(I didn’t get a photo of my cookies, but they looked quite like these taken by Marianne Callahan )

Here is the email I sent to my colleagues at the beginning of the school year:

The muffins didn’t belong to the Magnolia repertoire, but I hadn’t yet decided if I would follow through with my ILP (Individual Learning Plan as per American educational jargon), and I love a good muffin. I had baked the muffins for my son and some of his friends who had spent the night at our house. They complimented the muffins, but my own children said they tasted a bit “too healthy”. That’s kid jargon for “they were OK but not really all that good.” I knew the multigrain flour with seeds was going to set itself against the bananas, but I tried it anyway. My colleagues at school had a different opinion. The muffins were gone before the cookies.

Note: For muffins and breads that call for bananas, never fear to add an extra banana. Everyone will comment on how wonderfully moist it is.

WHAT I LEARNED:

1. Keep your eye on the ball. I like chocolate chip cookies that remain bendable even when fully cooled. This means shaving a minute or two off the official baking time. I allowed myself to get distracted and left one batch a bit too long. Those cookies turned a darker brown and became brittle when cool.

DETOUR:

I am religiously following the recipes in the Magnolia book, but I still manage to do this-and-that a bit differently.

1. I only got about 15 cookies instead of 2-3 dozen as per the book. Why? I like a big cookie. Not super big, but something I can really get my hands on and take a big bite of. So, I used an ice-cream scoop to regularize my cookie size and to increase their volume. Perfect !
2. Problem? I need a different scoop or a better technique to get the dough to release. I tried spray oil on the scoop. That worked for one or two scoops, but then I needed to clean the scoop. Also, I was afraid that the oil might have altered the results. Perhaps just keep dipping the scoop in warm water?

RECIPES:

1. http://just-a-sliver.com/magnolia-bakery-chocolate-chip-cookies/
2. http://fourandtwentyblackberries.blogspot.com/2012/09/oatmeal-peanut-butter-chip-cookies.html