Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Finally, an answer....

No, not for how to confidently treat this aggressive tumor. For those of you who've known me for awhile, you no doubt have heard my obsession with the difference between the chocolate chip cookies I make and the cookies my mom makes in Michigan. Hers were always thin and crispy (my favorite) whereas mine would always end up thicker and more cake-like. And before you send me several messages describing the hundreds of ideas as to why this is the case, know that I've been examining this for over 10 years. It was not a difference in recipe. It was not a difference in the cookie sheets. It was not a difference in the egg size. It was not a difference in how careful the chef is.

My mother, out here taking care of me as I head towards the treatment, decided to experiment. She made several batches of cookies, each with different positions and baked with different temperatures. The conclusion? What it seems to be, oh cookie lovers, is the oven style. I have had a gas oven since I've been in California. She has had an electric oven my entire life.

Thinking of the physics, it seems the electric oven is more likely to heat the cookie sheet more directly whereas the gas oven heats the air more uniformly. When the cookie sheet is hot, the cookies spread out before baking. One possible solution in the gas oven is to decrease the heat of the oven, and place the sheet closer to the source of gas. However, the only real solution is to buy an electric oven....sigh....

As for the tumor, I have been lucky enough to have several people in contact with several experts in this field (including, believe it or not, a Canajun we'll call "B" who actually works with one of the potential treatment drugs). Tomorrow I'll be meeting with a doctor at UCSF, and will soon be hearing back from a few non-Cali doctors offering their opinions as well. I am finally closing in on making a decision.

7 comments:

  1. Thank god you got to the bottom of this one! Your mom sounds quite dedicated to bake several batches of cookies in the service of science. Glad you have such a dispersed ground crew of experts. Having solved the cookie mystery must embolden your decision making.

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  2. With all those experimental batches, there must be extra cookies that are in need of a home? How do you suggest one gets their hands on those tasty morsels?

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  3. W- Sounds like things are pretty much back to normal for you.

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  4. Sounds to me like pre-heating the cookie sheet might get you close to the desired result? I suppose mom tried that, too. Remember, at one point in her life she considered a career in chemistry!

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  5. So how do you explain my cc cookies? We have a gas oven and we've been trying to get our cookies to be more cake-like because they're too flat and crispy!

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  6. Diane you may now have to be Eric's official SF cookie provider. Or we can come to your house and conduct another scientific experiment.

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  7. Did you check the temperature of the two ovens with the same thermometer? I tended to find large differences in actual oven setpoint temperatures between brands/models.

    Also, could some of the water produced by the gas oven get into the main oven chamber and alter the humidity? This could play a big role. It might be worth asking your mom to put a pan of water in her oven next time she bakes cookies to see how they turn out.

    Of course, you could always cheat at your home by changing the brown sugar/white sugar ratio.....

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