It was cold on Sunday and thoughts of baking went through my head. There’s nothing like a hot stove and warm, chewy goodness to make a snowy day cozy.  First I put a beef stew into the slow cooker for dinner, then I started on a batch of Toll House Cookies.

I followed the recipe diligently, sifting the dry ingredients and creaming the wet items, until it came time to put the cookies on the baking sheet. The dough didn’t look right; too loose and greasy.  But I soldiered on and put two baking sheets into the oven. 

Everything smelled fine but, when I pulled them out, the “cookies” were just a runny mess of melted butter, chocolate and walnuts. What had I done wrong?  A quick survey of the counter gave me the answer. I had forgotten to add the dry mix to the wet.  (Duh!)  To be fair, it was the first time I baked in my new kitchen.

What to do?  First I scraped the melted mess off the cookie sheets. Then I added approximately the right proportion of the dry ingredients to what was left in the bowl. I mixed it together and put another batch in the oven. Bingo! That worked and they tasted fine.

But I still had a bowlful of melted butter, chocolate and walnuts that was just too good to throw away. I added the remaining dry ingredients and sifted another half-batch, then mixed them together. So far, so good, but it was too dry and crumbly. I threw in an egg and a quarter cup of milk. Two tablespoons of milk would have been better but, at this point, I was not quibbling. The dough now looked like chocolate cookies.  I threw a batch in the oven and the cookies came out just fine. Tasted good, too.