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My granddaughter asked why my cookies always look the same
I was baking my usual chocolate chip cookies with my ten year old granddaughter, Lucy, last weekend. She was helping me roll the dough balls when she looked up and said, 'Grandpa, why do they always have to be round?' I told her that's just how cookies are. She shrugged and said, 'But what if they were shapes? Like a star or a dinosaur?' It made me stop and think. For forty years, I've baked the same way my mom taught me, and I never questioned it. I was so focused on not having a fail, on getting the perfect round cookie, that I forgot baking could be about fun and trying new things. We ended up making some lumpy dinosaur cookies that spread too much, but she loved them. It was a win because we laughed the whole time. Has anyone else had a simple question from a kid totally change how you approach your baking?
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blakef417mo ago
Honestly that's a cool point about the fear of a fail. I realized I do the same thing with my sourdough, sticking to the exact same steps like a safety net. My nephew asked why we never put weird stuff in it, like olives or cheese, and it just clicked that I was more scared of a bad loaf than excited for a good new one.
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xena_fox397mo ago
Try mixing in a tiny batch with olives next time, @blakef41. I started doing that and it made the big failures feel way less scary.
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lindab496mo ago
Safety nets exist for a reason though.
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