I made chocolate chip cookies for the first time here three or four days ago. I brought the last of our chocolate chips along with us - just enough for one batch of cookies - from Costa Rica to here. Now, please realize that we could buy chocolate chips in Costa Rica, but they were pretty pricey. Here in Quito? No chocolate chips to be found. Anywhere. They don't exist. So - we knew it would be a sad thing, but we wanted a treat.
I knew that baking at high altitude was different but, alas, I did not realize how different. I used the same recipe that I have baked with for the past, oh, 35 years... My Auntie El's Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookie recipe from the Mennonite Treasury. Of course, it has been memorized for about 30 years now, so the book was not needed.
Okay, I'll just get to it.
They were terrible.
I wasted our last bit of chocolate chips making cookies that were awful. I should have taken a picture, but actually that wouldn't have mattered - they looked fine. But tasted like... Just horrible. They still managed to get consumed but probably only because everyone wanted to savor the chocolate.
So now I know. Only use high altitude adapted recipes or figure it out before any personal attempts.
Oh, and it is pretty tough, apparently, to find baking soda. Doesn't make it easier.
Perhaps it was a good lesson that God was teaching me in humility. I've always prided myself as a good baker. Eric has always called me a dessert snob. Maybe I needed to be humbled. Fortunately, He took it easy on me and only humbled me before my family. Eric took it upon himself to humble me before some friends by sharing the story.
I can get over that. They've been there.
You shoulda seen the brownies I made last week. Yeah, so much for me throwing caution to the wind after I read the "high altitude" directions. I was like, "Eh, I don't need to follow those!"
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