Cookies raising problems

Try another recipe

I'm guessing that whoever came up with the recipe really meant "low-calorie spread" when they said "margarine". Otherwise, there's a heck of a lot of fat in these.

Butter is no less than 80% fat, by law. So is Margarine, but through sneaky mind control tactics, the 60% fat 'spread' makers have fooled you into believing that their project is margarine, when in fact the box says no such thing.

Drop a couple tablespoons of butter, replace with, oh, lets say milk.

I also wouldn't be surprised if someone transcribed 'one stick' as 'one cup'. But it's sorta telling that there's no liquid added to the recipe.

Not following you on the soda issue, so I won't address it. I've never wanted to use spelt for anything so I've never investigated it's properties.

At least, since you appear to be posting out of bayarea.net I'm guessing you don't have an altitude issue to contend with.

I made a similar recipe a few months ago. They also spread into wafers. The recipe has too little flour.

Look this cookie needs more structural ingredient. It has no eggs no milk and have high sugar content and fat. Ingredient wise: It has nothing but bulking agent in the form of oatmeal and flour; tenderizing agent in the form of fat and sugar.It is further softened by the baking powder. Where is the structural material ? It does not even have liquid to make the flour protein into a gluten which will help bind the mixture. You are just softening the short dough recipe by replacing the flour with rolled oats that has limited binding ability. Even if you mould it into balls when its baked it will just flow in the cookie sheet.And You aggravate the result as you had to flatten it,therefore you are promoting pan flow. It will definitely be a 'lazy' cookie. But will surely make you deligent 'cookie' as you will spend more effort removing the mess from the cookie sheeta and tossing it to he garbage bin. But...... It does not live up to its name as aggression cookie. It is a pretty timid cookie . But....wait.. I think the reason why its called aggression cookie is that you will become angry with the results You will become pissed off that you will just run to the nearest bakery /grocery shop and buy a cookie instead.

But do not lose hope ,if you still prefer this formula you can reduce both the fat and sugar( by a teablespoon or two up to a quarter of a cup),add a little bit of milk powder( 2 tsp) add enough egg to bind the mixture but still attaining similar cookie dough texture that you still can form into balls. You can enhance the flavor by adding some spices like cinnanmon , cardamom etc,some flavoring like vanilla and grated orange or lemon peel.You can blend in some chopped raisins and cherries. But don't flatten it much .... When I make a similar cookie dough recipe( but without an oatmeal )but with pure pastry flour.The egg is my only binder ( just enough to make it moldable and be able to be rolled into a cylinder . The ratio of the flour, fat and sugar ratio is approximately

100/50/50 respectively and I add some baking powder( up to 1%) and form the dough into a rope but cut it into short segments( 3/4 inch) and place it upright on the cookie sheet. I just flatten it slightly, place egg wash ahd bake. BTW,.... the best leavening agent for this type of cookie is ammonium bicarbonate, used in the same amount as baking powder but mixed with the eggs and fat before you knead in the dry ingredients in ( flour and sugar mixture). You do not need to flatten it much, but just dent it with your finger slightly and then it will come out at the right thickness....when baked at least 350 degree F until tops are slightly browned. Roy

Substitue half crisco for butter. All butter always makes cookies spread too much (unless you want to diddle with flour quantities). Quick fix. Also add another tablesoon or so of flour. Mark

Thanks to Mark and all the others who have responded over the last couple of days. I suspected half Crisco might help, but I think the real problem, as has been pointed out, is the total lack of liquid in the form of water! D'oh!! I suspect the same issue has plagued me in other recipes, as well. I must be drawn to the pure butter and sugar side of baking; I'll have to learn to leave that for fillings! Roy's detaile reply was very helpful, with more of a "formula" to let me work to...

Dave

Thanks to Mark and all the others who have responded over the last

Milk is for AFTER they come out of the oven.

Water and cookies YUCK!!!

No liquids are needed. Basic cookie ingredients are butter/shortening, flour, salt, and sugar.

Every recipe varies, even pie crusts use varying ingredients, (my wife's has vinegar and eggs) but your recipe looks sound as is.

Betcha can't guess who can't be in the kitchen when the other is baking in our house. ;) Oh well; after 23 years we have to have somethings we can't agree on.

Just my 0.02. Mark

I wasn't really suggesting the addition of milk or water, as such.

I suggested that an irresponsible or ignorant person had created the recipe with unclear or misleading terms and that the OP's interpretation of it had 30% more oil and 50% less liquid than the original product. The liquid would probably just cook off in the oven.

When all you're really looking at is flour, sugar, and fat, I think it's roughly the same thing to say there's too much fat as to say there's too little flour.

