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Sunday, January 7, 2024

I Could Have Been a Cookie Baker if I Had Known!

 I tried to bake cut-out cookies. They were so cute. But, I was sick of dough rolling around the rolling pin, sick of cookies not transferring to the baking sheet neatly, sick of failure. So, I just made drop cookies or ones that were to be rolled into a ball to bake. 

There were things I heard, but, until now, I had never read a comprehensive means of baking cut-out cookies. So, Baking Cookies. Who knew? I suppose lots of people, just not me. 

This would have been a great skill to learn in Home Economics in hs. But, noooo, they only taught what I knew. Of course, most of the girls did not know the basic of cooking. 

For some reason I deleted lots of comments today, comments from two posts. So, maybe I can reply here.

Belinda, Good to know there is another avid Mike and Molly fan.

Debbie, thanks for pointing out that Chef was talking about tubs and not chicken sign. 

One, sign was probably made in China just like the one on Temu. So, cheaper from Temu.

Sandie, correct--yum blueberries.

When I find more unanswered questions, I will comment. occasionally, I will accidentally delete a comment, but not so many as today. 

Did you know all these tips for mixing, cutting, cooling, and baking cookies? 

Did you, like me, just giving up on using cookie cutters? (well, I use cookie cutters for other things)

14 comments:

  1. My mom was a cookie baker from back in the day. She made hundreds of cookies every year. My best tips learned was chill dough a little, and flour! I always flour my surface and the rolling pin. I only use the parchment for baking. I love rolled cookies.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheryl,
      Those tips are certainly not the ones in the article. But, if it works, I would continue. I tell myself I don't love rolled cookies because they were so hard to do. I think I might try again. It seems not matter how much flour I used on my rolling pin, the dough always rolled around the rolling pin.

      Delete
  2. My cut out sugar cookie recipe says to chill and it has ALWAYS been a nightmare for me. These tips from your link sound great! I am going to try that method next time. Like you it seemed no matter now much flour I added the dough sticks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. One,
      There is little you can do when dough sticks to the rolling pin. I will try that method, too.

      Delete
  3. I can't seem to read the link, it comes up a blank page, but I know the tip that works for me with rolled cookies is lightly flouring the rolling surface, the rolling pin and dipping the cutter in flour before cutting. Iiked making rolled cookies with my kids, but I don't enjoy eating them outside my home because of all the handling I know is needed. I never took home economics in school. I took French and Latin instead. As my parents said, anyone who can read can cook. It's even easier now for new home cooks than it was for me when I first moved out on my own. I had to rely on whatever cookbooks I had on hand, follow the recipe, and hope it was a good recipe. Now, a person who has internet has at his fingertips access to multiple recipes with hints, comments and critiques. And I have taught my kids that cooking is no more a girls' job anymore than eating is only a boys' function. My husband can't cook at all, and I can't figure out how he could stand that. I Iet him know early on in our relationship that anyone who doesn't cook doesn't get a say in anything menu related unless asked by the person who does the cooking. My kids are fairly capable cooks, but none really love it as I typically do.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Meg,
      I took Home Ec because my best friend did. But, we both took Latin and Spanish. If I had to choose, I would have not taken Home Ec. I absolutely refused to take it a second year. I did take Spanish another year. I wanted to take Latin again, but we had about six subs for weeks at a time because the Latin teacher was ill, very ill.

      I was in the kitchen for years with my mother, so cooking came easy to me.

      Too much input came my way when I married! But, you know, he was the head of the house! gag

      Delete
  4. I made roll out cookies when Bailey was a baby so, 25 years ago or so. They are very delicate, but also very good. Mike and Molly for the win! LOL

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Belinda,
      It has been longer than that since I tried making cut out cookies. Yay for Mike and Molly!

      Delete
  5. There was no parchment paper available for home bakers back in the day; they taught us how to do roll-out cookies based on the materials available; flour and a rolling pin

    Times change, techniques improve. That's the way of all things, including cookie baking.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sue,
      As I read about using parchment paper, that was my thought--no parchment paper then.

      Delete
  6. PS: I grew up in a rural farming community where I and most of my peers knew how to cook. Mom, Dad, and brothers were out in the barn or the fields (or at work), so it was our job to prepare meals.

    We were all bored out of our minds in Home Ec. Our teacher took 2 full weeks to teach us how to make baking powder drop biscuits (the worst-tasting biscuits you can imagine) when we were already cooking and baking entire family meals--well before high school.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sue,
      I was a bit bored, too. We took turns at a sewing machine. I could only do one seam and had to wait for three other girls to do the same thing. I knew what I was doing. They were learning to use a machine. I did not 'learn' how to make drop biscuits until I was married. I do not know if I even knew what they were before I read about them. I rolled them out and used a cutter to make biscuits.

      Two weeks? Two days would be a long time.

      Delete
  7. It was 2 weeks of learning "how to read a recipe", understanding how a stove works, how to operate a spatula safely, the properties of baking soda, and all sorts of other ridiculousness. It was beyond stupid.

    Most of us had been using power tools and driving farm equipment for years, and here we were getting pop quizzes on how to turn an oven on and off.

    Thank goodness we were raised to be polite to our elders, because we would have mocked our teacher ENDLESSLY...which we in fact did at the cafeteria table.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sue,
      How to operate a spatula?

      They had to teach to the lowest level of experience of students, unfortunately. It was frustrating. One year was all I could take.

      Delete

Okay, hoping the annoyances have gone away.