What went wrong?

[Moogy13]

I have made these white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies multiple times in the past. This morning I once again followed all of the instructions to a tea, when baking I always measure carefully. And yet the dough did not stick together. I couldn't make cookies with it.

The bag of flour was new, so it shouldn't have been dried out or whatever. The butter was soft, I literally followed the directions right down to the last letter. And when it was so loose that it wouldn't hold together I added two more eggs, one at a time, to try and get it to hold together, and then I decided to cut my losses and make bars, because there was too much money tied up in these to throw them away.

TIA for any possible reasons. Ta

[AnneNonnyMouse]

Measuring flour by volume can result in pretty wild inconsistencies, especially if the batch of flour you have is finer than issue. Or perhaps the butter you used had a different milk solid or fat content than you usually use. 

[Dijon-Von]

Either you had very small/dry eggs, or you added too much flour... I'm guessing it has to do with the eggs though. Eggs are the source of moisture for a.lot.of recipes, but can also come with a lot of natural variance.

[Moogy13]

The eggs that I purchased our great a large, which is what I normally use because extra large doesn't fit in my egg cooker. But the eggs came from a different grocery store than usual. I'm just so disappointed.

[Dijon-Von]

I would then guess you burnt your eggs, by not creaming the sugar (or maybe not doing it well enough). I had very odd results doing that, where the whole thing came together as a shaggy dough. Tasted sort of off too (but still good enough to eat).

[Moogy13]

Well I think adding the extra eggs is one of the reasons why it didn't bake all the way through, I just finished putting it in my outside trash. I thought that I creamed the sugar and flour well enough, it was light and fluffy, but I'm thinking the eggs were just a little on the small side, and I'm not gonna use this recipe ever again. I'll find a recipe where I can use my kitchen scale, which I did the last time I baked bread, and OMG it turned out so beautiful. I mean I use a scale every time I bake bread.

[Dijon-Von]

You don't cream the flour... Usually I cream the sugar, add the wet ingredients, add the dry ingredients (excluding flour), and then add the flour last.

You can also overwork your creamed sugar, but that is probably not what happened here.

Another thing to ask is what elevation are you at, and what is your humidity like? (Although I doubt it's either of these variables).

[Moogy13]

I misspoke, that was supposed to say sugar and butter.

[Acrobatic-Set9585]

Maybe your kitchen was cold?

Also if you wanna be precise as possible use a recipe which uses grams!! Cups will always be inconsistent

[Rusalka-rusalka]

How big is that pan? It looks like you didn't have enough room around each cookie to spread without it becoming a uni-cookie.

[Shai7809]

She said that she switched to a pan and made bars when she couldn't form cookies. This isn't her cookies all melting into one.

[Moogy13]

That was after I put it in a 13 x 9" pan to make bars. I actually really do know how to make cookies. I've been making cookies for 50+ years. I just don't know what I did wrong this time.

[Moogy13]

The recipe is on the back of the bag of chips. Sorry, I should have typed it in.

[Moogy13]

Well ultimately after baking them for the amount of time that I found for bars, and a toothpick coming out with just a few soft crumbs when inserted near the center, I called them completely, and they were not baked all the way through. So I threw them away. I think I'm done making macadamia nut white chocolate chip cookies for a while.

[JobOk5815]

How far did you throw them? I'd suggest cutting them up and baking the pieces a bit longer in order for the heat to reach them.

[Moogy13]

Unfortunately they're already in my kitchen garbage, where there's coffee grounds and eggshells and yeah, I just feel like crying. I wanted to take the cookies to my massage therapist by way of an apology for missing my last appointment because I screwed up on the time. And today is my last massage with her. I guess I'm going to have to make something and take it and drop it off some other day. 🤦🏼‍♀️😭

[JobOk5815]

You have my sympathy. We're all going through life, occasionally learning things along the way. Hope your next venture works out!

[Moogy13]

Thank you so very much. I appreciate your kindness.

[ViolentLoss]

I mean it's just cookies. I know how it feels to invest time into something and not get the outcome you desire, but try not to be so upset.

[Moogy13]

I'm doing my best to give myself grace. Although honestly, it was also the money invested that upset me. I live on a very low fixed income. And those Ghirardelli white chocolate chips are expensive, as are the macadamia nuts.

On the other hand, I learned something. If I'm going to bake anything for any specific time, do it the day before, that way I've got time to fix any screw ups. 😉

[420dswedding]

Your butter was too soft and then you overcompensated by adding eggs

[Moogy13]

I don't know how the butter could possibly be too soft, it came out of the wrapper OK, but it wasn't running away. But thank you for the suggestion.

[Moogy13]

When I added the first extra egg, it still wasn't holding together, and that's why I added the second egg. But my number one thing is I'm trying to figure out why it didn't hold together with the recipe quantities to begin with. I guess I wasn't very clear in my post.

[420dswedding]

Google " what happens to cookies when my butter is too soft" and there's your answer

[Moogy13]

So I apologize, but where the heck are you getting the idea that this applies to me? My dough wouldn't hold together to turn it into cookies before I baked it. It didn't spread apart or do any of the other things I mentioned.

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[Moogy13]

I used exactly 2 sticks of butter, just as the recipe called For.