Memory Monday: My First Baking Failure

My mom had a really fun recipe that we loved to make as kids. The recipe was "Dinosaur Cookies" and called for wacky ingredients such as tyrannosaurus rex scales (oats), stegosaurus droppings (chocolate chips), and brontosaurus fat (shortening). Once I was old enough to read and had made the cookies on my own a few times I decided to give another recipe a try.

This recipe was in a similar format and was titled "Scripture Cookies." Each ingredient was listed as a verse of scripture; once you looked up the scripture and read it you knew what it was really calling for. I suppose it's a fun and interactive way to teach kids how to look up specific verses of scripture. My problem didn't come from not knowing how to look the scriptures up, I knew how to do that. I just needed help with the big words. (I'm assuming I was somewhere between eight and ten years old when this happened.)

I creamed my butter and sugar, added my eggs and vanilla. Everything came together wonderfully and the dough even tasted good. There was only one slight problem. Okay, it was more than slight. When I read the scripture that called for leavening, I didn't know what that word meant. I left it out, assuming I had all of the key ingredients like flour and sugar, eggs and butter. I'm not sure why my mom's version of the recipe didn't specify in parenthesis what kind of leavening, but it didn't. If that were the case I could have read "baking soda" and known what I was supposed to add. Needless to say my cookies were as flat as, well, as flat as cookies without leavening. I can't even say they were as flat as a pancake, because even pancakes have some leavening!

And that folks is the first baking failure I remember having...sadly it was not my last. (Jonathan can definitely attest to that)

Here's the recipe if you want to have a crack at it. I highly suggest adding the baking soda ;)    

Scripture Cookies

3/4 cup + 2 Tbsp. Psalms 55:21 (9^th word), softened

3/4 cup Jeremiah 6:20; brown variety, firmly packed (14^th word)

1/2 cup granulated Jeremiah 6:20 (14^th word)

2 Isaiah 10:14

1 tsp. Vanilla

1 ½ cups 1 King 4:22 (add ¼ cup more for high altitude)

1 tsp. Matthew 13:33 (baking soda)

1 tsp. Proverbs 7:17

½ tsp. 3 Nephi 12:13

3 cups D&C 89:17 (11^th word)

1 cup Samuel 30:12 (16^th word)

Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat butter and sugars on medium speed of electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Add oats and raisins; mix well. (I recommend soaking your raisins in grape juice for about ten minutes before adding them, it makes them soft, plump, and more flavorful in the cookie)

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered.