in mixing the dough, and I had trouble getting the timing right.
This recipe calls for sour cream in addition to quite a bit of butter. Since I had some leftover lowfat sour cream, I decided to use it rather than purchase more. I also goofed when mixing the dough. I should have added the melted chocolate to the butter/sugar/egg mixture before the sour cream. Instead, I accidentally added the sour cream first. I realized my mistake before I mixed in the sour cream, but thought the order couldn’t be that important. Wrong. When I added the chocolate, it seized. The dough appeared to have grated chocolate in it rather than melted chocolate. Lesson learned – next time I would scoop out the sour cream rather than mixing it in.
I had trouble again with timing. The recipe says the cookies should bake for 18 to 20 minutes but cautions that they shouldn’t be overbaked since the centers are supposed to be soft and chewy. I baked the first batch for 18 minutes. The cookies were very dark around the edges and appeared overdone. I kept reducing the time (the last batch was 13 minutes), but I don’t think any of the cookies remained chewy in the middle after cooling. These cookies are described as “both soft-chewy and crispy-crunchy”, which sounded really good to me. I didn’t achieve that result and was rather disappointed in the cookies. I can’t help but wonder, though, if I hadn’t made the substitution and hadn’t made that mistake, how they would have turned out.
Next time – Chocolate Banana Cookies.
Nutrition Facts
6 comments:
Hi Cathy,
I like cookies with raisins in them and if these were crunchy rather than chewy, I'd probably like them. I normally like crisp, crunchy cookies over soft chewy ones. Maybe you can make these again sometime and see if they turn out as described. Otherwise, they look fine to me! =)
Hi Reid - these are crunchy through and through, so I guess they'd be perfect for you! I'm not sure if the mixing problem or the substitution had anything to do with it, but I'm sure if cooked long enough these would turn out completely crunchy. Mine have a funny, kind of motley coloring and surface texture that I think is because of the chocolate problem. I was tempted to make them again last night but then realized I didn't have enough sour cream.
Hey,
I have this problem a lot too. You might want to try chilling the dough in the fridge (or freezer) before baking so the cookies don't spread as much. Hope this helps!
-Nina
Hi Nina - good idea, thanks. I think I probably should have let the cookie sheets cool between batches too, since the later batches seemed to cook more quickly than the first batch.
Still enjoy reading about your cookie monster adventures here - even the ones that doesn't turn out quite as expected. The result looks great though, really like the picture!
I like to make these with either rum soaked dark raisins or gin soaked white raisins.
Pie Susan
Post a Comment