Cookie Casualties
I’m worn out from the 12 days of Christmas (Cookies). If I’d been smarter, I would have planned ahead, baked everything in advance, and just blogged about it each day. I didn’t. And I should have stuck to completely tried and true and tested recipes that I knew would turn out well. I didn’t. It was pretty much a recipe for disaster. And when certain recipes failed (as was inevitable I suppose), I was left distraught and overwhelmed with how in the world I was going to bake enough cookies for the blog series I had so naively started. Once, when I was overly emotional about a particular batch of cookies I’d ruined (does anyone else get emotional about their baked goods? I’d love to have a kindred spirit here), Mike came up with the idea of portraying all of my failures, burnt cookies, and terrible recipes on the blog for everyone to read. So here’s hoping somebody else can relate to my failed baking attempts…
My disastrous first fudge attempt: Notice the consistency. You should not be able to scoop fudge with a spoon. 
My disastrous second fudge attempt. Once again, notice the consistency. Fudge should not look like that as it’s about to be poured into the pan.
Chai gingerbread bars. Great in theory, but as it turns out, they really don’t taste like anything at all. Mike’s response: “please don’t make me eat any more of those.”
Snowballs splattered on the floor. (at midnight I might add – way too late to be baking). I also dropped a cookie off the cookie sheet into the bottom of the oven, but I was too busy watching my mom get it out to have the presence of mind to take a picture.
The delightful batch of oatmeal cookies that I mixed up all the way through the oatmeal, only to realize that I had completely left out 1 1/4 cups of brown sugar from the very first step. I’d had it by that point, and I was about to just throw out the batter and start again, when I realized I was completely out of crisco, and would not be able to start again. So in went the brown sugar at the end the recipe, only to create the most wonderful oatmeal creme pie I’ve ever had. So I guess it was worth it.
So there you have it. This is not by any means the extent of the baking mistakes I’ve made…these are just what happened in the last week or so. Mike was great through it all. He ran countless trips to Meijer (possibly his least favorite place), consoled his dispirited wife when yet another cookie went wrong, and taste tested even the worst of recipes. And of course, encouraged me to write this post. 🙂
Welcome! I'm Megan and it's my hope that here you'll find food that has been made with love and recipes that are shared with joy. Thanks for stopping by! 
LOL oh girl…I can SO relate…
gosh, I'm just so impressed you really did these 12 days in a row!!! WOW!
Jessica – I'm so glad someone else can relate!
Simply Life – I did make a few of them over Thanksgiving weekend, so don't be too impressed 🙂
Thank you for sharing your disasters! I had one yesterday as well. I attempted to make meringues and I had to throw out three batches of mixture 🙁 Apparently they're very temperamental and are very sensitive to humidity. I just had to choose a rainy day to make my first attempt. Ooops!
Thanks for sharing your flops! I get so emotional when that happens to me as well. One time I was almost crying that my cookies turned out so flat. We ended up squishing them into muffin pans and making cookie "pucks."
Oh dear can I relate. I am the queen of:
a) trying new recipes for a party/event/holiday without test driving them before and then crying when they dont turn out
b) getting so frusterated I just throw the entire batch or whatever in the trash when it doesnt come out how I think it should
or…and this one I am most ashamed of…
c) somehow making it my husband's fault…lol.
Regardless of the mishaps your 12 Days of Cookies were great to read and I am already looking forward to next year! : )
I'm so impressed you carried on through the problems – shows true dedication to brilliant baking! Plus, you ended up with 12 Days of beautiful cookies.
thanks for sharing the cookies , the good and bad. It was fun reading your blog
Kim
yay! i am not alone! i despise failed recipes! i thought everything you made turned out perfect:)
Oh well, it happens to us all!
dhaleb – I've never made meringues, but I can imagine they would be very temperamental 🙁
kilax – I'm so glad I'm not the only one who gets emotional about these things!
Megan – I have done all three of those as well! 🙂
Kristin – you made me laugh! That is so far from true, it's funny. 🙂
Way to persevere!
My worse attempt… I remember the night before Christmas, last year. I wanted to bake éclairs. They wouldn't puff, or they would burn. It was torture and I'm not sure why I thought the second batch would turn out better.
Some time after midnight, I dropped one of the trays, burnt my hand trying to catch it and then almost cried when I had to throw away all the cookies that hit the floor. I think I still have nightmares about watching tiny éclairs in the oven.
Luckily, vanilla filling and chocolate coating covered all the faults. Except the pain I experienced throughout the entire holiday.
defythewind – That sounds terrible! I've never made eclairs, and after reading your comment, I don't think I want to. And burning your hand is the worst!
Aww, way to get through the 12 days! Everyone has their cooking disaster stories. I had a recipe say 1/4 pound of butter, and when I saw the 1/4, I just assumed it meant cup. I never read the word after the 1/4 part. Needless to say, there were a few problems!
Bad cookies happen to all of us! I totally applaued you on trying so many times, I would have deffinetely walked away after the second fail – I'm so impatient!
All your recipe's you've made so far look great though so keep up the good work!
Megan, éclairs are easy to make. If you have a good oven there shouldn't be any trouble. My problem was that my old oven looses a lot of heat and the tiny éclairs don't puff up very well. Instead their bottoms turn too brown.
In spite of all the trouble, I'm thinking of making them again, they're amazing both as appetizers and dessert.
Don't be afraid to try them!
Oh my gosh, I'm so glad I'm not the only one. I hate it when dishes fail! I get really moody wheneven it happens, which is more often that I'd like to admit, because I'm big on culinary experimentation. Bah.
Megan,
I couldn't help but laugh when I read this! I am always trying new recipes on company… it's very dangerous :o)
And just for the record, I love eating fudge with a spoon!
Sarah
Hey Megan! A group of us got together and did the 12 weeks of Christmas cookies and were doing it again this year. It's much easier (for me) to do a batch a week instead of a batch a day. I thought I would give you a heads up that we are planning it again and would like to invite you to bake along. Details at Aprils blog. It's gonna be linked up to a blog hop linky thing.
http://abbysweets.blogspot.com/2010/09/hey-there.html
Hope you'll join us! 🙂
Megan – Thanks for the invite! It sounds fun! Not sure what kind of Christmas baking I'll do this year, but your group seems like it would be a lot of fun!
Megan – Thanks for the invite! It sounds fun! Not sure what kind of Christmas baking I'll do this year, but your group seems like it would be a lot of fun!