Freezer Baking {Disaster Day}

A couple times each month I bake a double or triple batch of cookies and muffins.  I then freeze them in individual bags for Ben's lunch.  Today I got my act together to make a double batch of peanut butter cookies and a double batch of snickerdoodles.  The butter had been sitting on the counter since Monday night, but I just hadn't had a chance to make them.

Both girls wanted to help me, so I set Leah up at the kitchen sink with some pots and spoons and a little running water.  Grace is really into pouring in the ingredients and stirring (and licking beaters and spoons), so she stationed herself next to me.  We got the two cookie doughs made and in the fridge without a single mishap.  So far, so good.

Don't they look like little waffles?

Grace was uninterested once the dough was assembled and Leah went down for a nap, so I thought the rest would be a breeze.  Once the dough was chilled, I started rolling out the peanut butter cookies.  I had the brilliant idea to create the criss-cross top with a meat tenderizer.  Way easier and faster than the fork thing.  Fist pump!

Trouble started when my brother called.  I am not a good multi-tasker, so when the timer went off, I shut off the timer, but I forgot to take the cookies out.  For the record, burnt peanut butter smells very bad.

Poor Ben is going to have eat one semi-burnt cookie every day for the next  24 days.

Then I started on the snickerdoodles. I added a little holiday flair by rolling the cookie balls in sugar and pumpkin pie spice.   I put in the first batch...and waited...and waited...and waited.  They wouldn't firm up for anything.  After 15 minutes, it dawned on me that I had shut off the oven.  ARGH!  That created interesting cookies with hollow centers.

"Air-baked" cookies

The final disaster came when the next batch of snickerdoodles came out looking like crepes.  In fact, I picked up 10 cookies that had fused together in a fun little dot pattern. I think I forgot the last cup of flour since I doubled the recipe.  I added a little additional flour to the remaining dough, and the last 2 pans were fabulous.

Snickerdoodle crepes

I think I'll just stick with chocolate chip cookies next time.

What's your worst baking mishap?  Six dozen wasted cookies has earned top honors over the time I made brownies that were about 1/2" thick and burnt to a crisp.