Lots of cookie recipes have eggs in them, and there's some amount of water in eggs.

Well, I was thinking "egg", not water...

Then, why do they melt and turn to lace? There's precious little water in butter, and less in shortening. If not making a shortbread (with a lot more flour relative to the butter), what is there to bind it?

As suggested, I will try again, with less butter/more flour, but this was really just a single example of several recipes that I've had the same problem with. I *do* get a good shortbread cookie from the spelt flour. They spread only a small amount in the heat. Perhaps I should go back to that as a basis, and morph it to the oatmeal cookie...

Thanks,

Dave

Butter is typically 15%-18% water, sometimes as little as 8 or 9%, but you'd know about it because you paid extra for it. Margarine is up to 20%. Shortening is 0%. Low-calorie margarine spread is 40% or more water.

Cookies are baked products that had minimal moisture content among the other baked goods. It is more related to the pie crust which has little moisture as well. The principle in this products is that you just need just sufficient water not much to form a dough or much more like a batter but just simply a paste.

But a pastry or a cookie with similar texture like shortbread. You still can find under the microscope discrete particles of flour granules in combination with some swollen gluten aggregated with fat particles and sugar crystals. It is a fact that sugar tends to bind moisture as well due to hygrosocopicity but the nature of such interactions will favor the flour protein to bind the limited water first, and due to the finer particles size if compared to the normal fine granulated sugar; while the flour wedge protein is finer by two or more significant figures.But mixing can also influence the results if you cream the fat and sugar and add it to the flour blend you will likely get the same lacy cookie than if you mix the ingredients simply. Just be sure that the eggs and fat are well blended to allow some emulsification. Therefore the mixture is loose if compared to the dough and the batter. To attain some degree of cohesiveness with out becoming too wet more fat is needed but there is a limit. As too much fat will prevent the minimal flour protein in soft / pastry/ cookie flour to hydrate properly. The same also with sugar. Fat ( in form of butter or margarine)will tend to coat the sugar particles distributing whatever moisture in it on the sugar surface. Therefore inspite of the bigger particles size if compared to the flour wedge protein its quantity will inhibit the flour from absorbing the minimal moisture. Then there will be much less water left for the flour. This will be aggravated if there is a ballast component that does not have a gluten in it like oatmeal. It can also adsorb the moisture on the jagged surface of the oatmeal preventing it to be absorbed by the flour. Hence if you mix a blend of non gluten ingredients such as oatmeal with flour its best to use higher protein flour so that there is more chance that the increased gluten content that the mixture will surely result in good moisture binding and will minimize ?pan flow or laciness' Being a loose mixture if the amount of fats is high as well as the sugar, during the baking the fat having the lower melting point will tend to flow like a river dragging the pebbles of ?sugar ?along without an obstruction( supposing the is no water in the recipe). Hence the flour particles will be carried down also resulting in lacy appearance. If the cookie formulator always think in narrow way ( or is so inexperienced)that a cookie should be like a short bread and adapt that principle to cookies he will never get anywhere with his recipes. He should have to create the obstruction by means of the flour protein which serves like gnarled roots of trees and other vegetation along the river banks. Hence the need for moisture in the form of milk / egg or water. If you ask then how about short bread it has no water in it. But it has little sugar in there as well as compared to the normal cookie recipe.The minimal amount of moisture in the butter is partially responsible for some binding. A short bread is firmer and than a cookie dough and the fat is slightly less as well as much less sugar quantity in it. A short bread can be pressed and cut with little difference in appearance when baked if compared to a normal cookie. You are right the presence of lots of sugar and butter and minimal moisture plus the coarseness of the oatmeal will impede the formation of the desirable cookie structure.hence your cookie will flow out and like lace cookies. Therefore you need drastic measures, that is the use of egg which contains moisture but most important the albumen portion has a good binding ability and it will interacts with the flour protein making a good mesh or structure.for that type of cookie.The lecithin in the egg will also interact forming a ternary phase fat /moisture/protein strengthening the structure. You are on the right track with your experiments, try to obtain a balance between cohesiveness( just enough moisture binding) and flowability( due to enough fat and sugar but not much) and your cookie will come out all right. Setting aside other factors such as baking and mixing. The principle of cookie flow is also affected by the flour protein, cookies made with stronger flour ( all purpose instead of pastry) will have better symmetry specially if you use it non gluten ingredients like oatmeal. If you use 100 percent flour then its okay to use pastry as the all purpose flour tends to distort the cookie symmetry and affect the eating quality as well. Roy

thanks for the yummy recipe

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