Two Heads Better Than One?

You'd think two heads would be better than one, right? That having a pastry partner would ensure that I wouldn't screw up. Hmmm.....

....perhaps IF the brains in both of our heads weren't overwhelmed with trying to appear confident and capable in using equipment we'd never laid eyes on before. Such as a multi-attachment commercial mixer and old-fashioned balance scale that measures in OUNCES. 

Our task was fairly simple: weigh out and mix the ingredients for chocolate chip cookie dough -- after tripling the recipe.

At home, of course, Amanda and I know where everything is. Here we had to search for the flour bin, the 16-oz blocks of butter, the flats of eggs, even bowls. And then try to convert everything to those dratted ounces. Obviously, the mental energy needed to do mathematical equations simply isn't there when all of your other synapses are firing away over new sights, shapes and textures.

That's the only explanation I can come up with for why we dumped our white sugar, brown sugar, flour, and salt into a single stainless steel bowl -- BEFORE CREAMING THE SUGARS WITH THE BUTTER. (Duh! That's why it's called the "Creaming Method"!!)

I'm going to blame it on that dratted balance scale. In this digital age, why hasn't that metal torture tool been banned to museums and prisons?!  "Because," Chef intoned, "a lot of bakeries still use them."

STOP LIVING IN THE DARK AGES, PEOPLE!!

Anyway, after Chef caught us in that error, he walked by just in time to observe our second: our virgin attempt on the commercial mixer. "Wrong paddle!" he barked. "That one goes on the bigger mixer."

THERE'S A BIGGER ONE?!

Hmmm. I guess my guy friends are right after all: size DOES matter!  ;-)