Cookie problems

[caseydog]

I have. They are just 8 half sticks instead of 4 full sticks. I bought some by mistake, too.

CD

Oooops... didn't read far enough before I posted my reply.

CD

 

[caseydog]

I never use anything except butter in all those cookies I bake.

For my chocolate-chip pecan cookies (that and cornbread are about all I bake), I use butter flavored Crisco. I get a better rise and crumb with that, than with anything else.

CD

 

[Andy M.]

I have seen butter left out on the counter get moldy, but only once. It actually happened a few months ago. I had it in a Tupperware type bowl. I wondered if the butter needs to breathe a bit, and the tight seal of the container caused the mold.

CD

On the contrary. It's airborne mold spores that causes that mold. I have a butter bell on my counter that holds ¼ Lb of butter at a time. It's sealed off from the surroundings buy an airlock created by an outer container with water in it.

 

[Kathleen]

Could the OP post her recipe along with what she used?

 

[Bama-Rick]

Do you weigh your ingredients? It sounds like your dough is dry. Maybe you're packing more flour in your measuring cups than you used to.

I bake a fair amount and I'm not having problems like you describe.

Yes, the dough is dry and I can fix it by adding more shorting, but want to figure out what changed. I don't weigh my ingredients I measure by volume just as I have for the fifty years.

 

[Bama-Rick]

I doubt that. Were you using Crisco for your cookies and now switched?

No..

 

[dragnlaw]

Bama-Rick, sometimes you just never find the answer. Unless you are a chemist and want to go the full 9 yards.
You could ask King Arthur flours if they've changed anything. See what they say.

Then you could just change a few ingredients on your own - and let it go. But I know what a pain it can be to not know.

Actually, on second thought, why don't you change a brand. See if it happens. If no, change another ingredient brand, and so on and so on... maybe you can eventually pin point an ingredient.

Pm me if you need my address to send the experimental overload of cookies to.