Have you ever had a craving for cookies only to mess up when following the recipe directions? Or worse yet, leaving the cookies in the oven too long and burning them? If you’ve ever tried baking, you’ve likely experienced one or both of these mishaps.
If this is a common occurrence, you might consider hanging up your oven mitts and leaving making freshly baked cookies to the experts.
But don’t be so fast to toss those burnt cookies in the trash! There are a few options for saving the cookies, and no one will be the wiser. Ready to save the day and your cookies in no time?
5 Ways to Save Burnt Cookies
So, you burned your cookies; now what? Here are five surefire ways to keep those burnt cookies from going to waste.
1. Grate Burned Parts Off
Some people like cookies on the slightly overdone side, but there’s a point of no return where the charred taste overwhelms any delicious buttery flavor you would expect from a cookie. One option when you’ve accidentally burned your cookies is to use a cheese grater to grate off the burnt bottom of the cookie.
2. Use to Make Pie Crust
If your cookies are burnt beyond salvation, turn them into a pie crust. Use the grater to remove the burnt parts and crumble the remaining cookies. You might think that making a pie crust from scratch is difficult, but the Pioneer Woman breaks it down to just three ingredients.
3. Soften the Cookies with Bread
Did you know bread can keep baked goods fresh longer? Depending on how long they were in the oven, the cookies might still be too crispy even after removing the burnt pieces. In that case, put the cookies in an airtight container with a piece of bread. The cookies will soften after soaking up the bread’s moisture. Make sure not to put too much bread with the cookies, though. That will make the cookies too mushy to enjoy.
4. Scrape Burnt Bits With a Knife
One downside of using a cheese grater to scrape the burnt layer off is the risk of nicking your fingers. A knife will work just as well as a grater. But instead of slicing the entire bottom of the cookie, scrape little by little until only the good cookie remains.
5. Repurpose Your Cookies
Don’t want to take the time to scrape off the burnt bits? No problem! Flip the cookie over, grab some ice cream from the freezer, and smother the burnt part with the sweet treat. Put another cookie – burnt side down – on top of the ice cream. Voilà – an ice cream cookie sandwich!
How to Prevent Burnt Cookies
Cookies seem like a very easy dessert to make, right? Just mix the ingredients, plop spoons of dough onto a cookie sheet, pop it into the oven, and set the timer. Well, it turns out that it can become much more complicated than that.
Ovens aren’t one-size-fits-all. The temperature of one oven might be too high or too low in another, especially at high altitudes. It may take trial and error before you find the right temperature and timing for your cookies. The ideal cookie is both crispy and chewy. With these tips, you can still eat your mistakes until you perfect your baking skills.
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