Cracked Cauldron Spillings

I have the pinwheel cookie dough and the sugar cookie dough chilling, along with the dough for Hot Drops.

Later today, after they are baked, I'll post pictures.

I am in the process of eating a calzone for breakfast/lunch (I forgot to eat earlier, what with caring for critters and mixing doughs), and baking gingerbread cookies at the same time.

This is a different gingerbread recipe than the one I usually use, and it's not coming out as nicely as I like. I may have to buy more honey and molasses and just go back to my original gingerbread recipe. These are coming out crisp instead of soft.

And they burn easily - which is why no photos yet. I threw away the first batch because they burned on the edges.

So, to even out their baking, I put a baking stone in the oven. It may have, with its age, developed hot spots, and cookies are terribly sensitive to hot spots.

TIP: Keeping a baking stone in the bottom of a gas oven will even out hot spots generated by the differing flow of gas to the vents. Just preheat the oven at least 45 minutes before you plan to bake. I suppose this tip is only worth following if you plan to bake a lot of cookies or tender cakes over an extended period of time. Or if you're using the heat of the oven to help warm the house and get the bonus of hot food from it as well.

I tend to use the oven as I bake for an extra heat source when it gets chilly here. We rarely have enough days cold enough to be worth turning on the heater this early in the winter. January, February, March - those are our winter months, when we can expect some ice, or (rarely) snow. Temps will fall to the frigid 20's sometimes for more than 2 days in a row.

Then it gets back up to the more normal 40's.

Gotta switch cookie trays.

Pics when I get some worth photographing!