I don't know, but if you try posting this on the harvest forum. You will probably get the answer there!

Cloudy Christine, I think you have a new Hallmark Greeting card in the making: "Get Well Soon: May your drugs last until the pain is gone." Annie, hope the knee is recovering as planned. Back to Crisps: I do like oatmeal. It's one of those recipes that I often make up with what I have on hand (granola, oatmeal or just flour). But one thing that an Ann_T recipe had was the addition of lemon to blueberry crisp... I get so many compliments when I do that. It just seems to brighten up the berry flavors a bit. Oh, and I agree that it is the perfect breakfast item. (DS really loves me for that :) ) Ann

Donna (lackboys3)- I judge baked goods at fairs, so I've received quite a bit of training and have done a lot of self-study on the subject because I need to know the science of baking and ingredients so that I can tell people what went wrong with their foods, or how they can improve their recipe. There's so much science to consider when making any changes to a recipe, and you need to consider ALL the ingredients and what they do in the recipe, not just the flour type. For instance, if you normally use AP flour in a crispy cookie recipe and you choose to use White Lily or Martha White (southern all-purpose flour which have lower gluten levels than AP) or cake flour, you will get a completely different cookie texture - that's a given. But what texture? That depends on the other ingredients in the recipe. Chances are, if the ingredients lend themselves to "crispy", they'll remain so no matter what type of flour you use. It's the nature of the ingredients in that type of cookie. Gluten in flour absorbs moisture, so if the liquid ingredients aren't also changed in the recipe and you use low-gluten flour, the dough may be more moist because less is absorbed by the lower-gluten content in the flour, which could make a higher-rising, less crispy, cookie. But you could also end up with a cookie that is more tender (like a pie crust or a shortbread) than crispy, from changing the type of flour. Not puffy or chewy at all. It depends on the other ingredients in the recipe. Puffy and chewy are actually opposites when talking about cookies. Puffy is more cake-like, while chewy is dense and moist. Crispy is just that, it's dry and snaps when broken in half. "Puffy" (according to "Baking 9-1-1" by Sarah Phillips) equals more flour; chewy equals more eggs, fat, and sugar (in the recipe). So choose your recipes according to the ingredients list for the type of cookie you want. It's easier to find a recipe that is appropriate, than to alter recipes. As with all baking, it's a ratio of ingredients, and each ingredient does something to the mix. Alter them, and you will have a different kind of cookie. * Many differences come simply from how a person measures ingredients. If a person packs their flour into the cup by dipping the cup into the flour and scraping the cup up the side of the bag/canister, they may be adding as much as 1/8-1/4 c. of flour - per cup - to the recipe, than the person who fluffs the flour, spoons it into the cup and levels it. * Accidently using bread flour, instead of all-purpose flour, and you may have a tough/dry cookie from the additional gluten absorbing more hydration than all-purpose flour would. * Using whole wheat flour for all-purpose flour in a cookie recipe will alter texture. Most commercial whole wheat flour is milled from hard wheat, which is higher in gluten than all-purpose (which is milled from both hard and soft wheat varieties). The added bran also absorbs more moisture, which can cause the cookie to be dry and hard if you don't note the hydration of the cookie dough and adjust it before baking. * Moisture level in flour always varies from bag to bag and season to season, not to mention how and where it's stored once it's in the kitchen. It may be very dry in the winter, and will require using a slightly different amount to get the correct hydration in the cookie dough. It can also be loaded with a lot of moisture from being stored in the paper bag it comes in, in a humid kitchen. In which case, it already contains a lot of moisture and a recipe may need more flour to achieve the correct hydration. That's why all measurements for flour in a recipe are just good guesses. *Using butter that is too soft (softer than "room temperature" may require a little more flour to get the correct hydration of the dough. *What size dollop of dough one bakes can also make textural differences. *Substituting part or all honey for sugar, which absorbs and keeps moisture, will make a cookie more moist, and possibly "puffy". *How long the dough is baked effects the end result. My SIL never fully bakes cookies of any type. She only half-bakes them to keep them "chewy". A result of unbaked moisture left in the cookies. She bakes them just until they are "set", removes them and allows them to stand on the hot pan for 5 minutes or so before removing. This is one way to get chewy cookies, but not all cookies are supposed to be chewy.... *What ingredients are there to create steam to help cookies puff - usually eggs. Using egg whites only has a drying effect on cookies. *What leavening agent is used in the recipe also makes a difference. Baking soda makes a cookie spread and brown more, but if you add too much baking soda, it makes the cookies bitter. Baking powder, on the other hand, produces lighter-colored and puffier cookies. Other leaveners include steam (created from liquids such as water, milk, or cream) which causes the cookie to puff. Too much liquid with a low-gluten flour and you won't have enough gluten structure to make a good cookie. They'll be too tender and will fall apart. *Allowing cookie dough to sit at room temperature or in a hot kitchen for long periods of time can cause the texture of cookies to alter. *If the cookies are supposed to be puffy, don't bake them on a greased sheet. Choose an ungreased sheet or parchment paper. Greased sheets promotes spreading. Greasing a sheet may benefit low-fat cookies, to aid them in spreading properly. Parchment paper doesn't promote spreading - it provides a non-stick surface. *Cookies that require low hydration, such as rolled dough for sugar cookies, will make crisp cookies. If you over-work the dough (usually from second cuts - where you take the scraps from the first batch and re-roll it), there will be more gluten developed and the cookies will not only be crisp, but tough. You can avoid tough cookies by using southern all-purpose flour (Martha White or White Lily) and roll the cookies out on powdered sugar instead of flour. The additional sugar will melt into the cookies for a delicate, crispy, cookie, while the flour will be adding more gluten and toughness. -Grainlady

Cranberry Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies A modified version of the Quaker Oats VORC (look under the lid). As with all cookie recipes, freezing your chocolate chips and cranberries will make a huge difference in the finished cookie. The chips will hold together under heat and cranberries won't puree in the mixer. Let these cookies cool completely! Ingredients: 2 sticks unsalted butter 1 cup packed dark brown sugar 1/2 cup granulated sugar 2 eggs 2 teaspoons vanilla 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour 3 cups Quaker Oats - regular, not the instant or overnight 1 tsp baking soda 1 cup chocolate chips - not minis 2 cups cranberries Process: Cream both sugars and the butter until soft and fluffy Add the eggs and vanilla and mix Mix the flour, baking soda, cranberries, and chocolate chips in a large bowl and then add to the mixer and combine at low speed for a minute at most Add the oatmeal and combine at low speed Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper Roll the dough into 1" to 1-1/2" balls and place on the baking sheets Flatten them if you want crispy cookies, otherwise leave them as balls to get chewy centers Bake 13-15 minutes or until the edges start to get brown Cool completely on racks. Yields around 3 dozen cookies