Thursday, March 26, 2009

Frookies



I don't try to fool people. I think honesty is a virtue, so I don't try to make people think I'm something I'm not. Ok, the under eye concealer, the hair color, and the push up bra don't really count, do they?

For some reason there are some people who think I'm some sort of cooking guru or baking wonder. Really the only thing wonderful about me is that I keep going, despite the many charred, brick-like, or tasteless food items I produce. Here's an illustration.

It started with leftover frosting from making these. It sat in my refrigerator for a while. I'd eyeball it every time I opened the fridge door, mentally reminding myself to make Twinkies to use up the frosting. After enough mental post-it notes had cluttered up my brain, I got around to making the Twinkies. Then I pulled out the frosting to use as filling. It was quite firm, so I let it sit at room temperature to warm up. It wasn't its creamy self, so I tried beating it with my hand mixer. Alas, that only made it curdle into butter lumps swimming in a sucrose bath. Ugh. (Slams curdled frosting back into fridge, says some very bad words, and rewrites all the mental post-it notes to say, "Make new batch of frosting.")

The curdled frosting sat in the refrigerator. Chilling it made no difference. It was stalwartly refusing to become light and fluffy again. I got cross every time I saw it lurking in refrigerator. I imagined it taunting me, that I would have to throw it away and waste all that butter and sugar. No! I will not be bested by ornery frosting gone south!

I took inventory. Basically, what I had in the bowl was butter and sugar. Well, helloooo, we're well on our way to cookies, aren't we? I beat in an egg, added a teaspoon of vanilla, threw in flour till it had a stiff consistency, tossed in a teaspoon of baking soda, then added coarsely chopped walnuts. Spoon onto cookie sheets, bake at 350 deg. F for 9 minutes, and voila! - Frookies (frosting cookies).

Since the first ingredient to this recipe is an indeterminate amount of frosting gone wrong, I won't bother to give you the rest of the recipe in detail. I just thought you might enjoy the story, and take courage from the fact that even an awesome baker like myself (snort!) has little kitchen mishaps (read: disasters) from time to time. And the take away moral of the tale is: if life hands you bad frosting, make cookies!

21 comments:

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

I don't care what you say - you ARE a cooking guru!!! You're a great inspiration for me in the kitchen, dear Lynn :-)

Jennifer Jo said...

Frookies---ha! Now there's a creative woman!

Elyse said...

Lynn, I totally love this story!! You'd have to be a total guru to come up with such a clever use of that frosting!! I love these...in fact, I might even make some frosting and let it curdle just to get these awesome looking cookies!! What a success story. I'm inspired.

Unknown said...

Haha! Those actually look really good! Frookies...I love it.

Mermaid Sews said...

What a cute story, thanks for sharing! I love the creativity - I tend to quickly throw my disasters in the trash and try my best to move on!

Anonymous said...

hehe I had to smile when I read your story. I love your frosties!
Kudos to you for sharing.
Very creative way for turning a defeat into a victory ;o)

NKP said...

So creative! I hate to waste too, great idea to repurpose your badly-behaved frosting!

Maria said...

I love your frookies! Great post!!

Anonymous said...

An inspiration from my "Pookies" (Pie-cookies). Oh mom, what kitchen failures we are together. We just PRETEND like we know what we are talking about when we give things out. Oh well. I made really yummy pea soup last night. I'll bring over some left overs of it today to you.

Anonymous said...

Lynn, we all recognize the feeling when it doesn't come out as expected. Sometimes this so-called failures turn out as a big succes; the Tarte Tatin was just a cake felt upside down wasn't it?

Well, who knows which tasteful successes we're all going to discover?

Melinda said...

I love your story. How I wish i was a fly on the wall when you couldn't revive the frosting. (who am I kidding?...I'd be the fattest fly in the world and fall directly on my bum. So much for that expression!)
Anyway, where was I? I got sidetracked. Oh yes. I like the sound of those frookies. I don't think they qualify as a failure though. I think this is a case of Superbaker Lynn saving the bake, yet again! I want to see proper goof ups in future.

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

Oh I'm so sorry to tell you this - ha you know I'm not but you're also a writing guru! This is really a fabulous story. Good cookies too I'm sure ;)

Gigi said...

I love that you shared this! I think it's great that you did not give up on the icing. Long live the frookies!

grace said...

ah...i love clever names like that and anyone who goes to great lengths to avoid wasting things. bravo, lynn. :)

Jennifer Jo said...

So what would you do with a couple cups of chocolate glaze (mostly dark Hershey's chocolate with cream, butter, and light corn syrup)?

Lien said...

Great story, You beated this frosting! Hurray for not having it thrown out! Creative!

CookiePie said...

What a great idea - I love it!!!

Debbie said...

Great story, I really enjoyed it. My misshaps in the kitchen usually end up in the trash very quickly. They are thrown in rather hard with frustration!!!!

Peabody said...

Frosting cookies! Now that is a great idea.

eatme_delicious said...

Great save for frosting gone wrong!

kickpleat said...

Ha! This is amazing! I usually have frosting go wrong (why can it be so tricky?). I love this.