I was making a Jacques Pepin oatmeal cookie recipe. It doesn’t call for eggs. The dough didn’t come together in the mixer, rather formed coarse crumbles like for a pie crust (which I also have never been able to achieve on purpose!). I think it was just that my butter was too cold. Any ideas of how to fix this dough? It tastes fine. Just won’t stick together. I am certainly no baker though I love to cook. I double-checked the recipe and had all measurements correct.
PepinFan: Let the dough sit out until it comes up to room temperature, then knead it by hand. Cold butter when making cookies can be a real problem, but if you allow it to cream THOROUGHLY with the sugar(s), you’ll avoid future problems. Add the vanilla or other extracts, maybe a spoonful of water(the Nestle’s CCC recipe years ago called for a TEASPOON of water) to help the process. You can also grate the cold butter on the coarse side of a box grater, the smaller particles will come to room temp. quickly.