Novice baker needs help please

emylou

I baked 2 batches of cookies this morning from a recipe I have used about 4 times before. The 1st batch came out fine but the 2nd mixture was very crumbly & dry by when it was meant to be "slightly sticky". I am 99% sure I weighed the ingredients out the same as the recipe- the only differences were- the butter had been left on the side whilst making the 1st batch (so it was actually easier to cream with the sugar)and I sieved the soft brown sugar

Does anyone know what I did wrong as I don't want to be put off in case it happens again
Internet suggestions were that I creamed it too much or didn't weight out the ingredients correctly?

Thanks in advance x

Linda32

If you are sure you weighed the ingredients correctly, which I'm sure you did then to be honest I don't think you did anything wrong.

For instance I make a fruit cake from a Mary Berry book, its pretty easy all-in-one method. Its really quick and great for our lunch boxes for the week. :T I've made it more times than I care to remember and I'm sure it tastes slightly different each time yet I use exactly the same ingredients as the receipe calls for.

Are you using an electric hand held mixer? rather than a kenwood type thing where you put all the ingredients in a bowl and put a lid on. I find the electric hand held things to be much better when it comes to cake making. :T

nuatha

Given the temperatures we've had today I'd guess the butter was more than a little soft when you did the second batch and that the flour has absorbed more of the butter than usual.
The cooking characteristics of cold and soft butters are quite different. Cold butter will retain its structure and allows doughs to be worked more easily, softened butter tends to incorporate more air, be absorbed into the other ingredients more easily and can result in a tougher or less pliable dough which could result in a very different product.
HTH