adrian and jana: confessions of a beginner cookie maker

First of...the good stuff.

Love, love, love pink and chocolate together! <3

I have a confession to make. As much as I love baking and learning new stuff, I'm actually a very nervous, and quite disastrous cookie maker. Cupcakes -- after experimenting with a couple different recipes, I have managed to learn how to bake with confidence. I could even put them in the oven without an oven thermometer and use my standard time for almost every single type I make. Of course, there will always be off days. Believe it or not, there are some days I get so "off" that I have to stop and think awhile before I can get my butt back to baking. The cupcake pops of last night were proof.

Cookies are an entirely different story. I love them, I've tried making them, and each time, gets more disastrous than the last (true story). The only cookies I have perfected so far are sugar cookies and even that took me a couple of takes to really get the hang of it. And everytime I bake them is not like riding a bike at all. I get nervous everytime worrying that they will not be as perfect as I planned. The good thing is, there are so many recipes and so many more lessons to learn in baking and I am more than ever, up for the challenge.

Today, I start my journey of baking and learning more cookie recipes. The trouble with being a disastrous cookie maker is, I am left with a whole bunch of ruined batches I either feel bad throwing out or feel bad attempting to eat. A is usually stuck being an unwilling cookie taster volunteer.

Project #1: The Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie

Looks promising, huh? Although, any expert cookie maker probably know parchment paper is not necessary for this particular cookie recipe. I didn't bother to take a picture of the after 16 minutes of this batch because I can tell you right now, it wasn't pretty. I had to do the whole thing over and reduce my time to 13 minutes and here's the result.