Back story: Larry and I were fairly poor newlyweds in Albuquerque when the 11 hour mini-series Brideshead Revisited was shown on TV. Captivated by the story, we would sit before our 19" TV, splurging on a $2.99 boxed set of premium selection Pepperidge Farms cookies and a pot of hot tea, arguing over sweet, rich Sebastian and poor, poor Charles.
Flash forward to now: I recently bought the 25th anniversary edition of Brideshead Revisited and decided to replicate our old weekly "cookie, tea & BR-fest." Only this time, the same box of cookies cost $6.99. And Florida humidity being what Florida humidity is, the entire selection of cookies went soggy by the next day!
I was bummed. Although not so bummed that I didn't try eating them. They were horrible. Soft and mealy instead of crunchy and crispy. The box sat in its ziplock bag for 3 weeks.
Last week, I pulled it out to toss it out and thought: "I wonder what would happen if I rebaked these?"
Then, because I'm lazy and didn't want to wait for the oven to preheat, I thought: "I wonder what would happen if I microwaved these?"
So I did. I started with a single shortbread cookie, zapped it for 30 seconds (1100 W microwave) and immediately lifted it with an offset spatula to a cooling rack. It was--if possible--even limpier. (I believe I just invented a word.) Waited 5 minutes and tested it against a non-zapped shortbread cookie. The N-Z version was still limp and mealy. The now-cooled Z version was....CRISP!
So I worked my way through the entire box, zapping ~6 cookies at a time, and finished up with the Geneva's at 25 seconds, as they are coated with a layer of chocolate and nuts. Even THOSE worked! I had to pop them into the freezer to refirm the chocolate, but hey, who cares.
I repackaged all of them in a metal tin and popped that into the freezer. Over the course of 4 days, we ate the ENTIRE tin and EVERY cookie was back to being crispy and crunchy, even those with chocolate filling between the layers.
As counter-intuitive as the microwave process seemed and as much as I wanted to figure out the scientific logistics, all I can think was: "...well, that was weird."
Flash forward to now: I recently bought the 25th anniversary edition of Brideshead Revisited and decided to replicate our old weekly "cookie, tea & BR-fest." Only this time, the same box of cookies cost $6.99. And Florida humidity being what Florida humidity is, the entire selection of cookies went soggy by the next day!
I was bummed. Although not so bummed that I didn't try eating them. They were horrible. Soft and mealy instead of crunchy and crispy. The box sat in its ziplock bag for 3 weeks.
Last week, I pulled it out to toss it out and thought: "I wonder what would happen if I rebaked these?"
Then, because I'm lazy and didn't want to wait for the oven to preheat, I thought: "I wonder what would happen if I microwaved these?"
So I did. I started with a single shortbread cookie, zapped it for 30 seconds (1100 W microwave) and immediately lifted it with an offset spatula to a cooling rack. It was--if possible--even limpier. (I believe I just invented a word.) Waited 5 minutes and tested it against a non-zapped shortbread cookie. The N-Z version was still limp and mealy. The now-cooled Z version was....CRISP!
So I worked my way through the entire box, zapping ~6 cookies at a time, and finished up with the Geneva's at 25 seconds, as they are coated with a layer of chocolate and nuts. Even THOSE worked! I had to pop them into the freezer to refirm the chocolate, but hey, who cares.
I repackaged all of them in a metal tin and popped that into the freezer. Over the course of 4 days, we ate the ENTIRE tin and EVERY cookie was back to being crispy and crunchy, even those with chocolate filling between the layers.
As counter-intuitive as the microwave process seemed and as much as I wanted to figure out the scientific logistics, all I can think was: "...well, that was weird."