So how does a cranky, don’t-mess-with-me military wife cheer herself up? I mean, besides guzzling boxed wine, swaddled in her husband’s oversized fatigues while watching Officer and a Gentleman in slo-mo?
She bakes cookies. That’s what I did. I donned one of my many homemade aprons and I baked cookies. Cookies for me and June! Mommy and me cookies. And this is how they turned out:
Looks like something I ran over.
The cookies didn’t rise. When I pulled them from the oven, and saw their battered state, I made a loud, deeply annoyed groaning noise and June, who played nearby, piped in with her own baby version of mommy’s agitated mouth fart: “Aaaurruuugaaa!”
What bugs me the most (aside from hearing certain habits of mine emerge so soon in my daughter) is that I followed the recipe TO THE LETTER. TO THE LETTER!!!! I used the precise amount of flour, the precise amount of baking soda and baking powder. I used my fanciest flour! And chocolate chips! And precious dried blueberries I had to drive all the way to Costco to get. And the cookies still looked like couch coasters.
But I can’t seem to throw them out. They’re pretty good. Even if every time I open the container they’re kept in both June and I groan with dissatisfaction.
{ 39 comments… read them below or add one }
I hate to bring this up to a woman who has written cookbooks, but did you check the date on your baking powder? Also, do you trust the source of the recipe? Not everyone who puts a recipe on the web–if that’s where you got it–is actually an experienced cook. Better luck next time.
I write CANNING cookbooks, not baking cookbooks. But I think you might be right, Paula. My baking powder has been hibernating in my pantry for at least 4 years. I’ll have to give the recipe — which came off the back of a bag of Nestle chocolate chips cookies, FYI — another go.
It looks like too much butter and not enough flour. I suffered a similar mishap when my husband (mysteriously) took the 1 cup measure to scoop chicken scratch so I grabbed what I thought was the 1 cup (3/4 cup. Oops) and put in 1 1/2 cups when there should have been 2 cups. I wound up with cookies that looked just like yours, and they were also ugly but delicious.
I would trade your husband a cleaned, empty soup can for that 1 cup measuring cup.
The soup can lasts a long time, is easily replaced, and holds approximately 10 ounces, or 1 1/4 cups. The chickens will thank him.
I use my soup can to feed the barn cat and the pony. (I use a flea-market tea cup, 5 oz., to measure the pony’s feed into the soup can.)
It is important to stay focused on “appropriate” technology, here. I use a quart plastic container from the paint mixing aisle at Lowe’s to fill the bird feeder. A buddy wanted an aluminum bowl about cereal bowl size — then decided not. It works great for my own chicken scratch.
Sometimes overbeating can do bad things to baked goods too. I make a lot of really ugly baked goods myself. They are no fun to take to parties because people are afraid to eat them but my family loves them.
Oh. Now I realise not all cookies are supposed to look that way. Ok, so something’s wrong with MY baking powder as well!…
My daughter loves watching the food network and especially Alton Brown. One day his show was on the science of cookies – imagine that. So we were educated on how to make thin cookies (a legitimate name for your variation), thick cookies and chewy cookies, etc. Who would have known it wasn’t all just luck? I tried to make puffy chocolate chip cookies like my husband’s grandmother churned out, but it never worked. I had no idea it wasn’t simply grandma- magic! So give your variation a name –
for June to remember them by- to be sure, she will one day
ask for that special cookie you made today- look for the script from Alton and turn your kitchen into a real science lab!
Hi Sara: Care to share some of the science? What is Alton’s secret for magical puffy chocolate chip cookies?
Oh GROSS, I looked it up and Judy Workman was right- Alton uses a cup of Butter-Flavored – Shortening for puffy chocolate chip cookies. I don’t think I can handle that. He says the shortening melts at a higher temperature than butter so it remains solid longer and the batter has time to set before the melting “butter” substitute spreads. I think grandma used shortening too, I know she did in her yummy pie crusts!
