Fast forward to this summer. The kids and I have been going to a farmer's market every Wednesday. They have some great items, and the kids have become mascots of sorts. They have their favorite vendors and their favorite samples. One of the places that has both is a booth where a lovely woman sells toffee. Homemade, rich, buttery toffee. We chat a bit each week. I told her about my new favorite cookies that contain toffee. I wondered out loud about using her toffee instead of the Heath bits that I had been using for these cookies. So we struck a deal. She would bring me some toffee chips, and I would make her my cookies. Woo hoo!
Last Wednesday I got the chips. This past Tuesday I made the cookies.
Disaster. There is a huge difference between toffee made with simple ingredients (butter, sugar, vanilla, cream) and the Heath stuff. Here's the thing, though, the Heath stuff bakes up better. The homemade toffee melted all over, and the cookies spread to nothing. I cannot adequately explain how thin these are. I tried to take a picture, but it didn't work so well. They also stuck like you can't believe to the pan. Only one or two came off the baking sheet resembling a cookie.
From the top they look delicious.
From the side? Thin. Thin. Thin.
I played with the oven temperature. The recipe calls for 350. I tried a batch at 325 and one at 300. I used convection. Nothing. I refrigerated the dough and tried the different temps. Again, flat nothing. I think the butter from the toffee spreads into the dough and messes with it.
That's the underside of one of the cookies. Not quite done.
They still taste really good. They are extra chewy this time around, again from the butter and sugar in the toffee is my guess.
So here's the lesson I learned. Bake with Heath, eat the homemade stuff straight up.
5 comments:
Ugh - I hate it when reality ruins the good intentions you had.
Too bad - because the cookies look so rich and chocolatey.
Good to know. I wish we had a cool farmers market like that. the ones near me are really, really basic. nothing special. kind of a downer, so i stay mainstream :-) i would eat those cookies now if i could. the only bad cookie is no cookie!
h no! At leats I am sure that they tasted delisicous - how can you go wrong with toffee and chocolate??
I think the toffee lady puts the toffee on top of her cookies that she bakes. You should ask her, hers are not thin, thin, thin...what about refrigerating the dough? Just a thought. Oh, and seriously, bacon...don't EVER tell your brother.
Hey Jules, I routinely cruise that aisle for bargains I can't live without. he he Give it a shot, you never know. It's hit or miss, but sometimes its really fun.
Thanks for stopping by
AmyRuth
Post a Comment