which_chick | (no subject)

One of the things that regularly pisses me off about most cookbooks is that they don't offer me a whole lot of supplemental information about what happens if I do things differently than the recipe suggests. The current thorn in my side is my recipe for sand tarts, which, while delightful and up-to-date with additional notations from this season's cookie-making-extravaganza, totally fails to discuss what happens if I use brown sugar instead of regular sugar, halve the recipe, and omit the lemon zest. But I want to KNOW what happens if I do that. (I'm sure it was your first thought on reading the recipe, too, am I right?) I want to know what it tastes like. I want to know if the dough behaves differently. I want to know if the brown sugar flavor does the delightful things I think/hope it will.

Research continues. I'll keep you posted.