Same Recipe, Different Results

 Why is that?

It happens to me frequently.  I have a recipe I really like and have made so often, then the next time it is a flop.  Well, not exactly a total flop, but the end result is not what it had been previously. 

And I am disappointed.

What is even worse is when the recipe has been prepared for guests or as a gift for someone.

Oatmeal cookies.

They are relatively easy to make. 

Gary likes them.  Blaine likes them with raisins.  Hilary likes them with chocolate chips.

When Landon and I were baking this summer, we tried a variety of recipes, trying to find the perfect cookie for his Family Favorites Foods project in 4-H.  Even though we knew the oatmeal cookie was NOT going to be 'the one' to submit, we still tried a few recipes just because Papaw, Daddy, and Mommy liked them and they were working hard on the goats and pigs during the spring and summer months.  

Each recipe we tried I marked with comments and the date.  One has a notation "Gary likes this one."  Blaine just liked them all, as long as there were raisins.

In fact after we baked one batch, he stood at the counter and ate several straight off the cooling cookie sheets.  That's always the best way to eat fresh-from-the-oven cookies anyway, right?

So...for his birthday tomorrow I thought I would bake him a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies.  I pulled out the two recipes I had used most often, and I selected the one with the most recent date notation.  The end of August.

I remember that day.  It was one of those chaotic days when there were grandchildren everywhere, lots of activity going on in and outside the house.  I was baking cookies and forgot to put the raisins in.  Oops!  But everyone liked them and they vanished.

Today's cookie adventure turned out a little differently than I had hoped.  The baking time had to be extended because they cookies just didn't look completely baked after the time had elapsed.  When the cookies had cooled somewhat and I moved them to the cooling racks with the spatula, they seemed to be very flat and somewhat greasy---not like from oily French fries, but from the butter in the cookies. 

The cookies on the first three sheets that baked for 12 minutes all seemed to be like that.  The final half sheet I kept in the oven for an additional 2 minutes and they were TOO done.

Gary taste tested them and proclaimed them good, and he assured me that Blaine would like them no matter what.  But he asked, "Why do they turn out differently each time?"

I have no good answer to that one.  This time I did add the raisins and I plumped them in water before adding the to the cookie dough.  But I blotted the excess water out of them on paper towels.  Maybe that was the difference.

Who knows?

But when I bake oatmeal cookies on Thursday for the photo shoots, I will use a different recipe and probably omit raisins this time!