Who could have ever expected we would have a flour shortage in this world these days? Who would have ever expected I would be sitting here writing about it? This week's chemistry in the kitchen experiments required a lot of substituting and flour was the main topic.  

What American kid growing up in the 80s and 90s didn't have cinnamon sugar toast on white bread for breakfast before school? I was no different. Since moving to India, I had not really eaten bread, so this actually came as a rare little treat of nostalgia for me. However I did throw a little modern grown-up flair to it. 

• Thick country white bread is the key. None of that fortified Wonder Bread. No offense, it has it place with grilled PBJs with me.
• No butter! That's right. I went for coconut oil because the butter was too hard to spread, I was lazy and wanted it now. So I grabbed the first easily spreadable thing I could find and to my surprise I loved it. 
• Cut the cinnamon sugar out and went for honey. This choice was just because my palate has changed over the years. 

Outcome: I loved it so much I had it 4 days last week for breakfast. Same way every time. I really like the coconut oil honey combo. 

Now after that boring little commentary on toasted bread, allow me to entertain you with an epic fail of the week. This one will go into the book of classics for me. How bad could it be you might ask? Let's start from the beginning...

I take a lot of pride in my pancakes. Those who have eaten them always come back for more. It is one thing people actually ask me to make for them. I even have a shirt which says Pancake Master. The expectations were pretty high on this experiment. 

There is a lot that goes into my pancakes, however the base has always been since a kid, Bisquick. This is something which is damn near impossible to find anywhere in the world outside of America. Yes, I bring boxes of it back to India every trip I make. But after talking to my sister and hearing how easy it is to make homemade bisquick, I was open to giving it a shot and seeing what amazing goodness I could create.

​Outcome:  This Pancake Master Epically FAILED. Pancakes being the only thing in the kitchen which I am confident about, my ego was totally crushed. 

My brain works like a tubelight in the kitchen. Just now as I see the dough photo and it dawns on me, "could I have made scones out of this?" As soon as I got dough I knew my pancakes were going to be a fail. Could I have salvaged this concoction from the wreckage I was creating?  ...After a quick google, it may have actually worked. But I won't be trying this ever again. I won't even look up a special recipe which specifically uses coconut flour for pancakes. I am sure the homemade Bisquick recipe would have worked had I followed it perfectly, but I didn't. 

The mess was thankfully easy to clean since I didn't burn anything and I managed to make a flawless Nespresso coffee afterwards. Nothing like Nespresso to boost your confidence on making a perfect Americano (which yes, I have ruined those before too).

It is ashamed the rest of the world doesn't appreciate peanut butter like the Americans.  But this could work to my advantage if I am the only one else ends up loving these golden chewy bites of yumminess here at the house. 

By now you know I also love oatmeal. So after a go at Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies which were a total hit, I thought I would take a stab at Oatmeal Peanut Butter, and because chocolate chips are actually bottom of my like list. And let's face it, I needed a solid comeback from that pancake debacle. 

So I started with my typical search for the perfect recipe with high flavour and chewiness ratings. We have established I am not strong enough in the kitchen to do much substituting, but given the flour situation I was once again forced think outside the box again. 
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• I started with Two Peas & Their Pod recipe. High ratings, simple, chewy, straight forward with directions. It seemed like a solid plan. 

Now time to accommodate for what I actually had in the kitchen.

• Oof...the dreaded flour. Keep in mind what I had just went through, and I did the cookies immediately after the pancake incident. I got right back into the saddle on this. Forgive my English, but I have no clue what wholemeal flour really is. After googling I am still confused. But I am going to give it a try.  Wholemeal...please, someone help explain. I never saw this once when I grew and living in America. In India, I am still trying to learn a whole new flour system there and what they are all for. But I gave it a go with WHOLEMEAL!
• Sugar. OMG we are out of sugar and the two groceries I stopped by were out too. I almost aborted the mission at this point, but I didn't panic. I thought sweet...honey. I love honey and peanut butter. I love honey and oats. How bad could it be? So I used 1/3 cup of honey because that was all I had. 
• I love peanut butter so I used a heaping 1/2 cup.
• Butter is in grams here and it called for 1/2 cup. I used about 150gms, so a little more than called for. 
• We had no vanilla so I doubled the cinnamon.
• Chilled for a few hours then put in the dreaded gas oven I used for the banana bread. I don't know what to do with an oven that cooks too hot in the center. I had to spin the sheet around for the last few minutes, but the center ones got too brown. I am open for solutions and suggestions. 

CONCLUSION: These could quite possibly be the best cookies I have ever made. I believe the slight deviations from the original recipe actually made them better than intended. For a bunch of people who don't like peanut butter, they loved them.  This is one I would definitely make again and make my way. 

