OT Baking AHHHHH!

Sounds like self-raising rather than plain flour. Nevermind how they look, how do they taste?

Lizzy

It is not your fault. Some cookie recipes are very dependant on nice weather. High humidity ruins my favorite cookie productions. It could be your oven. My own oven thermostat is iffy. It may be on temp and it may not. . . and even if you check it with an oven thermometer, that's no guarantee that it will stay put. As to seizing chocolate - Alton Brown on Food Network has lectured us many times about that; see if there's anything on his website. Eat the cookies. Polly

I need educated .... (on more than one subject ... but we'll tackle just one for now!)

What is "shearing" ... when it comes to chocolate?

You can always let them slowly dissolve in your mouth and mush them around with your tongue rather than risking your teeth. VBEG If you cook them just a bit less (lower temperature) they will be softer, but they are harder to cut and wrap because they are so soft. I HATE the wrapping part but must make a batch to send to my son... prolly yet today.

So, that's the long answer. The short answer is get to your kitchen and get going!

Leslie & The Furbabies in MO.

Will somebody please 'think' with me? My recipe for GingerSnaps calls for one tablespoon of ground ginger. I want to use 'real' ginger - as in freshly grated. Southern Living cookbook says that 1/8 teaspoon of 'ground' ginger = one tablespoon of grated ginger. Any way I try to calculate ground to grated I get such an enormous quantity of ginger that I just can't believe it. How much grated ginger do I need to equal one tablespoon of ground ginger? Polly

Joanna, I think you read it backwards - but I'm still puzzled. Here it is: 1/8 teaspoon of ground ginger (as in - in the little jar) = one tablespoon of grated ginger (as in fresh) So: How much freshly grated ginger do I need to equal One Tablespoon of ground ginger? I just can't seem to wrap my head around that just now. Polly

By that computation, you would need 8 tablespoons of fresh grated. Which would be 1/2 Cup of grated fresh ginger. That would be a good sized ginger root. And I don't think I would pack it in the measuring cup.

And now that I'm reading on other sites, the taste of ground is different than fresh. Here's one:

Here's info from another website:

Dried ground ginger is not interchangeable with fresh ginger. If you do use ground ginger, it?s best in baked goods and desserts, such as gingerbread, cookies, and puddings. To substitute fresh ginger for ground, use 1 tablespoon (6g) fresh grated ginger to replace 1/8 teaspoon (0.2g) dried, ground ginger. It?s better not to substitute dry for fresh ginger in most Asian dishes.

The way I used it it means I got careless, overheated it, and got some undesirable crystalization, ie. lumps.

NightMist hav>I need educated .... (on more than one subject ... but we'll tackle just one >for now!)

I would think the bulk, consistency and moisture in the freshly ground ginger would have some effects on the recipe as well???

Leslie & The Furbabies in MO.

It could be a weather thing. We went from frigid, to wet and in the fifties, to near blizard today. Usually blizardy days are good baking days though. I am wondering if something is amiss with one of my ingredients. I noticed my fruitcake was a bit off. Rather than the sturdy moist crumb I am accustomed to seeing, I got a delicate feathery crumb. Delicate cake, cakey gingersnaps, highly risen biscuity sugar cookies, but all my pastry style sweets are just fine, as are the shortbreads. things are rather pointing to the eggs, since the types of levenings vary in the cookies and cakes. I get the difference in texture regardless of whether I am using soda or baking powder or both. Plus when I cut into the blitz kuchen I noticed it was more delicate, and it has no leavening at all but does have plenty of eggs.

If I have to take up tending poultry to get decent eggs, I _will_ track down whomever is responsible and give them the rough side of my tongue!

NightMist

A tablespoon of ground ginger would equal 3 teaspoons which would equal

*twenty four* 1/8 teaspoons. Therefore wouldn't the fresh ground ginger needed be 24 tablespoons? If my math is correct that is a HUGE amount of fresh ginger.... I hope I figgered it wrong for Polly's sake??? Please tell me I figgered it wrong.

Leslie & The Furbabies in MO.

OH yeah! no, by the math you figured it right! 8 times 1/8 teaspoons would equal one teaspoon. and there are 3t to one Tablespoon. My mistake. I don't see any way this would work for your recipe.

I mean Polly's recipe.

*ginger =3D ground ginger =3D powdered ginger Notes: Recipes for baked goods often call for ground ginger. Don't confuse this with fresh ginger root, which is used mostly in Asian dishes. Substitutes: crystallized ginger (Substitute 1/2 cup minced crystallized ginger for every 1 teaspoon ground ginger called for in recipe. Rinse sugar off ginger first. This is an excellent substitution in many baked goods.) OR ginger root (Substitute 2 tablespoons grated ginger root for every teaspoon ground ginger called for in recipe. For best results, substitute only half the ground ginger in recipe with fresh ginger.) OR cardamom OR allspice OR cinnamon OR mace OR nutmeg *** taken from Cook's Thesaurus........ hope this helps you Polly? jennellh

Maybe I should have written a preface to my question. It goes this way - DH dearly loves GingerSnaps and I have every intention of inventing a world class spectacular snap. That said . . . if I follow Jenn's Cook's Thesaurus 2 Tablespoons of fresh ginger = l teaspoon powder. in other words 6 teaspoons of fresh ginger - 1 teaspoon power so? how much do I need for the equivalent? I can probably advance my head to figure out 1/8 of 6...but then Jenn says "For best results,substitute only half the ground ginger in recipe with fresh ginger" so? I need 1/2 of 1/8 of 6 teaspoons. This is easy. Why don't we knock out a few satellites just for fun? I surely hope the gators like GingerSnaps. We may have a few edible trials along the way. Polly

*ginger = ground ginger = powdered ginger Notes: Recipes for baked goods often call for ground ginger. Don't confuse this with fresh ginger root, which is used mostly in Asian dishes. Substitutes: crystallized ginger (Substitute 1/2 cup minced crystallized ginger for every 1 teaspoon ground ginger called for in recipe. Rinse sugar off ginger first. This is an excellent substitution in many baked goods.) OR ginger root (Substitute 2 tablespoons grated ginger root for every teaspoon ground ginger called for in recipe. .) OR cardamom OR allspice OR cinnamon OR mace OR nutmeg *** taken from Cook's Thesaurus........ hope this helps you Polly? jennellh