Hi, my name is Sally and I was forced to trash a batch of cookies...

S

sallybr

Well-known member
They were for our department, not for the trash can.

tip of the day: if you use self rising flour instead of regular flour in a batch of brownie walnut cookies, no one will be able to eat them, unless the person is very fond of chewing chalk

(sigh, sigh, sigh)

wasted: 1 cup of walnuts

8 ounces of semi sweet chocolate

the rest is trivial, eggs butter.

Lesson learned: do not bake late at night when you are tired. Leave it for next week, as was originally my wise plan.

 
Wow. This enquring mind needs more information, please: . . .

Since you used self rising instead of plain flour:
1. Did the cookies come out looking like little cakes on the cookie sheet?
2. If their texture was like "chewing chalk", were they really dry and over baked?

Oh, gee, tell me more please! I would not have thought that using self rising flour in a chip cookie recipe would have made all that much difference. I would think they would rise much more, but that chalky taste "intrigues" me, not that I want to replicate it, but just for the sake of the knowledge.

Please, let me learn more from your mistake! smileys/smile.gif

 
This is the recipe...

http://www.thebittenword.com/thebittenword/2014/05/walnut-brownie-cookies.html

.... and they are supposed to be delicious, brownie like

I did not over bake them, in fact when I realized my mistake I watched them very carefully

they looked perfect. They tasted horrible. Just like chalk, no sweetness

they had a metallic off taste, truly spectacularly awful

Hey, when I screw up, I do a royal job at it!

http://www.thebittenword.com/thebittenword/2014/05/walnut-brownie-cookies.html

 
Dear Sally, I can see the problem immediately. You weren't lazy like me...

I just made a pie using Pillsbury refrigerated rolled dough, a brownie mix, and a jar of CathyZ caramel sauce (bonus find shoved to the back of the frig.)

Here's just how lazy I am:
Roll out dough in pie pan and crimp edges.
Mix up brownie batter as directed (I used Betty Crocker's Triple Chocolate Supreme for no other reason that it was BOGO.)
Dump into UNBAKED pie shell.
Bake 350 for 36 minutes.
Warm up caramel sauce for 30 seconds and drizzle over pie.

Wait 15 minutes then cut out a slice to test concept. Be simultaneously pleased, shocked, and annoyed that a stupid box brownie tastes better than my "from scratch" chocolate pies.

And it cuts perfectly to boot.

(Delivered to library while still warm and garnered enough good library karma to request any books I want.)

 
Their site can be a little iffy.... sometimes it won't open for me but...

.... the link is correct, I double-checked

 
Sounds scrumptious! I should have done that instead.... (more)

... all this because I took that lemon loaf to the department and normally I send a litttle group email to tell people to go to the mail room where they keep coffee and tea going

one of our grad students was in India and saw the email as he was traveling back to the US - so he wrote me and said "I cannot believe you are treating the department one day before I arrive back!"
(he had been gone for a couple of months)

so I promised to compensate with something later in the week when he would be back

great intentions. A road to hell, well paved

 
No sweetness? Did you forget some or a large portion of the sugar? Self rising flour. . .

would not make a recipe taste un-sweet, but if you forgot a large portion of the sugar, it would (I think) affect the texture.

 
I think self rising flour does have that metallic taste, even

when used correctly--maybe it's the type of BP they use. But as mentioned, I'm surprised it made that much difference. Too bad. ;o)

 
I agree that it is very puzzling....

..... I added the correct amount of sugar, and as I mentioned, everything looked perfectly fine. I thought maybe the cookies would inflate too much and collapse, but no, they looked normal

they tasted harsh, bitter, and with a horrible texture - go figure!

 
Some lessons are painful to learn... aren't they? (more)

the funny thing is that I always warn Phil - careful, don't use the flour from the glass container, it is self-rising - although I do have a small label on top that says that. It's a little hard to see, though

and what do I do? I use the wrong flour

another thing - that flour is quite old, I wonder if maybe it got rancid or something - I should probably just toss the darn thing

 
There are several recipes for brownies and cookies using self-rising flour. I wonder if it's the

excessive amount of baking powder. Doing the math, that would be three times the amount called for, plus the soda. And if you used the baking powder called for in the recipe, that would be 4 times as much. Perhaps that's the reason. So sorry it happened, they really do look delicious. We need Shirley Corriher to tell us why.

 
As far as leavening agent goes...

.... there was an excess of baking powder in the recipe because of my mistake, but baking powder has a neutral pH so it should not have affected the taste so intensely. I did not add pure baking soda to the mix, which could have caused serious bitterness without some acid to counter act it. I think self rising flour contains baking powder, not baking soda alone, so it is also a neutral pH entity

oh, well,,,.

 
I baked with some old flour and...ick

I used some cake flour and my cake tasted off, it was then I realized I couldn't recall when I bought the box of cake flour - turns out it was years old.

I feel your pain. smileys/frown.gif

 
The universe conspires....

.... just made something called "Life Changing Bread"

yeah, it changed my life. I now am 100% sure I am a lousy baker

smileys/smile.gif

 
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