I burned the Christmas cookies

[kestrel91316]

I traveled 2000 miles to spend Christmas with my sister's family, and while there I got assigned the seemingly simple task of baking some roll-out cookies for my niece to decorate. Well, I was feeling a bit muddle-headed due to a SEVERE head cold, and then I drank a beer, and I was too tired to watch how the cookies were doing (new recipe, unfamiliar oven) and I burned up HALF the batch. The smoke alarm went off and kept up that shrill noise for TEN MINUTES. I was in tears (and I'm a grown woman). So I rolled out the rest of the cookies and they sat there 'til the family got back from their various errands and I said YOU bake them, I am having some sort of PROBLEM today and I quit!

The ones I kept my mitts off of turned out just fine. I spent the weekend blotting up my runny nose and couldn't taste anything so I ate virtually NO cookies, which is extremely abnormal for me. All-in-all, a sorry excuse for a holiday weekend, IMHO.

[wryter2000]

1. Awww, I'm sorry

It happens to the best of us.

I had a problem rolling out cookies. The edges of the dough got so much thinner than the center. Made for uneven cooking. I ate the brown ones (they were overcooked, not really burned). I guess I have to figure out how to roll the dough out from the center. I use a huge, heavy, marble rolling pin my husband got me. The kind with the handles. I think I might have to buy one of the slimmer, handle-less types.

[NMDemDist2]

2. it sux being sick at the holidays

get better soon!! :hug:

[noamnety]

3. laugh it off

If your niece is old enough to remember it in a year, it calls for sending her some burnt cookies next Christmas, with a silly note saying it's cause she and you know your cookies were the best.

[The empressof all]

4. You'll live long in the family history

Those kids will talk for years about how Auntie got drunk, set the house on fire and killed the cookies. Then she had a major breakdown and couldn't eat another cookie for the rest of her life. :rofl:

[housewolf]

5. Awwwww... don't worry too much about it

It will go down in the annals of your family history as "one of THOSE stories" that everybody will get a good laugh about... I'm sure there's one of those for everybody in the family. It's wonderful that you spent the time and money to travel to be with them for the holidays, that's the most important thing that they will remember. And so will you.

[SW FL Dem]

6. Sorry to hear this.

I hope that you can laugh about this someday.

[troubleinwinter]

7. We had Xmas Eve dinner at my daughter & Son-In-Law's.

He is the Executive Chef of a four star San Francisco hotel restaurant.

Guess what... when he was cooking dinner, he set off the smoke alarm! Fortunately, my husband is tall, and jerked the battery out.

Happens to the best of us!

Hope you are recuperating from the sniffles!

[Longhorn]

8. I made a banana chocolate chip bread

and it didn't cook all the way through. But I had to leave the house as soon as I took it out of the oven so I didn't know it was undercooked until it was too late. It split down the middle and looked like a brown, soggy mess but no one wanted to actually throw it out so it sat there on the counter until our 110-pound Rhodesian Ridgeback, Sparky, knocked it on the floor to share with Buddy and Paco, our white and black labs. We didn't witness this but found an empty pan and a few crumbs. Mr. Longhorn announced that Sparky ate the "banana butt bread." It was a slip of the tongue but pretty funny. :rofl:

I remembered that the dang bread didn't bake right last year either so I threw the recipe away. But then it occurred to me that maybe it was the newfangled silicone loaf pan that is the problem. :shrug:

[troubleinwinter]

9. Probly woulda been divine scooped into desert bowls with a scoop of

'nilly ice cream on top.

[Rhiannon12866]

10. I'm so sorry! I was as sick as I have ever been, from flu, last month, so

I completely identify. You're family was just fortunate that you showed up, IMHO!:-)

[franmarz]

11. when cookie disaster strikes---quick, run to the store--

grab a tube of ready made vanilla cookie dough and get a tin of chocolate covered mint patties. Put the patty between two cut out rounds of cookie dough, seal, and bake as usual. Takes no time and you will be exonerated. :)