Lemon Puddle Cookies

Is there anyone out there who doesn't like cookies? Okay, that one person that raised your hand...you, there in the back...really? There's not a single cookie you like? There has to be one. For me...if it says cookie, I like it. Well...as long as it's not crunchy...then I like it. But give me a glass of milk for the crunchy cookies and I'm all set to go. I love finding new yummy cookie recipes, it makes me excited. We love cookies so much in fact that we don't hardly ever make popcorn for movies...we make a bowl of cookie dough and eat half of that and bake the other half into cookies. Mmmmm. (Yes, I'm well aware that we could get sick from raw dough, but I've got 25+ years of successful dough eating under my belt, I'm not too worried...it's worth the risk to me). 

So one night we went to make our go-to Peanut Butter Cookie recipe, and we discovered we were out of PB. I had just created my Pinterest account and said, "Hey! I saw some cookies today that looked really good, I'll try pulling them up." So I found the pin for Lemon Crinkle Cookies, whipped them together, and threw them in the oven. When we pulled them out, they definitely did not look like this:

The Original Pin:

http://www.laurenslatest.com/lemon-crinkle-cookies/

But they tasted oh so yummy. Most of the time when I try something I found on Pinterest, I try to move the original pin to my "Pin There, Done That" board, and I give a little blurb about whether or not we liked it, and if it worked. Here's what I said about these cookies: "These are so dang good. So light and yummy. I'm sitting here eating them right now. Ours look different, but they taste great." This was pre-Pinstrosity days, so I didn't even think about taking a picture. There weren't pretty, and they didn't resemble the original cookies by any means, but they did taste good. 

So with that story...I was excited when we received an email from Ruby, who also tried these cookies out, and, just like ours, they didn't turn out quite like the original pin either. 

Ruby explained that the adventure didn't start off real strong as they had trouble with the butter. "We don't have a microwave in our new house, so to soften the butter for creaming in the first stage I put the bowl in a sink of warm water. It sorta melted more than softened, and refused to be 'light and fluffy', rather sad and a bit puddly." She forged on ahead though, being sure to follow the instructions as carefully and closely as she could. She got the dough all mixed up, but her concoction was less doughy and more...goopy.  She said, "It got to the end, and the mixture was fairly wet, not so much like cookie dough should be. My mum came in and said that it looked like it needed more flour, but me being quite stubborn I insisted that I'd followed the recipe and that they'd be fine! So voila, my crepe type biscuits which spread out completely." 

The Pinstrosity

"There are only a couple left though, because they're delicious despite looking like they've been sat on by an elephant!" 

We don't have a photo of how our cookies turned out...but they did look pretty close to what Ruby had there in her photo. Since these were just for eating at home, I wasn't too worried about how they looked, I was more worried about how they tasted and they were awesome. 

I'd love to take these to a party or deliver goodies or something sometime, so I went back through the comments to see if I could gather any great tips on what went wrong and what to do differently. I'm pretty sure the butter was the deal with ours (and maybe Ruby's). 

Real butter is my nemesis. It's either frozen solid, or a melted puddle. I can't ever get it room temperature. I've even sat and played on the computer for half and hour with a wrapped stick of butter under my arm to try and warm it up and it just doesn't (hey...we all do weird things when we're in the comfort of our own homes)! So I put it in the microwave and zap it for 4.3 seconds and it's a boiling puddle of burnt butter. So I use margarine a lot. I know, real butter is better to bake with usually, but we aren't speaking to each other right now. It sounds like Ruby had similar issues with getting the butter just right. When I made these I used margarine, and that was probably my biggest downfall with this, as I found out in the comments. 

http://www.laurenslatest.com/lemon-crinkle-cookies/

It's actually a little funny that Ruby and I had trouble with the cookies spreading too much, because most of the people who commented with troubles had the opposite problem (theirs wouldn't flatten at all). Ruby and I are just awesome like that. We're forming a club. Okay, maybe it's just an imaginary club, but it's a cool one. 

So I'm thinking the key here to pretty cookies (along with the awesome taste it already has) is to have your butter "just right"...too melted and it doesn't work, too frozen and it doesn't blend well. Too fake and it just doesn't work. Does anyone else have butter issues? I'm sure I'm not the only one. But if so, that's okay...everyone has to have a food nemesis of some sort, right? 

I think next time I try to make these, I'll plan way ahead (I never plan ahead with cookies...planning even 5 hours in advance is planning way ahead...we're just spontaneous cookie people) and leave the real butter out on the counter for a day before trying to mix these up. We'll see if that works. I'm also learning to do test batches (just baking 3-4 cookies before putting in a whole pan) so I can see if I need to try adding flour, changing the temperature, singing to my cranky oven, or anything like that. It does take an extra 6-14 minutes (depending on cookie cooking times), but I'm finding it to be well worth the time. I'm ending up with fewer wasted ingredients, fewer goofy batches, and more happy cookies! 

So give these a whirl, they really are tasty tasty tasty!