Cookie Recipe Fix?

[ltlmccomas]

Hi,
I just mixed up a batch of the $250 cookies. It's an old recipe. Most are probably familiar with it. I used measured ground oatmeal as I had it on hand. The recipe calls for 5 cups of oatmeal ground ( doubled recipe) . I used 5 cups of ground oatmeal. I am thinking I have about 1 cup too much oats now. the dough is in the fridge. If I start baking the cookies and they appear too dry, how do I correct the recipe to save the dough. Thank you in advance for any help given.

Ingredients
1 cup butter
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 ½ cups oatmeal
2 cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
12 ounces chocolate chips
1 4-ounce milk chocolate bar
1 ½ cups chopped nuts

Preparation

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Cream together butter and both sugars. Stir in eggs and vanilla.
3. Finely grind oatmeal in a blender or food processor. Combine the oatmeal, flour, salt, baking powder and soda in a medium bowl, and slowly add it to the wet ingredients. Beat just until combined. Grate chocolate bar using a microplane grater and add it, along with chocolate chips and nuts to the batter. Mix just to combine.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Hi,
I just mixed up a batch of the $250 cookies. It's an old recipe. Most are probably familiar with it. I used measured ground oatmeal as I had it on hand. The recipe calls for 5 cups of oatmeal ground ( doubled recipe) . I used 5 cups of ground oatmeal. I am thinking I have about 1 cup too much oats now. the dough is in the fridge. If I start baking the cookies and they appear too dry, how do I correct the recipe to save the dough. Thank you in advance for any help given.

Ingredients
1 cup butter
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 ½ cups oatmeal
2 cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
12 ounces chocolate chips
1 4-ounce milk chocolate bar
1 ½ cups chopped nuts

Preparation

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Cream together butter and both sugars. Stir in eggs and vanilla.
3. Finely grind oatmeal in a blender or food processor. Combine the oatmeal, flour, salt, baking powder and soda in a medium bowl, and slowly add it to the wet ingredients. Beat just until combined. Grate chocolate bar using a microplane grater and add it, along with chocolate chips and nuts to the batter. Mix just to combine.

It’s difficult to fix a dough or batter after it’s been mixed. You can try bringing the dough to room temperature; then cream some butter with a bit of sugar, then mix it into the dough. This recipe has a very low ratio of flour to butter to begin with. So adding additional fat won’t skew the flour to fat ratio. The issue is mixing things out of order.

 

[ltlmccomas]

It’s difficult to fix a dough or batter after it’s been mixed. You can try bringing the dough to room temperature; then cream some butter with a bit of sugar, then mix it into the dough. This recipe has a very low ratio of flour to butter to begin with. So adding additional fat won’t skew the flour to fat ratio. The issue is mixing things out of order.

Thank you for responding. Do you think I could make up another batch - shorting the oatmeal in the recipe by a cup or slightly more, and mix it with the dough I have?

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Thank you for responding. Do you think I could make up another batch - shorting the oatmeal in the recipe by a cup or slightly more, and mix it with the dough I have?

I would not risk new batch of ingredients on that batch.

This cookie recipe is not ideal to begin with since the butter to fat ratio is very low. The only water in cookie dough is from the butter and the eggs. There’s a number of ingredients that are hygroscopic, meaning they absorb water from their environment.

You have three ingredients competing for water: flour, oatmeal, and sugar.

There is both granulated sugar and brown sugar. Brown sugar is even more hygroscopic than white sugar.

Your cookie dough has been sitting with all those ingredients fighting for a tiny amount water in the butter and eggs The hydration requirements for each one of those ingredients was altered by the addition of too much oatmeal. There’s no way to tell how much water any of those ingredients have absorbed at this point. But given the additional oatmeal the only thing that is certain is none of the hygroscopic ingredients in this recipe are properly hydrated.

Given the extra oatmeal it’s reasonable to assume there isn’t enough water for the gluten development and later in the bake, starch gelatinization in the flour.

There are so many variables that can come into play here. If you had baked by weight you could re-calculate all the ratios and make a correction by mixing a second batch that adjusts for the extra oatmeal. The dough wouldn’t be perfect but you could probably salvage it. However, with volume measurements it’s impossible to know the ratios. Without knowing the ratios you cannot calculate the difference for a new batch to mix in.

 

[ltlmccomas]

Thank you for taking the time to reply. I appreciate the information you have shared.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Thank you for taking the time to reply. I appreciate the information you have shared.

You’re welcome. Hope the cookies still turn out okay.