A family favorite is haystacks. My Grandma Brown made them and Marty's Dad made them, they are Marty's absolute favorite. I really never eat them personally but Marty and the kids love them. They are the easiest cookie to make, all you do is melt butterscotch chips and pour them over chow mein noodles. Simple enough, watched Grandma do it a million times.
WRONG! Starting a couple of years ago, the chips started burning in the microwave. No matter what power or how short a cooking time, the chips would burn. So I switched to melting the chips in a double boiler, but still the wouldn't melt and tended to be chalky. My haystacks would crumble.
I found several recipes online and most of them called for peanut butter mixed in. I tried that and they crumbled. One year, my Dad came and told me to melt the peanut butter. WAH LA, success the chips melted and you couldn't taste the peanut butter. I would put the peanut butter in the double boiler and melt it, then melt the chips pouring the peanut butter slowly in.
I was talking to my cousin Sarah on the phone. Their haystacks crumbled and there was quite the difference of opinions on how to make them. One thing we all agree on is, Nestle must have changed their recipe within the last several years because the chips just won't melt. One aunt thinks you put parafin in, one aunt thinks butter, everyone else thinks just the butterscotch chips. This year even melting the peanut butter in the chips wouldn't melt. So I added some cooking oil and was successful. I guess my other cousin burned her chips and my cousin Sarah said their's crumbled.
I am going to forward this blog to Nestle customer service. We all want to know what happened. Here is a picture of my new placemats made by Elizabeth, my new dishes from Marty and the cookie in question.
