Last week, like many families, we celebrated Easter. Each year we color eggs, and each year I PLAN to make Easter cookies. I say "PLAN" because it doesn't always happen even though I PLAN to do it.
When my oldest daughter announced last week that she would like to make some cookies (BTW, she has become quite good at baking and following a recipe) I suggested that we make sugar cookies in Easter shapes. She was totally on board and made the dough--following the recipe exactly.
While the dough was cooling in the fridge, I asked my kids to clean up their "zones." At our house, "zones" are the areas of the house that each child is responsible for keeping clean each day. The zones rotate each week. My middle daughter had the kitchen zone. She cleaned it up haphazardly while watching a show. As the last step in cleaning the kitchen, she wiped down the counters with Lysol. I saw her LIBERALLY spray the counter with Lysol spray and then went back to what I was doing. The next thing I knew, my oldest had sprinkled flour on the counter to roll out her dough. I asked whether the counter had been wiped down well and allowed to dry BEFORE she spread out the flour and dough. She nodded and continued cutting out the cookies.
After they had baked, but before they were frosted, I snatched a piece of a broken cookie. It tasted extremely bitter. I couldn't figure out why it would taste that way. I quizzed my daughter about the ingredients she used. Sugar--yep. Butter--yep. Baking powder--yep. Salt--yep. However, after a few minutes and another taste or two, I remembered the Lysol on the counter. That HAD to be the problem. She had rolled out the cookies before the Lysol spray had been wiped up. We ended up throwing all the cookies away. We saved the frosting my girls had already made in hopes of attempting the cookies again. Last night, we again mixed the dough and rolled out the cookies in Easter/Spring shapes. But this time, we left out the Lysol. They tasted great!!