You win some and you loose some. Sometimes you end up playing a football match and tie. I feel like I accomplished the latter. This woman knows her place in the kitchen...which is to stay out of the kitchen! But I will continue to play around while we are stuck in this lockdown and contribute to our flour shortage. At least I know when I step inside the kitchen, there is always potential for a good laugh. That makes it worth it. 

Never will I call myself Julia Childs. Hell, I have burnt spaghetti noodles on more than one occasion. I have wiped sauces from the ceilings, had explosions in the refrigerator,  scraped the burnt topping off many food items. When I lived in town I never even hooked up the gas in my flat and at one point I was Swiggy's number one food delivery client in Bombay. I could go on and on, but you get my point; I'm no Julia Childs. 

Had I been placed into quarantine in my home in Bombay you might find me writing food delivery reviews or doing the extreme opposite by scavenging my kitchen for anything eatable and posting photos asking if it could be eaten raw or not. But thankfully I am not stuck to survive on my own and have a good set-up where I am being fed regularly and fed very well. However, there are days where I have found myself venturing into the kitchen to entertain myself with performing chemistry experiments by baking. Baking is chemistry and anyone can follow a set of directions, right?

I have managed three recipes so far in the baking department.

1. Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies - which was a team effort and took a lot of research on recipes for chewiness.
   
2. "Healthy" Banana Bread - to be honest, I had no clue there were so many recipes for banana bread. I didn't know where to begin. I grew up in Midwest America where you couldn't fit enough sugar and butter into your recipe and then topped it again with more butter once baked!
3. The Dalgona - the most basic 101 kitchen experiment of quarantine 2020. It was my first kitchen attempt as well. I was not new to whipped coffee, just new to making them. Okay, this is not baking, but I am throwing it in anyway for substance. 

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I don't think there is one special recipe over the other on this drink. But I could be wrong. Likely I am. I am no Julia Childs. 

• The whisk you use can make a difference. We got more frothy results with a more open whisk. However, that was the day I also wondered, "how important is it really to measure the ingredients?" We got froth. 
• OAT MILK. OAT MILK. OAT MILK. I love my normal milk. I also will drink almond and coconut milk as well. But oat milk is the way to go with this. 
• You should probably have a rotating team when it comes to hand whipping if you aren't ambidextrous. One of those electric hand beater things also works.  

Outcome: By the end of this lockdown I will be a fully qualified barista. I can make froth and foam, coffees hot and cold. I have also learned to make espressos and americano's that don't come from a Nespresso machine! 

• The recipe came from Cookie + kate 
• I substituted milk for coconut milk because we didn't have normal cow juice. So I just guessed on what could possibly work that wasn't water.
• This is some damn moist bread when you use coconut oil!
• Oven issues - we have a gas oven which apparently you only need HALF the cooking time the recipe says. The top got burnt but was able to salvage it because I put parchment paper in the pan. So I flipped the bread (which was still giggly on the inside), turned the heat down 50% and covered to let the inside cook.
• Flour - the flour needs to be switched for something different. My expert baking sister told me to use rice flour instead of the flour the recipe suggested. 
• Always add more banana! Always. 
• I opted for the honey and not maple syrup for the added sweetening. Perhaps I am a honey snob, because my brother's bees produce some of the best honey ever. But I felt that the honey was weak on the flavoring.  Just my opinion...but what do I know, I'm no Julia.   

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Outcome: I would love to try this recipe again with the modifications of milk, flour, and more banana. I loved how moist it came out and everyone who tried it actually loved the flavour, I am just determined to make it better and master this damn oven no one has been able to bake properly from yet. 

I have never in my life baked a cookie so perfectly before! I must give credit though, because I probably would not have if there weren't three of us doing this baking experiment together. These were the most amazing oatmeal chocolate chip cookies I have ever had. We put a big effort into this kitchen project. From chilling times to convection or not decisions, proper moisture ratio, mixing and folding of the ingredients and the chilling of the baked cookie; we went all out. 
I started with researching recipes and I found the highest rated recipe which had been posted only 3 days previous and had a 5.0 rating. (Apparently this chick Averie is good. The recipe already has over 10k likes). I presented the recipe and we all agreed to give it a shot and this what I can say about it...​

• The recipe came from Averie Cooks. Do not deviate from the recipe. It is flawless!!!!
• We went fan free in the oven and opted to use the electric oven, not the gas one which burnt the banana bread. This was a smart decision. 
• One little deviation was as soon as the cookies were cool enough to remove from the tray we immediately sealed them up in a container and put them in the refrigerator. Who knows if this really makes them maintain their moisture, I am no Julia Childs. But what I do know is they were moist and chewy and delicious upon consumption. 
• An important side note for all cookie dough lovers...the dough tastes amazing. I eat raw eggs anyway (never gotten sick). This dough was just yum. 

Outcome: We will be making more. We are itching to make more, but don't want to go overboard by making cookies our staple survival meal. The recipe is perfect on every level and not to be adulterated.