cookie confusion

I'm a great fan of cookies, believe me. Though I still prefer a slice of cake over a chocolate cookie, I'm not fussed. If it's sweet, chewy and fulfills my cravings for whatever I crave at that moment then I'm satisfied. My ideal cookie would be those from Subway; although I haven't tried many different store-bought biscuits I do love the chewiness and size of those giant cookies. But I can't have many of those in one sitting since they're a little too sugary for me.

Everyone always talks about their perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe, or their triple-tested snickerdoodles or peanut butter cookies. I've found that everyone's got a slightly different approach to baking cookies, with their own quirks and tips; and so sometimes one person's recipe will not work for someone else.

I'm hoping that that is the case, or else I'm just not one for baking cookies. I've used a couple different recipes for different biscuits, but they all don't turn out the way I want them to. Or what the pictures look like.

 I used Lovin' From the Oven's recipe for this one; I absolutely love how amazing her cookies turn out, every single time! I needed to add milk to the batter before baking, and I probably should have added more so that they would spread more. 

Now chocolate chip cookies. My favourite type of cookie and a classic. I can't remember which recipe I used for this one because it was a while ago, but I definitely know that they weren't meant to become little chocolate chip rocks. 

I tried again using Bakerella's recipe but even that didn't turn out...right. The texture never ended up the same, even though I thoroughly burnt it. 

And these were peanut butter cookies that were meant to be moist, chewy, giant melt-in-your-mouth wonders. But at the time I didn't actually mind the size because they were still relatively chewy.

I'm sure that there's something very obvious that I've missed, but I'm quite lost about what it is. Anyway I returned to something that I could do relatively well and baked these Mandarin and Orange Squares a few weeks ago. The recipe was originally for lemon, and if I would do it again then I would stick to the recipe. The citrus taste barely came out at all; in fact I would suggest adding more juice than in the recipe. Nonetheless the crust was crumbly and good, and it was a family favourite.

I've lost where I found this recipe, so I'm very sorry if this was originally yours!

Lemon Squares
Adapted from Martha Steward's Cookies

For the crust:
1 1/2 (3/4 C) unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 C plain flour
3/4 C confectioner's sugar
3/4 tsp salt


For the filling:
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/3 C sugar
3 tbsp plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 C lemon juice
1/4 C milk

Preheat oven at 350 F(180 C). Grease a 9-13 inch baking dish before lining with baking paper, including some overhang.
For the crust: Cut the butter into small pieces and set aside. Whisk together flour, confectioner's sugar and salt in a bowl. Add butter and mix until just combined and the mixture looks crumbly. Press mixture firmly into baking dish and cool in fridge for 15 minutes before baking until golden for 16-20 minutes.
For the filling: Whisk together eggs, sugar, flour and salt until smooth. Stir in juice and milk. Pour over the hot baked crust. Reduce the temperature to 325 F(160 C) and bake until filling is set and the edges are slightly golden brown. Let it cool completely on a wire rack before dusting with confectioner's sugar and slicing into squares.
The lemon squares can be kept in an airtight container in the fridge up to 2 days.