With everything in order we started the process. All the time while measuring, and adding, and beating, and mixing, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that something smelled strange. By exclusion I zeroed on a just opened package of flour that we happened to ship with consumable from the States. It had a chemical smell, more as a cleaner than baking substance. I tasted it and, yep, the taste was off also. Not trusting myself I asked my sons’ and husband's opinions – the first ones pronounced it “weird”, the latter didn’t find anything suspicious with it.
Since the dough was ready and the oven was preheated, but mostly out of curiosity, we continued with baking. After 11 minutes in the oven and appropriate cooling time, we cautiously tried our creations and inferred that our cookies were irretrievably ruined. Not only they turned out unappetizingly flat but they had a distinctive aftertaste of some cleaning liquid. We sighed and tossed all batch away along with the barely used pack of flour.
You think it would be enough baking for one day but, no, the allure of the chocolate chip cookies was way too strong. My husband went to the store for a new package of flour and by dinner time we had a tray of fresh, with height, good tasting chocolate chip cookies!
The moral of this tale – if flour has a chemical taste, baking will only reinforce it.
