Not a Baker

I had a strange desire today to make a pound cake. Then when I was looking for a yummy recipe, I decided to make pound cake cookies instead. So that I wouldn't have to bother with cutting the cake before it cools. And because I already had a recipe for pound cake cookies that looked really simple and delicious.

The problem with this plan is that I didn't have all of the necessary ingredients for the cookies and I really didn't want to go to the grocery store for just those 2 things. I'm going out of town in a few days so I'm trying not to buy any groceries this week and just use what I already have at home. I only had one egg (needed 2) and the recipe called for baking powder and I only have baking soda. But I started to make the cookies anyway, thinking that I can just substitute for the missing ingredients.

Somewhere on the internet, I saw a few suggestions of things that can take the place of baking powder. There were all combinations of at least 2 other ingredients. One of these suggestions was a little bit of baking soda with some molasses. Well, I just happened to have some molasses in my pantry. I don't really remember why I do, but it's there. I think I used it in a barbeque sauce I made or something like that. Maybe it was something I made around Christmastime. Who knows.

So I added the molasses and baking soda to my cookie dough instead of baking powder and I instantly knew this was going to be a mistake. I was on the phone with my sister at the time and her silent reaction upon hearing about my ingenius baking substitutions told me instantly that the chance of these cookies actually tasting good was slim to none.

I went ahead and kept trying to add ingredients to make the dough tasty and then tried to bake the cookies. I pulled them out of the oven, let one cool for a bit and then tasted it. Sure enough, it was pretty disgusting. I even trying sprinkling the cookies with powdered sugar and it was still pretty bad. Definitely not worth the calories to eat it.

Maybe the whole molasses issue was providential. I am trying to lose some weight and making cookies really doesn't fall into the weight loss plan. So making them gross definitely keeps me from eating them! All in all, I have discovered one more thing that I need directions for and that I don't need to try to "wing it." I can rule out any hopes of a career in baking, right? Rachael Ray has said that the theory is that people are either good cooks or good bakers. I think I'm actually a decent cook so that makes it okay that baking is just not my thing.