Baking bad: Using the broil button made me a cookie monster

By / Food / March 21st, 2019 / 36
Chocolate chips no broil button

“You shouldn’t even look at the broil button when making cookies,” exclaimed my husband.

Some of us weren’t blessed with baking or cooking common sense, which turns every foray in the kitchen into a real adventure. I assumed that the same button that would quickly brown my garlic bread or crisp up my fries would certainly add a little colour to my cookies, making them a buttery, Instagram-worthy golden brown.

After setting my cookie batch to broil, I opened the oven and was genuinely taken aback by all the smoke. My perfect-but-pale cookies were now crispy, charred chunks. Lesson learned: You absolutely, never ever broil cookies – unless you like your cookies completely burnt. Oops!

Blasting the surface of the sun’s heat on to my poor cookies was a real recipe for disaster. Turns out, the broil button is better suited for finishing touches, like charring meats and melting cheese. Baked goods, like cookies, are much too delicate to withstand that kind of direct heat. And maybe more importantly, no cookie recipe ever included broiling in the instructions. Ad-libbing recipe instructions is definitely a no-no.

This is not my first lesson in cooking and certainly won’t be my last. Use my experience as a cautionary tale of what not to do when baking cookies – namely broiling them! – especially my mom’s crowd-pleasing chocolate chip cookies.

Mom’s Delicious Chocolate Chip Cookies

3 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup oats
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1 tbsp molasses

Add and stir flour, oats, salt and baking soda together in the mixing bowl. Mix 2 tbsp of dry ingredients with the chocolate chips in a separate bowl.

Cream the butter in a mixer. Add brown sugar slowly until smooth.

Add eggs, vanilla and molasses to the butter and brown sugar mixture. Continue to mix until smooth.

Add dry ingredients to the mixer slowly. Fold in chocolate chips.

Bake at 375°F for 8-10 minutes. Definitely do not broil. Leave to cool before serving.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Amanda currently does communications for a global beauty retailer. She's a freelance writer, bibliophile, make-up collector, and an avid fan of the CFL. She loves writing about food because it always turns out just right - unlike her forays in the kitchen.

Comments are closed.

North America’s Longest Running Food & Wine Magazine

Get Quench-ed!!!

Champion storytellers & proudly independent for over 50 years. Free Weekly newsletter & full digital access