Oven 1, Christine 0

As some of you know, I've made molasses cookies as holiday treats for the last few years. This recipe came to me from a sweet lady I worked with at a deposition reporting office (yes, I worked at a deposition reporting office for about 3 months when I first moved to Seattle).

Until I met this woman, who goes by Smithie, I thought all molasses cookies/gingersnaps were as hard as a rock. I remember when Smithie brought in a plate of soft, chewy and perfect-looking cookies and I couldn't resist. After I devoured about half the plate I asked her for the recipe.

It was not an easy task...she was guarding the recipe! I begged and begged and she finally caved!

Pic from ehow...not Smithie's cookies. Hopefully, I'll have a good one to post soon!

Little did I know, the oven in my apartment on Aurora Ave. was the best oven in the world for these cookies. Baking them at 350 for 9 minutes made a perfect cookie. Then I got married and moved to an apartment with a crappy oven. Then I moved to California and moved into an apartment with a double crappy oven.

This oven burns everything. Everything! Now...I don't usually bake too much unless it's meat or a casserole or a thin crust Red Baron pizza spruced up with mushrooms and olives (a must try dipped in "Morrie's Pizza" sauce. RIP, Morrie's.). But I digress.

I put up with it toasting the bottom layer of anything until it came to these cookies. I intended to make a few dozen of Smithie's cookies to give as gifts at work. I've been planning it since October and last Friday night when I burned batch after batch I'd gave up. I tried different racks, different temps, stacking pans underneath to buffer the direct heat...I was afraid to talk to management about the oven...afraid because I was nervous they'd dub it an operator error and then never answer a maintenance request again. However...last Saturday I put in a request and they came to check it out.

Turns out the oven runs about 25 degrees hot and constantly tries to reheat itself. Whew...for it not being an operator error! They're going to try to fix it, but

I'm going to try round 2 this weekend in the hopes they turn out ok... I'll let you know how they turn out!

And yes, you too will have to beg me for this recipe! :)