This post isn't going to follow the standard template I've used in my previous posts, because it's essentially just information and data. I'll be going over all of this in my final presentation, so it may come across as repetitive.
I'm begin with the growth between weeks. Excluding the three recipes where there wasn't a second week to compare to (sugar cookies, snickerdoodles and sandwich cookies) the average growth between weeks was 0.07 points. Further excluding the outlier of -1.2 points of growth from the pinwheel cookies, the average was 0.4 points. The average did seem about right, with the actual numbers being 0.45 (chocolate chip cookies one and two), 0.5 (peanut butter cookies), -1.2 (pinwheel cookies), 0.4 (double chocolate cookies), and 0.2 (chocolate chip cookies 2 and 3). The next thing that I looked at was the advice I had been given throughout the project. The week that received the most criticism had been the first week of double chocolate cookies, with 24 comments focusing mostly on the look and texture. This was followed up by pinwheel cookies week two with 19, and peanut butter cookies week one with 16. The week that received the least criticism was the second week of peanut butter cookies, with only 3 comments. That was followed closely by chocolate chip week three with 4, and the sugar cookies with 5. Throughout the project, the complaints I had gotten the most were about the cookies having an off texture, with a total of 45 comments, especially on the double chocolate cookies and second week of pinwheel cookies. I had gotten the least complaints about the cookies being raw or under baked, with only 2 comments spanning the entire project. To conclude, the average between all of the weeks was 5.1. The lowest score was pinwheels week 2 with a 4. The highest score was snickerdoodles with a 5.7.
Over the course of this project I learned more than just baking skills. I've improved my ability to manage my time to both bake and do schoolwork. I specifically picked cookies based on what I thought I could gain from attempting to perfect them, which was a wise choice. This project also helped me gain a diverse baking skill set, from adding solid ingredients in the chocolate chip cookies to using icing on the sugar cookies.
This project has really helped me a lot, and having a reason to bake consistently helped me to manage stress from school. I won't be continuing this blog, but I'm definitely going to continue baking.
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It's the penultimate week in the project! It's also the last week that I'll be baking for the project, since twelve straight weeks of baking has been a little exhausting! This week is also a good note to end on, so let's continue.
I got new containers for the sugars! They are much easier to scoop out of, so I'm happy to have them! This is the same recipe I used for week zero and one from my cook book, and I didn't use any ingredients I wasn't already familiar with.
I checked my revisions from the last time I made these cookies to make sure I didn't just repeat the issues from the first batch. I was little worried when the recipe came out stickier than recent doughs have, but they came out fine. So most likely it wasn't an issue. I mixed the flour mixture by hand before adding it, which may have added to the dough's sticky quality.
When I made my test cookie, I baked it for 8 minutes. I thought that seemed like a short amount of time for this batch, but I did make smaller cookies than normal. I think that they came out really well! I'm still afraid of cookies falling flat after the double chocolate fiasco, but these rose well.
Next week is all about analysis and preparation. I'll be figuring my most common complaint across the whole project, and other things like score improvements, any trends, etc. I also need to prepare for the final presentation. Plus, I've technically already baked for 12 weeks, so It's not a big loss to end now.
Come back next week for the results of this project! So, I didn't take the batch I made to school this week. There is a good reason for that: this batch was basically inedible, and I didn't feel like I should make a bunch of people eat them. I used this recipe, which I don't recommend. I also made a batch of chocolate chip cookies so I had something to bring, but they ended up bad too. I've had bad luck this week, I suppose.
I was familiar with all of the ingredients used in this recipe! I thought it was strange that the recipe didn't include anything to leaven the dough, but I assumed that the cookies were going to be more biscuit-like anyway. I also made a filling for these cookies, but I was also familiar with those ingredients, so I don't have any comments there.
Here's where things started to go bad. When I mixed the flour mixture into the rest of the ingredients, it didn't turn into a dough. It barely mixed whatsoever. I made sure I had my measurements right according to the recipe, and I did, so I don't know what the issue was. I asked my dad for his opinion on what to do next, and I ended up figuring out that kneading it made it sort of turn into a dough. It took a lot of kneading, and I think that may have toughened it way too much. The icing mixed fine, and tasted good.
I rolled the dough out and it already seemed tough and crumbly, which wasn't a good sign. The recipe said to freeze the dough and then cut out the cookie shapes, which I did. The recipe called for them to be baked for 12-14 minutes, which is a strangely long amount of time for cookies from my experience, but I again attributed it to their biscuit-like look. They ended up incredibly hard after baking. Not burnt or over baked, just tough and generally not enjoyable. I decided then to trash the batch.
There is not going to be a 'The Response' section this week since there is no data to go off of. I'm not sure how I could've improved this particular recipe, so I'm going to drop sandwich cookies.
