I just made a new cookie recipe, and the horrible monstrosities that came out of the experience have taught me some valuable lessons about baking… that I already knew.

  1. Don’t start a baking project at 11pm. Especially when you just said aloud, “I don’t know why I’m doing this now. I’m tired. I should go to bed.” I guess the temptation of nice, room-temperature butter was too much to bear.
  2. Flour is what gives cookies substance.
  3. When you already know your oven runs hot, turn it down. Cookies burn when they get too hot.

I have a tendency to start baking a little too late at night. I think it’s because that’s when I most wish I had a cookie. I guess I get so fed up with the lack of cookies in my house, that I just have to do something about it. Normally 11:00 at night isn’t too late for me since I tend to be a night owl, but this time it was.

I found what looks like a great Double Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe on the internet, but I suspect that it is really a much better recipe when you use all the ingredients, and use them in the right amounts. Here is what the cookies are supposed to look like:

The problem is that I only used half the flour (see lesson #2 above), and forgot the vanilla entirely. When you don’t use all the flour, you get something that is more appropriately described as a caramelized Demon Cookie.

Behold:

Not only is it super flat (like it’s trying to seep in to steal your soul), but it’s made up of a basically empty shell, with chocolate and peanut-butter chips hanging out inside their own cookie-sized opium-love-den-of-sin… or something. Despite all the short-comings though, I have to say that they were delicious.

I will try again with this recipe in a few days, and with luck I will actually follow the directions too.