I used to have a MySpace account. I started my blog there. But after I had a few too many technical difficulties, I moved the blog here. I have since closed the MySpace account. I hate to lose all of my blogs from that time, so from time to time I repost them here.
This one was originally posted on July 2, 2007. I think it's apropos as I'm about to make another batch of these cookies (in a day or two).
I am planning on baking some chocolate chip cookies. (You know which recipe.) It was suggested to me that to streamline this time-consuming activity that I should do the pan cookie variation. I thought that this was a good idea, so I looked into it.
The recipe calls for a 10 x 15 inch jelly roll pan. First I had to figure out what a jelly roll pan was. Once I realized that I had one I measured it. It's 12 x 17 inches. And this is where the math came in.
Okay, so first thing: I double the recipe. That means that this will fill two 10 x 15 inch jelly roll pans. So, the recipe fills an area of (10 x 15 = 150) 150 square inches. Double that--300 square inches. My pan has an area of (12 x 17 = 204) 204 square inches. So, too big for a single batch, not quite big enough for a double batch. What to do now?
I went searching for a smaller pan to make up the difference. I had a small cake pan, but that would only give me 45 square inches more. 300 - 204 = 96. That was not quite half. And then I found the pie pans. Oops. Now I have to remember the area formula for circles (actually, not an issue--I just hate bringing pi into the equation).
Right, so the pie pans give me roughly 33 square inches (not an exact figure because of the previously mentioned pi). I have several, so three should do the trick (or at least make it close enough).
Sigh. Baking should not be this complicated.
I sub for math classes a lot. And someone always complains: "We'll never need to use this stuff." I have told them otherwise, but they don't believe me. I've given up the argument. But they are wrong.
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