Next week is going to be the last week I'm baking a batch, since week twelve will be dedicated to data analysis and making the final presentation. I haven't fully decided what cookies to bake yet, but I think I'll be remaking chocolate chip cookies, since it was the first cookie I made for this project. Come back next week for hopefully better bakin'! I've never made or eaten a snickerdoodle before, but that didn't seem to affect me all that much. This has been the most successful week so far! I used this recipe.
This is the first time that I've used cinnamon and cream of tartar, which was an interesting experience. I actually didn't know what cream of tartar was, but after seeing it in every recipe I looked at I can assume it is a major ingredient in snickerdoodles. Cinnamon was a strange ingredient to work with and I expected it so be a lot less powder-y than it actually was. Despite the issues that came with working with an ingredient for the first time, I think I learned a lot!
Mixing the cinnamon made a mess! I underestimated how much would fly out of the bowl, so I had to eyeball how much actually went into the dough, but it seemed to go over well! The dough got tough quickly and I didn't think that was a good sign at the time, but the texture seemed to be fine in the end. I also made a simple sugar and cinnamon mixture to use for later.
Before baking, I covered the cookies in the sugar and cinnamon mixture to add more flavor, which I think really helped the taste in the end. When baking, they puffed up quickly but actually stayed risen. After having the past two week's cookies flatten I was a little scared that they would just deflate again this week, but they came out perfectly!
I don't think there is anything to improve with these! It's near to the project's end, so I've been trying to think of cookies that need skills that I haven't already been working on, and I settled on sandwich cookies!
Come back next week for hopefully better bakin'! I tried my best to better last week's cookies, and I'm not sure if it worked as well as I hoped. I used the same recipe as last week.
I used the same ingredients that I used for last week's cookies, except that I only used 1 cup of butter instead of 1 1/4 cups of butter like my plan said to. That didn't seem to affect the end result like I'd hoped, but it was a noticeable difference nonetheless. In retrospect, while changing the amount of butter, I should have also lessened the amount of sugar.
Creaming the sugar this time around was more difficult. I tried my best to mix it less than last week, but having less butter and the same amount of sugar made the entire process much more difficult. I also accidentally added too much cocoa powder, but it doesn't seem like it was noticeable or affected the recipe all that much. I didn't chill the dough this time because of time constraints.
The cookies went through the same process that they did last week, puffing up in the oven and then deflating the moment I took them out. It doesn't seem like they deflated to the extent that they did last week, but it is definitely still a major problem. I baked them for about 9 minutes a batch.
I think I improved somewhat with this week's batch. I'm not really sure how to fix the spreading/flattening issue without taking away a huge portion of the butter, so I'll be moving on to a different cookie next week. I'll be making Snickerdoodles, which I've never actually tasted before, but should be a good try!
Come back next week for hopefully better bakin'! This is the first week in a while that I feel really good about. A lot of people liked this batch, and it's the first recipe I've used outside of my cookbook. The recipe can be found here !
This week used a different method of making chocolate flavored batter than the pinwheel cookies, which was interesting to experiment with. This recipe used cocoa powder. Many people said that the chocolate taste was good this week, so the cocoa powder seems to have worked better. There was also a lot of butter, which would cause trouble later on. The recipe also called for salt, but I've chosen to exclude that ingredient.
The recipe called for me to cream the butter and sugar, which I have never heard of before. Creaming is when you mix the sugar slowly into the butter, adding air with the sugar. I then mixed together all of the other ingredients with the creamed sugar and butter. This recipe didn't call for the dough to be chilled, but I ended up having to store it in the fridge for a short amount of time. That doesn't seem to have had an affect on the dough.
A major issue that I saw with my test cookie is that it spread a lot and went flat. In the oven the cookies would spread really far, puff up, and then deflate. That will be the main issue I'll attempt to fix this week, since the taste seemed good. I baked them for about 9 minutes a batch.
I probably shouldn't have changed anything from last week, in hindsight. Last week's cookies were fine, and this week was a huge downgrade - oops!
I took out salt this time! That was the one thing that did seem to work out fine this week. Other than taking out the salt, the only other big change was that I added twice the amount of chocolate as last time, since I accidentally didn't use enough last week. I also added more sugar like I said I would, but I think that led to more problems than I thought.
This week had the same process as last week, with the mixing of the vanilla going smoothly. Mixing with more chocolate was actually easier than with less, so melting the chocolate went more smoothly. I worried about accidentally burning the chocolate again, but I don't think I actually did. I tried rolling the doughs out thinner than last week, because when I looked back over the recipe it seems like I rolled then too thick last week. After rolling the two doughs up together, I chilled them for about an hour.
The first major issue I came across this week was that the two doughs didn't really stick together as well as they did last week. I had to push together a lot of the cookies, resulting in weird shapes. I also thought that I should cut them thinner than I did last week, which didn't work out. Some of the patterns were good, others weren't. The time I baked them for varied from 6 to 9 minutes.
