Oops

My wife is an excellent baker. Over the years, she's made some pretty impressive stuff and has developed a bit of a reputation. One result of this is that she's been asked to provide baked goods for our daughter's school's PTA meetings. They have a meeting scheduled tomorrow night and she was trying to figure out what to make for it while we were driving home today. At that point, NPR did a story on a culinary school that's providing cookies for some hotel guests at tomorrow's inauguration. The cookies are made from what's supposed to be Michelle Obama's family recipe. The recipe was posted on the NPR website, so my wife figured this would be the perfect item for the PTA meeting. We got home and she whipped up a batch of dough, flattened it onto a cookie sheet, and put it in the oven. Fifteen minutes later, she opened the oven door and found the cookie sheet filled with a viscous liquid, some of which had bubbled onto the oven floor. There was a bit of solid material at the edges and some sort of solidified island on the surface of the goo, but it was apparent that nothing short of divine intervention was going to turn this into shortbread. We were quite surprised and checked some other shortbread recipes to see if something was obviously wrong. This one wasn't all that different from several others, calling for cake flour, sugar, butter, egg yolks, and some flavorings. To top it off, there were comments on the Huffington Post website from people who said they'd used this recipe and had good results. All my wife could do was dump the stuff out, clean up the oven, and try for something less inauguration-oriented. She found another shortbread recipe and started into it. This recipe called for cake flour and powdered sugar. That's when my wife realized that we store the two in nearly identical Tupperware containers and that she had actually put three cups of powdered sugar into the first mix instead of three cups of cake flour. Powdered sugar, granulated sugar, butter, and egg yolks do not make very good shortbread. And they don't make for one of those wonderful serendipitous items that you marvel at. They just make a mess.

We'll be labeling our Tupperware a little more carefully from now on.

When I worked the State Fair here, one employee used salt instead of sugar from a mislabeled bucket in the cotton candy. Ugh. Needless to say, we had to recall a bunch of cotton candies, and the cleanup took quite a while.

I hope this makes Mrs Mike feel better. A friend was rising her sourdough in a Tupperware container in the oven, and forgot it was there when she went to preheat ready for baking...it's wasn't a good day...

When I worked the State Fair here, one employee used salt instead of sugar from a mislabeled bucket in the cotton candy. Ugh. Needless to say, we had to recall a bunch of cotton candies, and the cleanup took quite a while.

I can't count the number of students over the years who used salt in recipes that called for sugar.

I had one student make cornbread one day - he omitted the leavening. I kept it in the pantry for a year or so and then one day played Frisbee with it with my younger son. He missed it on one throw and it caught him in the nose and bloodied it. I decided to throw it away that day.

Celia
That is a heartbreaking picture.

Chef
Yup - I was guilty of that. Still got good marks though as the teacher (unlike my older sister, whilst waiting for the bus home) didn't taste them. They looked tasty

regards

Ian

[David M. Bueker]

I was cooking in someone else's kitchen a couple of years ago & grabbed some garlic powder (I know...I know, but it was for a rub). Turns out it was garlic salt that was in a garlic powder container (person had bought the garlic salt in a huge container & transferred). Ugh.

I hope this makes Mrs Mike feel better. A friend was rising her sourdough in a Tupperware container in the oven, and forgot it was there when she went to preheat ready for baking...it's wasn't a good day...

Oh, my, Celia! That is quite a horrifying picture. Pray tell, how did she clean it up? When cooled, did it just peel off the surfaces? I'd still not want to be in the room when next the oven is heated.

On the subject of baking mishaps: my mother, an accomplished cook and competent baker, once prepared a Sachertorte for dessert at a dinner party. She mistook the call for a stick of butter in the recipe and instead added a pound of butter.* The resulting "torte" had a consistency most closely resembling fudge. My mother, quite naturally, was horrified at the outcome, but the guest of honor at the party -- a locally famous pianist who was quite rotund -- enjoyed it so much that he ate two slices.

Mark Lipton

* For those not in the US: butter is commonly sold here in sticks that each weigh 1/4 lb (114 g). Curiously, those sticks are marked off in 8 tablespoons (= 4 fl. oz.), yet the density of butter is demonstrably less than that of water. Go figger!

Mike,

As long as she does not screw up the Kringle you are in good shape.

I hope this makes Mrs Mike feel better. A friend was rising her sourdough in a Tupperware container in the oven, and forgot it was there when she went to preheat ready for baking...it's wasn't a good day...

Oh, my, Celia! That is quite a horrifying picture. Pray tell, how did she clean it up? When cooled, did it just peel off the surfaces? I'd still not want to be in the room when next the oven is heated.

I can't remember now, Mark. But it cleaned up completely, and the oven's been used a hundred times since then. I think it just all scraped off in the end. Wasn't pretty, especially since it was a gas oven...ugh.

* For those not in the US: butter is commonly sold here in sticks that each weigh 1/4 lb (114 g). Curiously, those sticks are marked off in 8 tablespoons (= 4 fl. oz.), yet the density of butter is demonstrably less than that of water. Go figger!

Please don't get me started ...

I have a set of six little Japanese ceramic bowls that I use for my "mise en place." One might have chopped ginger or garlic, another might have measured turmeric or chili powder, whatever.

We keep the salt in a rather similar looking small ceramic bowl with a little mother of pearl spoon.

My son was coming to supper with a friend (a guy in the band) and I had some chicken stew and I wanted to make drop biscuits and cook them on top of the stew in the oven. So I sifted the flour and had the baking powder measured in a little Japanese bowl, and would sort of sift and toss and sift and toss in the baking powder. At the end of this process I was about ready to cut in the cold butter and add the milk and suddenly I noticed -- the salt bowl was EMPTY. Uh oh. I tasted the flour mixture. VERY salty. Thank goodness I noticed at an early stage. There was nothing to do but throw it out and measure out some more flour and baking powder and start from scratch. I had been alternating throwing in the white powder from the bowl with the baking powder, and the salt bowl. I was feeling so competent as I did that.

Fortunately chicken stew with "dumplings" was pretty fabulous when I finally got it done, the boys were very impressed. And it reminded me of what my grandmother used to do with chicken stew...

Frank

For the record, Mardi tried again with the correct Tupperware containers. Came out pretty well, although it's not really a traditional shortbread.

A couple of days ago I bought some little, clear glass bowls for "mise en place" bowls at Dollar Tree. 4/$1. If they break, they're cheap enough not to cry over.

Two "oops" come to mine, both involving pancakes:
First, one morning I was using the pancake recipe on the back of the Bisquick box and made pancakes that were just awful. I threw them away and tried again (how hard can it be?). The same result - awful tasting pancakes! I asked Liz to watch me the third time to see what was happening: it turns out that I was putting regular flour in the mix, not the Bisquick even though I had the box out and was using those directions!
Second: I was making pancakes one Sunday and placed them in a warm oven to keep hot until all could be served. I forgot about them and could not find them when it was time to eat. As I was making another batch I then found the first batch.

Two "oops" come to mine, both involving pancakes:

Not a morning person, Jon?

Two "oops" come to mine, both involving pancakes:

Not a morning person, Jon?

Oddly enough, I do think of myself as a morning person; maybe I just need to stay out of the kitchen 'til dinner.