We love a gooey center to our cookies and bars, and our obsession occasionally leads us into a batch or two that can only be called underbaked. Even UNbaked! We're always loath to toss a whole pan of goodies in the trash, so we wonder if there's anything we could do to save them. Any suggestions?
This happened recently to another reader Wendy who wrote:
I made some molasses bars the day before yesterday, and undercooked them. Things usually take longer in my apartment oven, so I kept checking on them and took them out when the top was a nice caramel brown color and the edges looked like if they cooked longer they'd be overdone. Yeah, I need a better oven, but it is what it is.
Now we've eaten around the edges (and they're yummy!) but the middle is way too undercooked for my taste. Can I put the middle section back in the oven to salvage them? At what temp (the original baking temp was 375) and for how long?
We've thought about this problem every which way, and unfortunately, we don't think re-baking would work. The problem is that the baking soda or powder in the recipe was probably activated and used up during the first cooking, so there's nothing left to leaven the bars a second time. Re-baking will give us hard, brick-like cookies and bars.
The other concern is the eggs. If the bars are so underbaked that the eggs are still raw, it's probably not a good idea to eat or even try to re-bake them if the bars have been sitting out for very long. We're usually proponents of eating your mistakes, but in this case, it's probably best to toss the batch rather than risk food poisoning!
It's probably best to chalk a batch of seriously underbaked bars or cookies up to experience. Each time we make a recipe, we tweak it and get a little bit closer to our ideal. We hate seeing a batch go in the trash as much as the next person, but sometimes a recipe just can't be saved!
Do any of you see a way to salvage underbaked bars and cookies?
Related: How to Tell When a Cake is Finished Baking - Cookies and Bars, Too!
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Reheat it enough to kill the salmonella and serve it hot under vanilla ice cream?
I'm no expert on food poisoning, but would freezing them work at least for putting the bacteria on hold such that they are no more dangerous to eat out of the freezer than they were fresh from the oven?
Personally, I have never had problems with underbaked brownies that I froze and re-thawed, but perhaps I've just been lucky.
Um, why aren't you testing your bar cookies with a toothpick or piece of spaghetti? If you like them slightly gooey, just take them out when there are still crumbs on the tester. Going by appearance isn't really a good indication of whether or not they are done.
Also, letting them sit and cool will help them finish cooking. I think eating them warm in fine, but eating them when they are too hot is going to lead to under cooking.
I would say, once they are under cooked and inedible, that they should be thrown away.
yeah, dont tempt fate and eat them. i would say just to start over!
I've successfully re-baked brownies that I've undercooked. I realized they were undercooked when I tried to slice them after they had cooled - so I wasn't worried about food poisoning. I've also deliberately underbaked cookies to be frozen if I planned on baking them again to crisp them to good effect (though now I usually just freeze the dough).
I use an instant read thermometer to check the center temp of baked goods immediately after removing them from the oven. With trial and error, I'll come to know what temp I like them at and will note that in the recipe. This has saved me from many undercooked bread disasters! 190 and over is what I usually go with.
I wouldn't be worried about the leavening in cookies too much. If the leavening was important, the cookies would have fallen and you would notice as they cooled. Also leavening is activated by temperature and if they didn't reach that temperature, they didn't leaven. You would not get the same leavened texture you like in something like a quick bread or a cake. But you are writing about cookies, especially bar cookies and since you want them underbaked light isn't what you are looking for anyway.
Good luck!
I'd eat 'em.
But if you really can't do it, I'd suggest crumbling them up- the edges/more cooked parts in a food processor depending on texture- and making them into a pie or tart crust.
My cake tester is part of my essential kit. I have a proper one now but before that, I used a fondue fork or a kebab skewer.
I don't think letting something finish cooking while it cools makes much difference, it would need to be only just undercooked to make a difference and I don't think that's what we're talking about here. I tend to shove them back in the oven for a bit and that often does the trick. Also, a note on the recipe to cook longer next time helps!
The USDA in 2002 said that only .003%, or 1 in every 30,000 eggs is infected with salmonella- I'm willing to play those odds, especially for brownies.
I'd cut out the inside undercooked bit first and nuke it in the micro and serve with some ice cream- just tell em it's lava cake. :)
Then the nicely cooked outsides are available for later- yum!
Here's a link to some more info on salmonella and cooking techniques if anyone is interested. http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Fact_Sheets/Salmonella_Questions_&_Answers/index.asp
I'm with BrooklynBaker. Any imperfect baked goods recycle into a perfect cheesecake crust.
Can you cut them into thin strips, turn them on their sides and rebake for biscotti's? That would be my first try.
I'd just eat them anyway. The hype over salmonella is really just fearmongering in my opinion. I live on a farm. We have a few hens who provide us with more than enough eggs, and in 30 years of eating raw cookie dough (only a fraction of the batter ever makes it into the oven), I've never gotten sick. The only times I've ever actually gotten food poisoning was from restaurants.
If it's a matter of presentation, a little extra cooking and checking with a toothpick should provide sufficiently to prevent them from being too gooey or raw-tasting.
I had the same problem when I tried to make molasses bars. Two or three times, with different variables changed, they came out crispy on the edges and super gooey in the middle. Hmm...
If the edges of the bar cookies are getting overcooked while the insides are staying raw, your oven might be too hot. I would invest in an oven thermometer to check the heat and make sure you're baking them at the right temperature -- maybe just setting the oven at a lower temperature would help them bake more evenly. Also, as everyone else said, check the center with a toothpick. if it's still gooey but the outside is starting to get overcooked, you could try covering the edges with aluminum foil, like with a pie crust.
Fridge for storage, then toast in a toaster oven until cooked through?
One of the joys of vegan baking is not worrying about getting sick and possibly dying from infected animal parts/products in your food.
Anyway, I'd crumble them into a hot fying pan, toss them around til they're heated through, allow them to cool and mix with a batch of vanilla ice cream. I've done this on purpose in making my own coconut milk ice cream, and it's delicious. If you're someone who prefers the edges of brownies, this is for you.
Oven toast the inedible bars till crisp, then turn them into crumbs. They can be great toppings for puddings, fruit, cakes, or even turned into a layer in a new batch of bars. One of my favorites is cherry crisp with chocolate crumb top.