“I haven't baked anything in AGES” I announced a couple of weekends ago. “Okaaaaaaay” said the boyfriend, with more than a hint of trepidation.
You see I enjoy the baking. I like creating sweet things, it’s fun and then when everybody likes them you get a lovely warm glow inside that makes you feel wanted and seeing as I’m a people pleaser I’m all over it like a rash.
However.
As much as I love the baking there’s an equal part of me that hates it. Know why? It’s messy.
MESS! Argh! It drives fear in to my inner core. For some reason I don’t end up messy myself, I’ve never had to wear an apron, it’s just everywhere else gets covered! And I seem to use about 45 bowls and every single utensil we’ve got in the drawers. I put the beaters in to the mixture and for a week afterwards I’m cleaning flecks of batter off the walls and the cups on the mug tree. And god help me if the recipe calls for me to use my hands. You might as well as me to put my hands inside someone’s body, it fills me with revulsion. I honestly, honestly have to take a deep breath before I start doing it. I actually have to gear myself up. Probably why I don’t make a lot of cookies and scones. Muffins are a hands-off concoction.
Anyway.
I decided to have a go at this month’s Sweet & Simple bake, snow-flecked brownies. I’ve only tried brownies once and they were a total disaster so I was a bit nervous about attempting this one.
Everything was going swimmingly. My chocolate and butter were nicely melting in a pan, I had my eggs cracked in to my bowl with my vanilla essence and just needed to add the caster sugar.
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...
...
...
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Have you ever knocked 350g of caster sugar ALL OVER your kitchen?
I don’t recommend it.
It. Was. Everywhere. Including the bottom of my feet which was driving me round the bend.
The boyfriend came to the rescue with the hoover (or rather I screeched at him to get the hoover, it’s a wonder he stays in the house when I’m baking) and all traces of it were cleared away. Almost. I’m sure I keep feeling it between my toes when I’m in there.
I could have given up there and then. But I am brave.
And luckily had a new bag of sugar.
It wasn’t a complete disaster although I had to massively increase the baking time. This was rather inconvenient as it cut into a very important transatlantic telephone call that I was having with of one of The Americans about the forthcoming trip to England. Cue calls to the boyfriend to go and check how they were doing.
The mixture was in for about 1 hour and 10 minutes and I still felt it was a little too gooey on the inside. The trouble was it was almost burning on the top whilst still liquid inside so I ended up covering it in tin foil and that seemed to do the job.
I have to admit I’m in the minority though. Everybody seemed to love them and especially loved the gooiness in the middle although there was general consensus that maybe 5 minutes more would be good. I’ll also halve the recipe if I did it again because I had way too much brownie goodness than I could handle!So I still feel a little unsure where brownies are concerned but things could be getting better.
I’m definitely not speaking to the caster sugar though.
If you would like the recipe then please go here(Apologies for the crap photos but I don't seem to be at home in the daylight these days!)
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16 comments:
They look delicious to me, gooey is good. I love the idea of brownies with white chocolate in them too.
My favourite brownie recipe is this one:
http://www.latartinegourmande.com/2007/07/15/cheesecake-marbled-brownies-brownies-marbres-au-cheesecake/ and also Delia Smith's recipe so if you wanted to try some other recipes I thought I would share!
Too much brownie goodness though?! Never!
Oh dear! Sounds like a bit of a fiasco! Baking can be quite complex...spilling sugar does not help - but hey! You got there in the end! Yeahy! xxx
I hate spilling sugar, can never get it up off the floor!
Katie xox
Your brownies look great despite the sugar incident!
I so hate it when there is a disaster in the kitchen when I am baking or cooking! Kind of puts a damper on the spirit of things!
They look great despite the mishap!
This is so hilarious ,i actually am imagining this-thank god i have no hand or stand mixer whatsoevr-thank u for one good reason...
u know i had actually kept by some flour to dust the choco callets but i didn ,in my eagerness to see the chips in the luscious batter.will update about that!
oh i loved these brownies.
I think these look really tastey. I'll have to give 'em a go. PS If you are going to make the trek across to eeds to Ikea, I seriously advice you NOT to do this on a weekend at the moment - its HELL!!! An evening trip is much more advisable.
Actually, I do have some of those gooey brownies... I wanted to make half the recipe and in the last minute decide to go with full recipe... I did not have big baking tray so had to use 2 trays... The brownies from one of the trays are gooey & thought it was bcz I used too much batter in it and hence the brownies were too thick & gooey..
Loved this brownie recipe. Sorry about the sugar mishap and yes, I have spilled sugar all over the place. Actually, I almost always do it when making butter cream icing with powdered sugar. Such a pain!
Ciao ! I'm sorry about the sugar ! Yesterday I spilled some dried yeast and was squeaking the all day in the kitchen ! But I love the look of your brownies and hope your boyfriend loved them too !!
Who’s talking about money? I thought I could send it over to you as a xmas gift! I very much enjoy reading your blog (think Boyfriend is a little tired about hearing about what The Girl has been doing/ has been writing actually!), so I’d be more than happy to make some for you. Only thing is though, it’s getting really cold now, so they won’t be much use for outdoors, but if you’re working from home and it’s cold then they’d be brilliant! And I don’t expect anything in return! So it’s up to you really! (I should say, I’ve got enough of the blue yarn left over but not enough of those red buttons, you’d have to pick another colour – there’s green, blue, yellow, pink… not important now but thought I should let you know!)
Lovely looking brownies by the way!
Well done for carrying on after the sugar incident! I think they look delicious and gooey is definitely good.
The worst I have spilt in the kitchen is a jar of turmeric - very messy!
Lovely blog!
Very funny post :0) they look lovely to me, sure they tasted it too.
Your blog cracks me up! I too am a messy cook, and it's good to see that I'm not the only one! I think my worst spill was the jello that went all over the kitchen (and under the fridge)... we won't talk about that one ;-)
I seem to manage to get flour everywhere when I'm baking! Still can't help but love bakign though and this recipe was wonderful. Great pics ;0)
Loved your post, but so sorry about the sugar incident - I hate mess, and have certainly had some disasters in my time so can empathise. I too like gooey - mine weren't gooey enough - but if you don't just make them thinner next time.
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