Whoops ... a bit too long in the oven

overcooked French butter cookies

Today was a great day.  I put the finishing touches on some tweaks I have been working on for my apple slab pie.  It will be added to the Bruce Bakery and Bistro menu very soon now.  I've been working on those tweaks off and on for a while in an effort to make a few specific changes before I made it available for everyone.  I had an inspiration the other day and tested it out and was quite happy with it.  A second test today confirmed.  I still have to finalize the exact size I want these to be.  I think I'm going to go for 8 inches by 4 inches and I will test that size with one more batch.  The ones I made today are gone as I nibbled on them off and on all day long.  I'm very particular when it comes to apple pies so getting these tweaks finalized made me very happy, and I couldn't resist indulging when they tasted just as I wanted them to and had the texture that I thought was perfect both in crust and filling.

Yesterday, on the other hand, I over-baked some French butter cookies.  It was early so perhaps I wasn't fully awake yet and when I set the timer I made an error:  8 hours when it should have been 8 minutes.  They didn't actually stay in for 8 hours.  I was busy working on some other things at the same time and listening to some Rachmaninoff and my mind suddenly had the thought that the 8 minute  timer should have gone off but hadn't.  I checked the oven and found the cookies not-so-nicely browned (see picture above).  Here's how they should look, of course:

Nothing to be done but laugh about it.  I think that's the first time in several years that I've made an error in setting a timer.  The cookies weren't suitable for any of us bipeds to eat, but the squirrels and birds didn't seem to mind their condition.  After I set them out for the local wildlife, the cookies were gone within an hour.  It's always fun watching a squirrel eat these tiny little cookies.

Going back to the timer, it's funny how an error like that can happen when setting a simple timer should be so ... simple.  But that's the way it goes with everything.  It's so easy to do something incorrectly even when we've done it hundreds or thousands of times.  I remember an episode of the TV series Seinfeld where Elaine complained about a pain in her mouth from biting down on a fork.  Jerry said, "Boy, it's hard to believe with so much biting experience a person could still make a mistake like that."

That quote always makes me laugh.  And of course it's true that the quote can be paraphrased to apply to almost anything we do, like setting an oven timer.

Tomorrow I'm making gougères.  These are small savory choux pastries with cheese.  Mine will have gruyère and cheddar.  It's one of my favorite combinations of cheese.  I will probably be up early to cook but hopefully awake enough that I will set the timer properly.  I'm planning on a long practice session on the piano during the late morning and early afternoon.  These little pastries will be perfect to snack on during that practice session.

To anyone who is reading this, I wish you a good night and an even better morning tomorrow.