Help! Why did my oatmeal cookies NOT flatten. They baked right into the shape of the scoop.

M

marilynfl

Moderator
I used a combination recipe of my martyr whole wheat/oat bran/ oatmeal cookies with a more hedonistic butter version.

The fats were 2/3 shortening + 1/3 butter = 7.5 oz

Flour was

4 oz AP flour

3 oz oat bran

3 oz whole wheat flour

5 oz egg whites.

1 oz powdered milk

8 oz brown sugar

3 oz Karo

7 oz old-fashioned oats

raisins

walnuts

The only thing I goofed was adding the lecithin. I may have added too much, but that's a fat too.

So why didn't they flatten, but more important, what can I do about it? They were a special request from someone who's favorite cookie is oatmeal raisin.

Dough is sitting in the frig.

I cantz fail him now!

 
Your recipe did not have any baking soda in it, . . .

Baking soda reacts with the brown sugar in the recipe to leaven the cookie while shortening/butter melts and allows the cookie to spread while being leavened.

I have made cookies like this and I usually end up flattening them before baking.

 
My favorite recipe has 3 tbl milk and 1 egg as the sole liquid

1 cp flour, 3-1/2 quick oats, 1 cup fat.... Hmmmm...could you have over-measured the oats?

 
Sorry...it definitely has baking soda in it...OH WAIT! I was making two different batches

The OTHER batch was Jacques Torres NYTimes Chocolate Chip Cookies and I definitely remember adding the baking soda, baking powder and salt to that batch because I whisked it into the flour.

But I was adding each of the Oatmeal cookie dry flours while the bowl sat on the scale.

OH MY...I'll bet I forgot it! It definitely should have baking powder. Or baking soda? It should have SOMETHING!

You guys are geniuses!

Geez...so how do I add it now to a finished batter? I've only ever added it to the dry flour and stirred it in.

 
Cheezz...the original martyr cookie is a bit dry, but very oaty and I found myself craving them.

Two years ago we were doing a Juvenile Diabetes fund-raiser here at work and I decided to bring some in as an incentive to donate.

I didn't have enough of the butter-flavored Crisco nor enough of the oat bran and whole wheat to fully double the recipe, so I ended up using half Crisco and half butter. Then I swapped the ratio of AP flour and whole wheat, using more AP and making it similar to the "other" cookie I tested in my Wegman's challenge (Jill Van Cleve). Then I dumped in the Karo and lecithin without measuring.

Honestly, it turned out to be the best oatmeal cookie I've ever tasted.

I can't count how many people came up to me after that event saying the exact same thing. Unfortunately for me AND them, I have no clue of the precise recipe I used because I changed so many variables.

This was my first attempt to replicate all the changes and what happens? I leave out the leavening agent!

(see the link for the long, sordid story about them. There are two recipes listed. This is an attempt to merge those two.)

http://www.eatdotat.com/swap/forum/index.php?action=display&forumid=1&msgid=22036

 
I'll give it a whirl. I'll break the batter into smaller portions and test one of those with this

method. If that doesn't work, I'll just start from scratch.

Thanks again!!

 
I just tested 1/4 of the batch by adding 1/8 tsp soda + 1/8 tsp powder

to 1 tsp melted butter and smooched it around. Got six cookies out it, scooped them out and hand-flattened them.

They taste much better but only spread a bit, still not what I expected, so I must have too much shortening.

Ah well, I'll make up a batch following Van Cleve's without mucking about.

 
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