high-bar baking

Look, I’m more than willing to accept my share of the responsibility. I just refuse to shoulder it alone, is all I’m saying. Did I perhaps over bake the cookies? It’s possible. But I also went to the indicator she told me to go to. 

Gosh, they stayed so white the whole time, but she said to go until they cracked on top. And it isn’t like they seemed baked through at that point, mind you. Which I knew is what we were going for. We wanted soft and chewy. And on some level, we got it. But also… they were dry. I’m allowed opinions. It wasn’t my favourite cookie, and I’m only taking part of the blame here. 

Sometimes that is just the way it is. You do the best you can, and it’s not entirely on you. I’m convinced there wasn’t a way to have the soft-and-chewy center extend all the way to the edges, that they were fated to be a bit dry in a ring around the outside. 

That’s why good recipes are so important. If you’re going to take the time and the effort and the ingredients to bake something, the other side should be putting in just as much work. Recipes matter. So does my ability to trust you.

I felt the same way at line dancing last night, like I have for the past few Fridays. We learned a dance to a fun sea-shanty-style song (To the Bar), but the dance was only ok. It seemed like it was going to work, but it doesn’t quite work. And I’m not doing it wrong, and I’ve gotten better at it over the month. It still isn’t great. Sometimes the world does not line up.

And sometimes things are not for you! Are Funfetti cookies as a genre even that good? I wanted to recreate the nostalgia, and I wanted to love the sea shanty, but it just didn’t work. Seth Godin talks about how wonderful and powerful it is for a creator to be able to say, “This is not for you.” Because then you know who it actually is for. And because it’s for a specific audience and doesn’t cater to everyone, you can make that niche audience really, really happy. 

Now, I’m of the opinion that for no one are Maria Lichty’s Birthday Cookies worth making, but if you need a Funfetti cookie, it’s a free country and I wouldn’t dream of stopping you. I think the texture was better with Preppy Kitchen’s, but the genre… is just not awesome.