Thursday, July 13, 2023

9.13 Failure - These Cookies

Bestest Friend and I are doing a blog project. Each day we will write a blog post on a pre-determined theme chosen by a random noun generator. The theme for the thirteenth day of the month is "Failure."

****************

I have been told by multiple, reputable sources that King Arthur's Gluten Free Flour is the best flour. Like, I will immediately stop making my own flour mixture for gluten free baking and switch to KA ASAP. Unfortunately, I can't source it locally. When the new HyVee opened in the town where we grocery shop, I thought they would have it for sure. They do not. 

So when Dr. BB went back to Iowa a couple of weekends ago, he stopped at the HyVee there and procured me some of this mythical flour. We had a guest coming to visit with us one afternoon, so I thought I would make some cookies to test it. I just did a 1-1 replacement for regular flour in the OG Tollhouse recipe.

What a disappointment. 

I didn't even have any more butter to try another batch. So, huh. Maybe I won't be switching to the mythical flour after all.

****************

Please share with me your most recent culinary disappointment. 

29 comments:

  1. Oh no! That IS disappointing! Although those cookies look like they would be nice and crisp, which can be delightful in its own right.

    I have had many, many culinary disappointments but invariably it was user error rather than the fault of an ingredient. I can't recall the last episode because there have been so very many. (My biggest culinary disappointment was perhaps this one: https://lifeofadoctorswife.wordpress.com/2013/01/22/adventures-in-lobster/)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. These cookies were inedible and went directly into the bin!

      Oh, that lobster story. How heartbreaking!! I could feel your sadness at having to dump every bit of the soup. Lesson learned, I guess: Try the lobster first before adding it to the soup!

      Delete
  2. They maybe aren't super pretty, but they look yummy to me - how did they taste? Or did they have a weird taste? I don't bake GF but I have a friend who does - her blog is Delightful Adventures - and I think she uses Bob's? One of my friends has a daughter with Celiac and she swears by that as well. I can't think of a huge culinary disappointment lately, although I did make muffins recently and despite spraying the tins liberally, they stuck quite a bit. I blame the raspberries.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I second Bob's! I used to follow the GlutenFreeGirl blog a long time ago--I don't have celiac, but she wrote so well--and she always used Bob's.

      Delete
    2. These were inedible cookies. Straight into the trash!

      My flour mix is almost entirely made up of Bob's ingredients. The Bob's 1-to-1 flour mix is actually non great, but I use the rice flour, tapioca flour, potato starch from Bob's in my mix. My husband is going out of town this weekend and I'm going to try this recipe again and see if I did something wrong.

      Delete
  3. That's too bad. I do see that your cookie sheet is dark, though. Maybe line it with Reynold's non-stick foil? That might help a bit. And did you refrigerate the dough before baking? That helps too.

    You probably bake all the time, so you already have all these things figured out.

    I've gotten so bored with cooking and eating that I've started sticking with tried and true stuff in my repertoire. The only disappointment that occurs is that they need salt badly, but that's due to me trying to help my husband's high blood pressure. I add my own salt to my share.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The cookie sheet is PERFECTLY seasoned for cookies. It is the best sheet we have. It was my grandma's, then my mom's, and now it's mine. The dough was refrigerated. I think it is just not as awesome as I want it to be!

      Not being able to add much salt to cooking can make some recipes a bit disappointing. I'm hoping you're able to find some flavor substitutes that help.

      Delete
  4. Oh, I've had many cookies failures that look very similar! I'm always subbing ingredients to make things vegan, or trying to use a "healthier" flour, so you never know how my cookies will come out. I"ll bet those still tasted good, but maybe you wouldn't want to serve them to a guest.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. These did NOT taste good! *sigh* I'll try again this weekend. Surely this flour doesn't have this reputation for NO reason.

      Delete
  5. LOL! Those do not look good! (No offense) But the mention of HyVee got me excited for all my Iowa trips this month. Recent culinary disappointment everything I make is bad. Ha!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My husband is going to Iowa again this weekend. I'll have to have him stock up on things while he's there. The HyVees here just don't have the same selection.

      Delete
  6. I actually like cookies that spread and go thin...but maybe the taste wasn't great?
    Hmmm. Culinary failures. Plenty over the years, but I'm struggling to think of one recently. But I think that's because I have pretty low standards about the food I produce - ha! I did make cookies last night that were a bit too dry. Not sure why? It's very hot and humid right now, so I'm going to blame it on the weather...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. These cookies really were inedible. I'm not really a cookie snob - I'll basically eat anything with sugar, but even I had to just give in and toss them.

      I think it's always a good idea to blame the weather. Sometimes when I'm being an absolute brat, I'll blame altitude (we're obviously at sea level). LOL

      Delete
  7. Oh, see, to me they look delicious, like they'd be that perfect combo of chewy and crispy! But maybe the taste or feel wasn't right. I get it, that's so frustrating.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. These were real gross, I assure you. I'll try again and report back!

      Delete
  8. I like extra crispy cookies, so these look yummy to me. But I know how it feels to work hard on a dessert and have it turn out differently than I expected.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. These were not yummy at all. Ha! I will try, try, and try again, though.

      Delete
  9. Ugh, GF baking is so frustrating! I make my own blend. I use a recipe from the ATK GF cookbook which sounds similar to yours - brown rice flour, white rice flour, potato starch, tapioca starch, and milk powder I think? Although even using my mix, things don't always turn out as expected. Lately my choc chip cookies that I make using the ATK recipe have been very very thin. I probably need to add more flour. But they taste good!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, as long as they taste good, I don't think it matters how they look, to be honest!

      Delete
  10. I was going to post that despite their appearance they might still be tasty, but in reading the comments above, I gather not. 😀

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Straight into the trash! What a colossal disaster this would have been if I'd been on a baking competition show.

      Delete
  11. Ooh boy. That's what I got last Thanksgiving to make GF cookies for my niece. One of my SILs told me that as long as I made the dough a day ahead of time (which is what I do anyway) there would be absolutely no difference in the finished product. This is the biggest lie that anyone has ever told me. The cookies baked up OK but they tasted like crap. I haven't tried to do any GF baking since then.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I am so suspicious of these GF 1-to-1 replacement flours, but there has to be one out there that works! I do think if you can get the flour right, you should be able to have pretty normal cookies with GF flour if the dough is chilled. However, right now my flour process is pretty intense and expensive, so that's why I'm trying to figure out an easier way!

      Delete
  12. Ah, that's a bummer... but at least now you know it's not worth ordering in bulk (as it seems so hard to come by!).

    ReplyDelete
  13. What a disappointment! I'm sorry this magical flour didn't work out for your cookies. And to think you were going to enjoy some cookies AND THEN COULDN'T. A travesty.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That was the saddest part. There were no cookies. :(

      Delete
  14. Wow. I know they aren't ideal looking, but this girl would have probably still nibbled on a few.
    I'm the worst baker and a while ago I used almond extract instead of vanilla---it was different. 🤪

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You wouldn't have nibbled on these. They were not good. I did just pull a fresh batch out of the oven, though, and they look good, so this flour mix is not completely lost!

      Delete