12 cookie fails to make you feel better about your kitchen skills

Scott Searle took to Twitter to showcase a photo of his cookies gone wrong.

"Half of the cookies are burnt, half are raw, and the fire alarm is going off," he wrote.

Even though these cookies were a fail, he was still able to see the bright side of things. "My baking skills can only improve from here," Searle tweeted. "Good thing I didn't start with bread."

These burnt hearts were courtesy of an oven that was set hotter than it should have been, according to home cook Caitlin Halfacre.

"All that happened here was that I turned the oven up to max to heat it up quicker and forgot to turn it down when I put the biscuits in!" Halfacre told Insider via Instagram message. "I think they're meant to cook in eight to 10 minutes and they burnt to a crisp in about six minutes."

Shawna Rose wrote in her Instagram caption that her homemade almond flour was likely the reason for her macaron fail.

Though this batch flopped, the macarons looked flawless after two more tries and the use of "proper almond flour," Rose said.

Insider's lifestyle deputy editor Chloe Pantazi attempted macarons for the first time. Unfortunately, she made "crackly, odd-shaped cookies" instead of the delicate French treats.

Pantazi used a recipe from Chip and Joanna Gaines' magazine, Magnolia Journal. She said that looking back at it, she was able to tell that her two mistakes were, "over-mixing the batter, and not getting the air bubbles out of the piped macarons (achieved by slamming the baking pan on the counter five times, apparently)."

"Despite looking like little alien monsters, they tasted good," she said. "Thankfully, even Joanna Gaines said this recipe took her a few times to master, so I'll keep trying!"

Amber of the Instagram account @bored_in_self_isolation shared what happened when she tried to make French macarons.

According to her caption, they still tasted yummy despite the deflated shape and melty look.

"Those cookies were a real doozy," Andrea Wada Davies, the baker, told Insider via Instagram message. "The combo of chocolate and marshmallow should have been an easy crowd pleaser and the actual dough looked a dream, but they ended up running the gamut of fails."

She said that the first mistake was letting the chilled dough get too soft. Then, after the first batch ended up on the ground, she forgot about her second batch in the oven and ended up with "sad, semi-burnt cookies."

They were still. edible, though! "Everyone just sort of felt obligated to break off a corner of the cookie plaque," she said.

Kay-Dee Lynn Agonoy took to Instagram to show followers what happened when she tried to make gluten-free cookies for the first time.

She told Insider via Instagram message that she tried to swap almond flour for all-purpose flour in a one-to-one ratio. She guesses that was her downfall. Though, Agonoy admits, "they were chewy and fairly delicious!"

According to Healthline and King Arthur Baking Company, the lack of gluten in almond flour will create a flatter, denser baked good.

"Now, I've actually got a really good gluten-free recipe down, and almond flour is, in fact, not used," she said. "You live and learn."

After attempting a gluten-free chocolate-chip cookie recipe with her daughter, Jen wound up with a sheet pan full of what became a single expanded cookie.

"Yes I may or may not have peeled them off the cookie sheet and ate them anyway," she wrote in a blog post about her failed experiment.

Allison Racsok-Rios (@fallen_angel2318 on Instagram) shared her "Cookie cutout fail!!!!!" proving that even using a cookie cutter can't guarantee perfectly-shaped confections.

"I bake with my nephews," Donita Oosahwee (@donitastar7 on Instagram) told Insider via Instagram message. She said the boys were four at the time of this baking fail, and keeping their attention was a difficult task. As a result, she wasn't able to let the dough cool completely before baking.

"Keeping their attention is most of the battle when baking," Oosahwee said. "They really were in the shape of bears when we put them in the oven!"

"I tried to make a new vegan sugar cookie recipe and the butter substitute ratio was off," Alicia A. (@tidastreats on Instagram) told Insider via Instagram message. "And that's how the cookie crumbles. Literally! Much better in the second picture and I pretty much use that recipe with only a slight adjustment now!"

Alicia used the failed batch pictured above to make a pie crust instead so that it didn't go to waste.

"If I had to guess about what went wrong, too much butter," @wheel_and_spiral_homestead told Insider via Instagram message. "So they crumbled instead of holding together so I could curl them nicely."

• Read more:
• 19 baking fails to make you feel better about your kitchen skills
• Photos of home bakers' bread fails show all the things that can go wrong, from leaky batter to flat rolls
• Photos show how common baking mistakes can drastically change your chocolate-chip cookies
• Photos show how common baking mistakes can drastically change your gingerbread cookies