No, I can usually bake, honest!

September 24, 2011 5:36 PM

What do I do with underdone cookies?

(Okay, is it just me or did Food Network's recipe for The Chewy change drastically at some point in the last few months?)

In any case, said cookies turned out larger than expected (about 4' in diameter), well done around the edges, but still gooey/liquid in the middle. I thought that they'd turn out all right once I let them cool, but attempting to lift one by its edge resulted in the entire thing falling apart. What now?

posted by btfreek to Food & Drink (19 answers total)

Best answer: Mix them with vanilla ice cream! Om nom nom!
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 5:37 PM on September 24, 2011 [7 favorites]

Best answer: Is there any reason you don't just stick 'em back into the oven for a few minutes?
posted by mollymayhem at 5:40 PM on September 24, 2011 [4 favorites]

Eat them.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 5:50 PM on September 24, 2011 [3 favorites]

(Four feet in diameter!?) Yeah, I'd just eat them, possibly with ice cream.
posted by zeptoweasel at 5:52 PM on September 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Oops! Er, 4" in diameter, that is... Mixing in with ice cream is definitely something to do, but the ratio of the number of cookies I have to go through to the amount of ice cream I have on hand is quite a bit larger than would be ideal.

(man, talk about first world problems...)
posted by btfreek at 6:01 PM on September 24, 2011

Crumble, make some sort of cookie-crumb crust, use for cheesecake or... something else that would be good?
posted by thirteenkiller at 6:04 PM on September 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Also, they've been out of the oven for a couple hours now, would putting them back in the oven actually work? Never done it before... The edges and bottoms of the cookies are quite well done, so I'm afraid the whole thing'll just burn.
posted by btfreek at 6:05 PM on September 24, 2011

One time my mom put an apple pie in the oven but accidentally left it on pre-heat. By the time she noticed it the the crust was pretty much done but the innards were still uncooked. She removed it from the oven, cut an incision in the crust and basically performed the first apple pie C-section. She then put the apples in a bowl and cooked them in the microwave. When done, she put the filling back in the pie and closed up the incision as best she could.

So what I'm trying to say is, toss a couple of them in the microwave for a few seconds and see if that doesn't cook 'em all the way through.

Other than that, I would just eat them.
posted by bondcliff at 6:06 PM on September 24, 2011 [5 favorites]

Best answer: Seems like if there's any way you could scrape 'em off intact and wrestle them into shape, they'd be the perfect texture to make ice cream sandwiches with.
posted by troublesome at 6:11 PM on September 24, 2011

01. hold cookie in primary grasping appendage
02. insert cookie into fuel intake valve
03. nom
04. repeat
posted by elizardbits at 6:24 PM on September 24, 2011 [21 favorites]

Best answer: Eat them pronto or finish cooking. My friend gave her whole family food poisoning by feeding them underdone cookies that sat on top of the fridge for a few days too long.
posted by gnutron at 6:54 PM on September 24, 2011 [3 favorites]

Stick 'em back in the oven for a couple of minutes. They may not be perfect, but they won't give you salmonella.
posted by jrochest at 7:50 PM on September 24, 2011

Unless you need them to have a particular level of firmness for some reason, don't give it a second thought. I deliberately only cook my cookies 3/4ths of the way, because I like them nice and soft.
posted by pla at 7:56 PM on September 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

I think you could pop them back in a preheated oven for a couple more minutes.
posted by Miko at 8:05 PM on September 24, 2011

Best answer: Bake those underdone cookies at a lower temp (275-300 degrees) to firm up the centers without burning the edges. What a delicious problem to have!
posted by sunnychef88 at 8:09 PM on September 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

Bake more or eat moar.

I once saw a book with a title like 'how to repair food' which would cover this situation and others.
posted by zippy at 8:49 PM on September 24, 2011

Response by poster: Thanks everyone! I ended up mixing up a tupperware container full of cookies-and-cream ice cream, making a friggin' ginormous ice cream sandwich, and popping the rest into the oven for a bit more. Even after that they seemed to have a bizarre sticky cake-like consistency, so I think there was something else that went wrong... They still taste fine, though! Nom nom nom.
posted by btfreek at 11:17 PM on September 24, 2011

Regarding the recipe, yes, it's changed. They changed the ingredients from measure to weight (it also looks like the method might have changed). It could be a problem of inexact conversion. I have the original in my recipe binder; if you want me to scan it in and email it to you, I will.
posted by cooker girl at 7:53 AM on September 25, 2011

Argh. Changed the ingredients from volume measure to weight.
posted by cooker girl at 4:23 PM on September 25, 2011