Going into the oven
Today’s Martha Mondays project was chosen by Hannah at City Interludes. Lemon Poppyseed Cookies (from June Everyday Food) sounded terrific. I once made something similar from Martha (years ago) and it was fantastic, so I had high hopes. Let me just say, this did not meet them!
I am still scratching my head at this recipe. It has almost nothing in it. 1/2 c flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp baking soda, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 tbsp poppyseeds. Wet ingredients include only 1 tbsp veg oil, 2 egg yolks, 1/2 tsp vanilla and 1 tsp lemon zest. The recipe does say the dough will be dry, but it didn’t mention it would be a bowl of sand. I could not get this to stay together. As you can see, what I sent into the oven did not resemble cookies. I tried to use a spoon, a cookie dough scoop and my hands to get this to stick together, but it just would not.
It came out of the oven looking about the same, just browner. Although it was a total disaster in terms of appearance, they did taste quite good, so it’s a shame they wouldn’t act like cookies! I’ll be interested to hear if anyone else had success – maybe I’m just a loser who couldn’t make this one work!
End result
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Too bad…all that work for some sand. Sounds like it needed some more moisture. Water? More oil? Applesauce?
Any of the above! I thought about adding more oil to it when I saw how dry it was, but decided to trust Martha. Oh well. This recipe is on the back page of the magazine and a lot of people make those back page recipes every month, so I imagine there are going to be some unhappy subscribers – unless mine was just a fluke!
Funny post, not because I’m making fun of you, but because I liked your bowl of sand description. Brutal honesty. Glad they at least had a good taste. 😉
You eat so many cookies in your house! If I lived there I would blow up like a ballon. I can’t stop eating the delicious molasses cookies from last week and now I have ANOTHER recipe to try (my husband LOVES LOVES LOVES poppyseed cookies and we happen to have the ingredients on hand. Oy!!!)
p.s. Looks don’t matter, it’s the taste that’s important. Right?!
Oh dear, not sure you should try these! While they tasted good (and I forgot to mention I thought they were a tad salty) they were a true mess.
Yes, but these didn’t even look like cookies! They were piles of crumbs!
I didn’t like them either, although mine came together okay – it was the taste and lack of lemon that made them worse.
My results are up – http://www.perfectingpru.wordpress.com
Thanks Pru for sharing. I don’t know how you got yours to look like cookies!
sounds like a recipe ready for a bit if tweaking. if the taste was good, I’d think it’d be worth a few experiments…
I loved your post Brette. You are so funny! I wonder sometimes about recipes and you should be able to trust her recipes. I don’t get how that one slipped by.
My results (but I cheated):http://tinyskillet.blogspot.com/2010/05/martha-mondays-lemon-poppy-seed-cookies.html
Hurray for you for making a different recipe (by accident!) that was actually good!
Your dough was much drier then mine. I have to admit, not my favorite cookie! 🙁
My post is up:http://www.meganscookin.com/lemon-poppy-seed-cookies/
Well I’m guessing I did something wrong then since everyone else got theirs to turn out to be actual cookies and not piles of crumbs!
I think MS didn’t test this recipe very well or perhaps she didn’t even invent it herself …. hmmmm …. I like your post – it’s honest and funny 🙂
Well, I sure am glad that I stumbled upon all these comments, because now I know not to even attempt this recipe! 🙂 But I do adore lemon-poppy-seed-anything, so I found a better recipe (http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/lemon-poppy-seed-cookies)on Martha’s website that looks like it makes much better sense, so I will try it and maybe let you know how it goes. Thanks again!
I think I might have made that recipe. I made one years ago that was Martha’s and took it to a party and it was really good, so hopefully that’s the one and it will work for you. I too love lemon poppyseed desserts!
I made these as well, and i had the same problems. They were a little on the salty side, and my dough was also like a bowl of sand. I would guess altitude or humidity might be factors in all the varying results? I was making a double batch for work, and I added one of the egg whites and another tablespoon of oil. This helped the dough stay together perfectly. But I didn’t use them for work, because I just thought the lack of lemon and the salty flavor wouldn’t go over well with the coworkers. Live and learn (not to make double batches of new recipes! lol)!
Sounds like a mess. I think there’s something wrong with the recipe.