Nothin' But Net

Nothin' But Net

This is the hardest thing I've ever baked in my short history of baking (about the same time this project was due). It is more of an artistic cookie that is like something you'd make for looks more than just taste. I'm not going to lie, I was skeptical going into this. It had less steps than all the other things I made so hopefully it is good. So will it be a difficult accomplishment or a hilarious failure. The recipe for this cookie creation is in the book "Silly Snacks, Classroom Treats, Cookie Dough Fun" by Louis Weber. This book is separated into 3 different sections (Silly Snacks, Classroom Treats and Cookie Dough Fun) and the section I went to for this recipe was Cookie Dough Fun and on page 210 is where I found this particular recipe. I wanted to make this for my sibling's basketball team. The ingredients that you must have for this treat are refrigerated sugar cookie dough, all-purpose flour, powdered sugar, lemon juice and orange, white and black decorating icings (Weber 210). On the actual page it mentioned the specific amounts needed and the condition they should be in before cooking.

So once I had most (we were not able to find orange icing) we went ahead and began  The instructions say, "Remove dough from wrapper; place in large bowl. Let dough stand at room temperature about 15 minutes" (Weber 210). I took it out and let it sit for about 15 minutes (didn't time it but it's close).

The next step reads, "Add flour, powdered sugar and lemon juice to dough; beat until well blended. Divide dough in half Wrap each half in plastic wrap; refrigerate at least 2 hours. Meanwhile, make pattern out of clean, lightweight cardboard using diagram" (Weber 210). I added the flour and powdered sugar and lemon juice just like it says and beat it and refrigerated it. Though instead of refrigerating for 2 hours I did it for about 4 days. That was a half-baked (pun intended) decision but I didn't know it would matter. But as you will soon see it did. I cut out the piece though it took me a couple tries because I am unskilled in cutting cardboard circularly.

The 3rd step reads, "Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease cookie sheets. Roll 1 dough pattern, sprayed side down, on dough. Cut around pattern with sharp knife; remove pattern from dough. Place cutouts 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheets. Repeat with remaining dough” (Weber 210). I actually preheated the oven at the beginning since I was used to doing that which most likely doesn't matter (better early than late). I sprayed grease and when I rolled the dough pattern it all cracked apart. This was a problem. I ended up adding more water to it in order to soften this thick mess. After some time I was able to rolled out twelve cookies worth of dough. Luckily, that is just enough for my sibling's team. So cut them out and had it all set up.

The 4th and final step says, "Bake 13 to 15 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Remove to wire rack; cool completely. Decorate with icings as shown in photo" (Weber 210). There is a photo of the end product on the next page. I set the oven to 13:30 and put the platter of dough cut outs into the oven. When I took it out they all looked fine except one that was ruined beyond usage. I set it on a tray to cool and then got out a bowl of white icing and mixed yellow and red to make orange (remember how I said we were unable to locate orange icing at the store in my first paragraph) which turned out well. Putting the icing on was quite difficult, I sucked at accurately putting it on so it kind of looks sloppy and to top it all off, we were running low on black icing. And while the end result was rather ugly looking, according to my brother, it tasted fine. But is this type of cookie about taste. And if it was about the flavor why add a design? So was this a fail or moderate success? I'll let you, the reader, decide.

My question for you. Would you ever cook something that is really difficult but with little pay off in the taste but more in the visual aspect? Why or why not?