This is our first Halloween in the new house. I bought a bag of candy at Sam’s, but thought I would be eating most of it. In our previous two houses we have not had a single trick or treater. A neighbor warned me that there might be a lot of kids so I did…
I made cookies again – with new baking soda and new baking powder. They were perfect. I no longer feel like a baking failure. The sad thing is I have made so many cookies lately that I am sick of them. At least I know I can make them if I want. Our small group…
I not only have an Aunt and Uncle in DC. I also have cousins. Tyler and Katrina spent the night at my Aunt’s and loved our costumes. This is the first year they have both not been really shy and taken time to warm up. Tyler loved all of the detailed work Wade was doing…
Wade and I both slept in and got up just in time to get Marshall and his friends from the airport. Marshall and a few friends are in DC to run the Marine Corps Marathon. We managed to get all seven of us in our car and deliver them to their hotel, which is conveniently…
Tell wade congrats on the win! Something to be said for getting to the competetion on time for increasing your chances. I’m sorry I missed you guys while you were up here. We headed out Friday night and I had a project due Saturday evening for class. By the time I finished all of that, I just didn’t have the time to make it out to the party, sadly. Next year!
Perhaps a rain check on those cookies,
-Matt
Jamie was the original alcohol recipient. Then he realized yesterday that he couldn’t carry a bottle of liquid on the plane with him, and didn’t want to risk it breaking in his checked baggage. He passed it along to Traci and I, so we are now the default owners. Rest assured, we’ll give it a good home!
Matt – I hated that we didn’t get to see you. We just ran out of time. Maybe we’ll make a return trip up there before too long.
Cassie – I am glad to know the bottle found a good home. Enjoy!
[…] didn’t even realize we had it.) Unfortunately Wade had stolen the electronics (probably for this) but Alex still enjoyed using the tweezers to retrieve the little […]
Wade and I left around 2 pm for our annual trip to Washington DC for a Halloween Party. This year we decided to drive instead of fly. The thinking was we now lived a little closer and our costumes wouldn’t have to be packed away and then repaired upon arrival. You know what they say…
A voice from the past called to talk tonight. My old college boyfriend (and one of Wade and I’s good friends) called to say he was engaged. Marshall (some of you know him as Mitchell) has finally proposed to Tarver. Five years of dating and now he is ready for marriage! It was great to…
There is an ongoing war at my house between cookies and myself. In the last month, I have made all of my favorite cookies and they have turned out perfectly. However, something then went very very wrong. I have tried chocolate chip cookies (which I am known to have trouble with), chocolate chip cinnamon cookies…
Baking soda is just a homogeneous mixture and is just a base (not an acid base mixture) and thus has an indefinete shelf life. Baking Powder is a mix of baking soda and one or two acids to act as a leavening agent. Because they are pre-mixed the solution will start to lose power over time due to moisture (humidity) and such. The life-span will vary according to humidity and moisture allowed to penetrate the mixture. Both are leavening agents, and unless you used yeast or self rising flour (which is doubtful) then they are the only leavening agents in your cookies.
One more thing… Baking powder is two stagged. Meaning it will begin to emit Carbon Dioxide as soon as it is mixed and then again later when it is heated in the oven. However Baking Soda only reacts when it is first added to the mixture. As such, you will get more rise if you get the mixture to the oven within the first 15 minutes. That last bit of advice is primarily for mixtures that don’t use Baking Powder. In mixes that use both, the Soda is generally just to balance out the acidity.
So to sum up, My guess is that your Baking Powder is either flat or you added way too much/little of Baking Soda and threw off the acidity to the point where the acid leavening agent was over/underwelmed.
I love the science of cooking. By the way, the Soda is designed to balance the acidity of the chocholate/vinegar/ect… that you add to the mix. Since that amount varies from mix to mix, the proper amount of Soda to add generally must balance. This is made even harder when dealing with the fact that most of those ingrediants are different in acidity from type to type.
Good Luck! (I’ll take non-flat cookies as payment for my expertise)
-Matt
Matt, I have two comments for you.
1.) You have way too much time on your hands.
2.) I’ll bring you some cookies this weekend if they are non-flat.
Today was just a bad day. Nothing seems to be going right – church stuff, work stuff, etc. Our internet even decided to go out for the day. Actually, the internet going out is kind of funny. It went out at about 10 am and was out all day. I haven’t had any work lately…
Poor Madison! She looked cute but I definitely don’t think she felt that way. What about poor Tibbles?
I spelt Tubbles name wrong. Sorry poor Tubbles.
I actually tried to put it on Tubbles, but she got scared. Not to mention that her ears are fatter than Madison’s and wouldn’t fit through the little holes.