Ya'll Want Some Cookies?

Ya'll want some cookies? I've got plenty.

I mentioned awhile back that Gameboy had a science project. I We decided that I we would bake 3 different batches of cookies and exclude an ingredient in two batches and also bake a "control" batch.

I'm normally not one to experiment with recipes when it comes to baking. I'm a follow the rules kind of girl and any kind of substitute or subtraction is sacrilegious. This little experiment was a good learning experience for both of us. Would you believe I really did learn something! I learned that the cookies are not going to explode in the oven if you leave out a key ingredient.

We did one batch with out salt and one with out vanilla and then had our "victims" primarily the hubs, taste each kind and see if he could guess which cookie did not have the certain ingredient. He got it wrong.
I had Gameboy give me a blind taste test..since I was the primary baker and we had each batch labeled for testing. I wanted to see if I could tell, plus I really deserved some cookies after baking all day. I was able to correctly guess them all. Woot!

The big surprise to me was the batch that I totally left out the salt and used unsalted butter, it was by far the best batch. I could really taste the salt in the batch with no vanilla. I'm not sure why that was..possibly my baking assistant had a hand in that.
I'm really thinking the next time I bake cookies; if I'm using salted butter, I'll skip the salt and if using unsalted butter, I'll add the salt. Maybe this is something you guys knew all along. The more you know...