Sunday evenings can be hard. We've all been there. You've had a good weekend, but somehow there are still a bunch of things you didn't get to, and there it is: Monday. Lurking just around the corner with that pushy look in his eyes that says "I've got a whole list of things here you have to get done, let's go, let's go, let's GO!".
No matter how much you love your job, I think it's pretty common to wish for "just one more day" to finish catching up or to keep relaxing.
We're not the only ones who feel that way. Having children nudges those memories back out of the dusty corners. When one of the kids says sadly "I don't like Sunday night!" I remember feeling the same way. Excited to see my friends, but not so excited about a long week of ... school.
This evening, I figured I'd stave off the mood and make some cookies. The kids were playing and I let them be. It was satisfying to put together the recipe for cherry-oatmeal cookies from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking. We'd made them a few weeks ago and they were great.
If your library doesn't have this book, ask one of those friendly people at the front desk who is in charge of doing the ordering for your library, ask to speak with them, and ask them if they would "please, pretty please" consider getting it for their collection. It's a great book, with luscious photos and, even better, good recipes!
So I mixed the recipe up and shared the beaters.
That helped with our Sunday blues.
What I'd forgotten was that the batter was supposed to chill in the fridge for 6 hours before baking. That did not help.
So I made a batch of warm-dough-cookies, slid them into the oven and put the rest of the dough in to cool while the first round baked. Now, I knew better. I knew that batter was made with soft butter and that those cookies were going to spread. And they did. And you know what? They tasted great. Most of them had to be peeled apart and cut into something resembling a cookie, but they were yummy just the same. The second batch, which had been chilling for about 20 minutes, didn't spread nearly as much. They were actually round!
I don't recommend forgetting to chill this dough, but it was interesting to see what a difference a little cool air did make.
It was also a little bit of a confidence check. You know how sometimes you read a recipe and you think "really? 6 hours? you've got to be kidding me - no way does this dough actually need 6 hours to chill!" Well, they probably didn't want to wait 6 hours either. It's probably there for a reason. Next time I'll try to plan ahead and let them chill, because they were better that way - more cookie like, less cruchy.
But the other thing I learned tonight was, sometimes it's not the perfect cookie that matters, it's just doing something nice to make the end of the weekend a little special. They won't remember the spread-out cookies. They'll just remember that sometimes you made them cookies.
Happy Sunday Night.
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