Double the molasses, double the stress! Cookie emergency in progress.

January 28, 2020 4:54 PM

Help! I added twice the amount of molasses in the following cookie recipe - what do I do?!?! I finished steps 1 and 2 and I should have a nice bowl of cookie dough, but it’s more liquidy than it should be. Not quite batter, but not dough.

On top of this, I have already made this a double batch so I'd rather not double everything else again because that’s a lot of cookies, but if that's what has to be done, I might bite the bullet. Can I avoid staying up all night? Can I refrigerate it and finish tomorrow? Or is there some other way to save it? Can they still be made to turn out a bit soft like they usually do?

Half cup butter
Quarter cup blackstrap molasses
One cup sugar
One egg
One quarter teaspoon salt
Two teaspoon baking soda
One teaspoon cinnamon
One teaspoon allspice
One teaspoon ground ginger
Two cups unbleached white flour

1.Beat melted butter with molasses and 1 cup sugar and then add egg
2. Stir in dry ingredients
3. Make small balls, put on sheets, and bake

Thank you everyone!

posted by pickles_have_souls to Food & Drink (8 answers total)

honestly I think your best bet is to refrigerate it overnight, to allow the dough to hydrate fully and soak up the extra, and just bake them. Leave a little more room between them in case they do spread a bit. I'd be more worried about the flavor than the texture -- blackstrap is bitter -- so taste the dough you have now before you refrigerate it. If it is bitter, add a little more sugar and flour and a bit more salt.
posted by fingersandtoes at 5:14 PM on January 28, 2020 [4 favorites]

You can make double the dough and freeze half (2 of the 4 batches).
posted by soelo at 5:24 PM on January 28, 2020 [10 favorites]

I might just add more flour and see what happens - but it depends on how liquid the dough is. If it's reallllllly liquid this will not work. If 1/4-1/2 cup flour will work it's probably not the worst thing ever but your cookies won't be quite the same.
posted by countrymod at 5:42 PM on January 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

You could make a test cookie. See what happens if you bake as is or add more flour.
posted by FencingGal at 5:46 PM on January 28, 2020

Response by poster: So, in fact, I did bake a test cookie for half the time the recipe recommends (6 instead of 12 minutes) and it turned out too sweet and really crisp. Ugh, I hate crisp.

(The batter, however, is delicious. Expect to see an AskMe question about salmonella in a few days.)
posted by pickles_have_souls at 5:48 PM on January 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

1. Double the double batch, mix and shape cookies, freeze half unbaked.
2. Bake cookies later, or eat frozen dough standing in front of the freezer in your nightgown.
3. PROFIT
posted by ottereroticist at 6:43 PM on January 28, 2020 [4 favorites]

sounds like you need to add a bit of flour, an egg yolk, and a bit of salt.
posted by fingersandtoes at 7:57 PM on January 28, 2020

Understandable that you don't want to double an already doubled batch. What I would do (if you're still looking to salvage the dough) is:
- divide the current batch in half,
- freeze one half for later use,
- to the remaining half, add the right proportions of all the non-molasses ingredients.

You should now have a doubled batch as it SHOULD be. Bake as normal, and if it works out well, then thaw the frozen section on some future occasion when you again want cookies and give it the same treatment.

Good luck. It sounds delicious.
posted by wjm at 11:38 PM on January 28, 2020 [3 favorites]