I think I should have stopped at the first week's 5.2, and I don't think I can really improve off of that, so I'll be making a different cookie this upcoming week. I'm going to start straying from the recipe book I've been using, since I'm running out of cookies that I'd enjoy making and eating. I'll be making double chocolate cookies this week!
Come back next week for hopefully better bakin'! This was the most technically challenging week so far. Having to melt chocolate, separate dough and then roll dough together provided a lot of difficulty.
This recipe is very close to the sugar cookie recipe, with one major difference: half of the dough is chocolate. Other than that, it is completely the same. The addition of chocolate required me to melt unsweetened chocolate and add it to the dough myself. The salt I added became an issue, and I'm considering just excluding it from future recipes.
Mixing the vanilla portion of the dough went smoothly. I had to learn how to melt chocolate without burning it, using a burner on the stove. I was worried that I had burnt the chocolate, but I think that the bitterness of the unsweetened chocolate threw me off. I was also worried that adding the chocolate into the dough would overwork it, but that doesn't seem to be the case. After both doughs chilled, I rolled them out to about an even size. I then put the doughs on top of each other (more difficult than it sounds) and rolled it up. After that, they had to be chilled again.
After chilling, I tried my best at slicing even cookies. Some of them are thicker than others, but placing them differently handled that. A lot of the patterns came out good, thankfully! Some of them came out a bit wonky, but nothing was too weird. Baking varied, ranging from about 6 minutes to 8 minutes, much less than the recipe called for.
Come back next week for hopefully better bakin'! This week was the most challenging so far, but I'm satisfied with the result. My dad had never made these cookies before, so this time I was on my own.
The sugar cookies had pretty basic ingredients other than the substantial amount of flour - 2 1/2 cups. The challenging part was making the royal icing I had decided the cookies needed. Royal icing wasn't a recipe that my recipe in my book, so I used this recipe from online, which worked out fine. I didn't know that you could get pasteurized egg whites by themselves - which the icing called for - but apparently you can.
For being very basic cookies, mixing the cookie dough was pretty simple. After chilling the dough, I had to roll it out, which was much more difficult. While doing some research, I found out that a good strategy for rolling and cutting out cookies is to do it on the same parchment paper/pan you're using to bake them on. Using this method worked pretty well! Mixing the icing was a little more difficult, as over mixing can heavily affect the consistency. Despite that, I think I did pretty well (I forgot to take pictures of that, oops!)
After cutting out the cookies with the bug shaped cookie cutters, I had to decide how long to bake them for. The recipe says 6-8 minutes, but in my experience the recipes I've used have notoriously over baked my cookies. To my surprise, some of the batches went over 8 minutes. The amount of time you need to bake for really depends on the thickness of the cookies, which I wasn't very consistent on. The butterfly shaped cookies seemed to burn the most, while the ladybug shaped cookies were the most under baked. In addition, icing the cookies was new for me, as I've never decorated anything complicated. I believe I did pretty well for my first attempt.
This is usually where I would make a list to follow for next week's improvements, but there doesn't seem to be anything I can improve. So for next week, I'll be moving on from regular sugar cookies. Using the same recipe as sugar cookies, I'll be making chocolate pinwheels. These will require a lot more technical skill than the past five weeks, so I think they are a good test for what I've learned so far.
Come back next week for hopefully better bakin'! This week went badly. Not the cookies, they were actually way better than last week, but the baking process went completely awry.
All of the ingredients are the same except for one. While getting brown sugar to refill my current supply, I accidentally got light brown sugar instead of dark brown sugar, which I used originally. I didn't know that brown sugar had different colors, but it does. Light brown sugar contains less molasses than dark brown sugar and has less of a taste. I'm not sure if that changed anything with this batch of cookies.
The shortening mixture was much more liquid this week, and I thought that was strange. This happened for the second week of chocolate chip cookies too. I still don't know why this occurs, but when it happens the cookies turn out better, so that's a good sign? I did mix the batter less like I said I should in my plan from last week. I chilled the dough for about an hour, which made it slightly harder to roll.
Here's where things went wrong. I had everything ready to make two dozen cookies, like usual. The first dozen that went in the oven came out great, and I put them on the baking rack to chill. After baking the second batch, I went to take the pan out of the oven and accidentally dropped it into the burner. The parchment paper and some of the cookies caught on fire. It was a bit of a hassle to take care of and I ended up burning myself in the process. So, I only ended up taking 12 cookies to school this week. I baked them for 8.5 minutes and that seems like it got rid of the hardness. The crosshatching was a little difficult with how long I chilled the cookies.
The peanut butter cookies seemed to have improved greatly, so I'll be moving on yet again! With Halloween right around the corner, I'll be making use of some cookie cutters I bought. I'll be making bug-shaped sugar cookies! I think this will be a challenge, as I've never made sugar cookies, used cookie cutters, or used icing. It'll be exciting!
Come back next week for hopefully better bakin'! |
About the AuthorI'm Kai Page and I'm just trying to get better at baking cookies! ArchivesCategories |