The Cookie That Went Very, Very Wrong

I have baked thousands of cookies.

Possibly millions.

You would think that means I never mess them up.

You would be incorrect.

One afternoon, I was testing a new North Pole cookie recipe while answering three questions from the Toy Factory and listening to Santa explain why he needed a second dessert.

I forgot an ingredient.

The cookies came out of the oven looking less like cookies and more like tiny Christmas pancakes.

An elf stared at the tray.

I stared at the tray.

Santa ate one.

Then another.

“They’re good,” he said.

They were not what I planned, but he was right. They tasted good.

So we added frosting, sprinkled crushed peppermint on top, and called them North Pole Meltaways.

The elves loved them.

The recipe that “failed” became something completely new.

Mistakes are information. They tell us what happened. Sometimes we fix them. Sometimes we try again. And sometimes we accidentally invent a cookie.

So the next time something you make does not look exactly the way you imagined, take another look before deciding it is ruined.

It might just need frosting.

Mrs. Claus

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