You can use regular butter in place of the butter flavored shortening and still get puffy cookies. Chill the dough for about an hour, then be sure that the dough is rolled into tight balls on the cookie sheet before baking.
Jessie – too much shortening or sugar and not enough flour.
Will get you some cookies made tonight. I always add about 1 TBLSP extra flour.
Your cookies are the best, Ellen. 1 extra tablespoon flour — noted.
Just call them “lacey cookies” and then they become intentional and posh all of a sudden.
Hey, if they taste good, call them Tuiles and call it a day. I sympathize, though. Nothing more frustrating than a recipe that doesn’t work out.
Take it from someone who has put away hundreds if not thousands of cookies in his lifetime, its not the look that matters its the taste!
Jessie, I pray to God u will feel better soon. On the subject of your cookies, at least u are trying. Most importantly, u are making memories with June.
break ‘em up and sprinkle them on ice cream….I know they taste delicious!
It is the Alton Brown Good Eats episode Chips for Sister Marsha (episode EA1C05. I love that episode and Alton does rock food science! The series is available in many library systems if you feel like amusing June with his antics. And you cookies look delicious anyway
I like the idea of turning them into ice cream crumbles (although breakfast cereal-like dessert with milk would be pretty good too)
Here is the internet link for the recipes: http://www.foodnetwork.com/good-eats/three-chips-for-sister-marsha/index.html
As long as they taste good, looks don’t matter. A helpful hint from a cookie elf: try chilling the cookie dough balls on the baking sheet before baking them. It’s helped me with some of my baking woes before.
You did not cuss in front of June when you took them out of the oven, so I’m calling it a success. (This from a mother who recently explained to her daughter that she must never say the word “damn,” and especially not at preschool.)
ha ha ha!
They look amazing to me!
I only just learned that milk/butter/eggs all need to be room temp before baking. Most people let the butter warm up, but who has time to take milk and eggs out of the fridge AN HOUR before baking with them? This has recently taken my baking to a more edible level.
Just to cheer you up, once I had to bake elephant shaped cookies for my son’s preschool and of course that was my first batch of cookies ever and to make it worse, I started baking them the night before. Well, they were snow white, thick like my finger and the poor kids couldn’t even take a bite they were so thick. I am still laughing at this, hard to believe.
No one else has mentioned this but I believe the secret to a thick cookie is Crisco. Butter needs to be cool when used, which makes it hard to mix in. Butter melts and spreads cookies. You often see this on cookies that are thin and have a darker brown edge to them. That is what melted butter running out of your cookie looks like.
How do you feel about Crisco? It’s not a natural product, but it makes a darn good cookie. (I have won county and state fair baking contests, so I am not leading you astray.) I do give out recipes if you want one, just know they all use Butter Flavored Crisco. )
I’m no expert, but I have to go with the age of your baking soda; especially if the recipe was followed to a T and no mix ups with the measuring cups. I use butter for all my cookies and they always come out puffy and delicious as long as my soda is fresh. Make sure the butter is soft/room temp and I hand-beat it with a wooden spatula then add sugar and beat til well mixed, etc. You should try the Ghiradelli choc. chips and their recipe on the back …. WAAAY better than nestle! :0)
hmm.. my guess is too much/soft butter, but that’s just a guess! At least they taste good.
I have very fond memories of my mothers flat cookies in my school lunch bag when I was a kid… As long as they taste good, don’t worry about it. My mother was always trying to make “healthy-ish” baked goods and my friend would call them Flat-Half-the-Fat cookies. Eventually my mother just started adding extra flour than the recipe called for and they weren’t flat anymore. That was 20 years ago, and I still remember it lovingly.
Enjoy your flat cookies!
Others have offered good advice, too, but here’s my two cents if you’re interested: I use the Tollhouse cookie recipe on the back of the Tollhouse chips, but I add an extra quarter cup of flour and substitute half shortening and half butter (the real thing is best). My cookies always used to look like that, but after years of experimentation and research (thank you, internets), I get great cookies every time now. Don’t give up!
