We're Kind of Obsessed With Jennifer Garner's Cloud Cookie Baking Fail

The actor's baking fiasco ended up being Instagram's favorite viral recipe of the holiday season.

Jennifer Garner has warmed hearts all over from her home kitchen via her Instagram #PretendCookingShow, where she tests recipes for all her followers to enjoy. The lovable actor doesn’t shy away from showing her kitchen fails either, and her recent cloud cookie "episode" was the subject of much debate as Garner prepped these chocolate chip cookies. Unfortunately, the end result was—rather flat, to say the least.

Cloud chocolate chip cookies are made to be light and airy (like a cloud, as the name implies), and should be just as fluffy as one, too. When Garner's didn't initially turn out, the comment section offered a plethora of tips and suggestions to ensure it wouldn't happen again.

The original recipe had specific instructions that Garner admitted she didn't follow exactly—she sent up a little prayer to Ina Garten before pan-roasting almonds instead of popping them in the oven—but she determined her biggest error was that she didn't use super-fine sugar.

Related: The 7 Best Baking Sheets of 2023, According to Testing

This type of sugar mixes better than its larger-grained counterpart, making it much more suitable for desserts meant to be light and airy. Spoiler alert: Using regular sugar prevents it from dissolving all the way, which causes the cookies to lose their shape in the oven. This also contributed to the uneven cook time that Garner’s sad first batch received.

Another debate in the comments sparked over the temperature of her butter. When cookies come out flat, it’s often because the dough wasn’t chilled beforehand—this causes the cookies to "melt" and lose their shape in the oven. More specifically with Garner’s recipe, the butter she used was quite warm. User @kimbersteph33 pointed out, “it wasn’t the super fine sugar, your butter was too warm,” causing a short-lived feud to break out in her replies. 

Which, of course, begs the question: Was the butter the real issue? It’s more likely that the problem was Garner’s mistaken sugar substitution. Garner later redeemed herself by making another batch of cookies with the right sugar, which allowed her to achieve the cloud-like texture she was originally hoping for.

Related: When to Chill Cookie Dough (And When You Can Skip It), According to Pro Bakers

Whether it was the consistency of the sugar or temperature of butter, the best bet if you’re running into similar issues is to make sure you’re following the original recipe. (And consider chilling your dough before baking it.)

If the comments aren’t obsessing over Garner's expression when she pulls out the failed batch of cloud cookies, they’re asking the question we all really want to know the answer to: What’s up with the mini vacuum she uses to clean up the flour dust left behind? We’re hoping it'll be a new kitchen essential for 2024.

For more Better Homes & Gardens news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on Better Homes & Gardens.