How to make cookies on a rainy day

[theora]

How to make cookies on a rainy day on not enough sleep.

1. Decide you want to make cookies. Realize you have two *coughmumble*-old egg whites in the fridge, and some slivered almonds you otherwise won't use, and remember there's a biscotti recipe using egg whites in one of your cookbooks.
2. Fail to find cookbook. Cast about the internet and come up with this recipe instead. Decide to make a half recipe, which means you can use one egg and one egg white instead of one and a half eggs, which will surely be fine. And slivered almonds can sub for whole almonds chopped, of course.
3. Set the oven to heat and stick the almonds in to toast. Measure out flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir with fork, which is as good as sifting.
4. Reach for butter. Oops, it's supposed to be melted. Start melting a stick while you add the egg, egg white, vanilla, and orange liqueur and zest to the bowl.
5. Get almonds out, chop them up a bit further for good measure. Having melted butter, realize you only needed five tablespoons, and you melted eight. Spoon out three Tb of liquid butter into a small bowl, hoping it's roughly equivalent to three Tb solid.
6. Add the melted butter to egg mixture, then add flour. Mix a bit, notice it's kind of gluey. Add almonds as directed and attempt to knead them in as they keep falling out.
7. Read next instruction: "Using floured hands, shape each dough half into 13 1/2-inch-long, 2 1/2-inch-wide log." Okay, there's no way floured hands are needed to shape this stuff, which is taking on the consistency of pizza dough.
8. Reread recipe from the top.
9. Add 3/4 cup of sugar to bowl.
10. Sugar won't mix in, so add another egg and a slosh of the leftover melted butter. Mix with your hands, trying to force the sugar in.
11. Once sugar appears incorporated, grab the flour bag and waft some over the top to make up for the additional egg-and-butter moisture. Add flour until the mixture is formable into a log with floured hands. Sure, the sugar, baking powder, and flavoring proportions are now off, but it'll probably be fine.
12. Form dough into a log, put on baking tray and bake as directed.

Originally posted at Dreamwidth. Comment here -
comments.