Oh my goodness, when I saw this photo my jaw dropped, and I was further stunned to read all the discourse about these cookies being a mistake. They look identical to a delicacy I found a few years back from a Detroit-area bakery (Stahl’s in New Baltimore, MI) – called the Belly Button cookie. After googling “belly button cookie recipe” and being scared-to-death to click on any of the sketchy-looking links, I just gave up and decided to pay the piper whenever I need a fix. Here’s a link to the bakery’s belly button cookie page – http://store.stahlsbakery.com/bellybutton.html
So will you please, please, PRETTY PLEASE tell me how you made these decadent crispy chocolaty treats?
Hello; You can purchase the cookies from
– http://store.stahlsbakery.com/bellybutton.html They ship any where in the U.S.A.. The belly button ones are to die for. They might break up a little during shipping but that doesn’t matter once you taste them. At first I thought the cookies you baked were like the belly button ones. Contimue baking I will be 82 in Oct. & I still do.
OK, I’m gonna let some people in on The Secret to Stahl’s Belly Button Cookies. I had these for the first time last week and was determined to figure out the recipe. I think I’ve done it. When I read that they were initially the product of a baking error, I thought “what would I have done if making an error with chocolate chip cookies”? The answer was easy. I reversed the flour and white sugar amounts in the recipe (I used Nestle’s Tollhouse recipe). The cookies tasted just like the Stahl’s bakery belly button cookie. However, the secret is to chill the dough about 30 minutes before baking (otherwise they are too flat), and also greasing the cookie sheet. You also must remove the cookies within about 30 seconds to 1 minute after removing them from the oven (they will chip into a mess and be very hard to remove from the cookie sheet if you wait until they cool). I also tried making the cookies on parchment paper and they didn’t stick, but they also didn’t have that wonderful carmel-like flavor as when cooked on the baking sheet. So, I prefer the first technique. In my oven, I found that cooking them about 8-9 minutes produced the desired color/crispiness, but since all ovens differ a bit, you just have to figure that one out for yourself. I also tried cooking at a slightly higher and slightly lower temp (usually cooking at a lower temp produces a flatter/crispier cookie), but I found that the standard 375 degree temp worked best. Enjoy!
Just tried your variation on the toll house recipe to get the Belly Button cookie and just ended up with a toll house cookie But less buttery There must be more?????
Now that I reread , I changed the sugar and butter amounts. Not the flour. Back to the drawing board( I mean oven).
hi do you still have this belly button cookie recipe?? I have been looking all over for it, had baked theses a long time ago and lost my recipe copy, thank you
Just had these last weekend when visitu=ing New Baltimore and so happy I found the recipe! Can’t wait to try. Thank you, Thank you,Thank you again.
That type of cookie I believe is actually supposed to come out flat and crispy. I had some yesterday from a bakery relatively near me named Stahl’s bakery and have been looking for a recipe ever since. Mind sharing the recipe?
Here’s the link for their version of “Belly Button Cookies”: http://store.stahlsbakery.com/bellybutton.html
The recipe is simply the Nestles Toll House cookie that is on the back of the Semi-sweet morsels package except you reverse the sugar and flour amounts (2 1/4 cups white sugar instead of 3/4; 3/4 cup flour instead of 2 1/4).The batter will be gritty but the sugar will melt while baking to make this cookie almost more of the candy delishiness that makes it unique. Also I baked on Parchment paper on a regular cookie sheet and slide the whole paper to the cooling rack as they are molten sugar and impossible to remove with a spatula at this stage. When cool they will peel off the paper. They will continue to cook when removed from the oven so let them on the sheet for a minute or two before removing the paper from the cookie sheet. I baked at 375 degrees for 9 minutes. Like Stahl’s says , It was a cookie born from a mistake.
ps i also made them small, maybe a teaspoon and spaced 3 inches apart as the melting sugar spreads. So this takes time and alot of cookies. You can reuse the parchment for several pan-fulls.