'Tis the Season for Cooking Mishaps

...well by me, anyway. I guess I shouldn't be overly surprised considering my burnt icecream and chocolate 'dog poo frisbees' of the past, but I thought maybe this time would be better. 

So this is what I'm attempting to make, stained-glass star cookies for Christmas presents for friends:

Excuse photo quality, it's a photo of the cooking magazine I'm using.

I was excited to get started because this is the first time I've needed to use my mixing machine thing (technical term). So I'm not entirely sure why this happened...

oops.

See that wonky bit of metal on the left? Yeh, that wasn't like that when I started. The machine has two holes for two beaters, so I put both in, and they clashed. One emerged the victor (clearly not the one pictured). Was I not supposed to use both? Is one a spare? I really have no idea. 

So anyway I started just using the machine with the non-broken one. Then I realised the metal bowl was getting scratched. See that plastic little cover thing on the top of the pictured beater (which I assume is used to protect things from being scratched)? Well the other one doesn't seem to have one... ANYMORE (? or I'm hoping it never did but I can't remember). So I had to search through all the cookie dough looking for a weird bit of plastic. I haven't found anything. 

Thank God this batch is the test bach. I'm going ahead with cooking them (just waiting for the dough to refrigerate for a bit) just to see how they turn out. Don't worry friends, you aren't going to be getting these ones with the potential bit of plastic.

Well stay tuned for an update, I'll let you know how the cookies turn out!  

**Updated after the jump**

Well the cookies came out of the oven fine, so now for the second part. The tiny cookies (without the 'glass') get melted white chocolate put on them and then little soft lollies on top. I guess you're not supposed to microwave chocolate on high for a minute, as evidenced by the big burnt bit, and all the smoke that billowed out of the microwave and filled the entire house. 

Concerningly, husband slept right through this episode, so clearly I can't rely on him in case of a house fire. Anyhoo, after chucking out the bad bit I continued, and here is the final product: 

Not too bad, if I do say so myself. They don't taste plastic-y at all (as far as I can tell), but just in case I don't think I will give these to anyone! At least I've learnt some things not to do, for when I make the ones for presents.

Now to get this burnt smell out of my house...!

P.S. Upon washing the rolling pin I've used a few times now, I realised I never took the plastic off it! Well that explains a bit :S (I'm really not cut out for baking, am I)!