Cookie Crisis Averted: Saving burnt cookies

If you read this blog regularly, you probably know that I am not a fan of baking. It's very precise, and I am really much more of an avant-garde kinda girl. Also, my mom is a phenomenal pastry chef. Although she left her job at the restaurant over 10 years ago, her reputation remains and she is 100% the reason I have such a taste for dessert. So most of the time, I don't bother baking, because she would just out-do me. Times 1,000.

Tonight though, for some strange reason, I decided I wanted to bake chocolate chip cookies. No idea why, especially considering the oven in my new apartment is way beyond unreliable. Well, no, it is reliable... in that it BURNS everything I put into it. And I know what you're thinking, maybe it's me... But nope, it's the oven. When I bake at my moms, and even in my last apartment, it was certainly apparent that my mom's skill in the kitchen has rubbed off on me. I DO NOT burn things. At least, I didn't until I moved in here. No matter what I do- lower the temperature from what the recipe calls for, move the oven rack, try different pans- it always burns things.

And despite that, I still decided to make cookies tonight. I called my mom up for her recipe, because her chocolate chip cookies are to die for. Perfectly golden on the outside, and tender and chewy inside. She says that she "under bakes" them. They are never hard and crunchy, they are perfect. Every time.

And, of course, my cookies burned on the bottom. Really, REALLY badly.

Actually, with exception of the bottom of the cookies, they were kind of perfect. So what's a girl to do?

Ever heard of a Microplane? It is this amazing little grater that is great for zesting citrus fruits, ginger, and garlic, among other things. It's one of those kitchen tools that I don't think I could live without. I got mine from Pampered Chef, but you can get them anywhere that sells kitchen tools, really.

Well, anyway, I read a tip in a cooking magazine once that you could use a Microplane to salvage burned dinner rolls. So tonight, I thought, hey, it will probably work with cookies too. It was definitely one of those "light bulb" moments.

So I Microplaned the bottom of my cookies! Good as new (or at least no longer charred!)

Keep this in mind the next time you pull a "Brenda" while baking!