… And the mediocrity continues

In my last post, I mentioned how my baking had been a little off.  Unfortunately, that trend has continued with these “Halloween: Part II” cookies.

On Halloween night, my Zumba class was not cancelled and I was elated.  To celebrate, I wanted to make my classmates Snickers Peanut Butter Brownies.  (I know the irony of taking sweets to an athletic class exists.)  I asked Mom to pick up some Snickers bars at the store during the day so I could make the Brownies as soon as I got home from work, 2 hours before Zumba.

Well Mom did not leave the house until far later than planned and I ended up with no Snickers.  To make up for the lack of Snickers to make Brownies, when Mom finally did go out, she got the big 80 pieces of candy mixed bag.  Now, I had all this candy for no reason.  What was I to do with it?

I thought it would be fun to embody Halloween in a cookie.  I have a friend who is out of the County and Halloween is her favorite “holiday.”  I thought she might appreciate getting some of the whimsy and deliciousness of Halloween all in one belated treat.  So, I decided to chop up different chocolate candies and make Halloween: Part II cookies.

So, I proceeded to select the candy I wanted to use—only chocolate flavors that went well together, so no peppermints and peanut butters.  Also, I wanted to use things with different textures.  I did not want just a blob of melted caramel or chocolate.  I ended up using Kit Kats, Twix, Snickers, Milk Ways, Three Musketeers, and M&M’s.  I mixed the chopped bar pieces into a basic chocolate chip cookie batter and pressed a few M&M’s into the top before baking.

To me these cookies were just okay, but I have already received some dissenting remarks that they are better than okay.  At first, I measured out 4 oz of batter, which ended with the gargantuan cookies that only fit 4 per baking sheet.  They were very soft, to the point of being undone, in the center and crispy on the outside. 

Then I cut down the batter size to 2 oz and could fit 6 cookies per cookie sheet.  These cookies got very flat and over browned before cooking thoroughly.  Between the caramel sticking to the parchment paper and the thinness of the cookie, they were hard to pick up without tearing out the center of the cookie.

Lastly, I got tired of deal with the dough and decided to make cookie bars.  To get the dough to cook all the way through, I had to leave them in the oven longer than anticipated.  They turned super dark and seemed a little uneven in texture and appearance, maybe even, dare I say it, a little burnt in taste.

Overall, I see this as another fail.  What is going on here?  All I know is I HAVE to get back in the flow of things TODAY!  I have a large cookie order to make over the weekend and I really would like to enjoy the process of making them.