Kitchen disasters redux (and my favorite brownie recipe).
Back in December, I posted a blog detailing some of our King Arthur Flour test kitchen disasters, and invited you to share your own favorite disaster. Herewith is proof that we ALL have disasters–and luckily, most of us can laugh about them afterwards!
From “Brooksiefan,” in Baltimore, MD:
“It was one of those ideas that didn’t work out. It was a hot day. The kids wanted to make pizza. We started talking about the movies and pizza guys in the movies, like Kevin Kline in ‘I Love You to Death,’ and we decided if Kevin Kline could toss pizza dough we could toss pizza dough. So we gave that a try, forgetting that the ceiling fan was on. And then we forgot that pulling the cord doesn’t turn off the fan, it reverses it. You really need to hit the switch on the other side of the kitchen to turn it off. After cleaning for awhile we decided that the best way to remove pizza dough from the housing of a ceiling fan was to let the dough dry out for a couple of days and then turn the fan on and that actually worked. We gave up any ambition we once had of tossing pizza dough, and we (and the rest of the neighborhood) laugh about it now.”
From Julia Cole, in Belleville IL: “I loved ‘kitchen disasters’ and it made me feel much better to know that you pros mess up now and then too. I started baking in high school and had a hungry pack of my younger brother’s friends as testers. They put away a lot cakes and cookies. My most memorable disaster was not baking–but boiling. I put eggs on and forgot the TIMER! I went to read a book and came back to the kitchen when I smelled the lovely aroma of burning eggshell. I was just in time to see an egg explode and hit the ceiling! All the water had evaporated out of my pot and the egg remains were charred to the bottom.
“I’m not too proud to admit that I repeated this same disaster with rubber baby bottle nipples when my first child was an infant. My reasons for neglecting the pot (presumably I was sterilizing the nipples) were better with a baby to watch, but the smell of burned rubber is actually worse than the smell of burned egg!
“I’ve had many minor disasters, with results not quite what I hoped for. More than once I’ve taken the baked not-so-goodies out of my husband’s hands and chucked them in the garbage to start again. I think learning to make biscuits is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Those great Southern homemakers made them seem so easy–and I’ve baked a lot of hockey pucks. But practice helps … my results are quite edible now.”
Debbie Loeb nominated this “disaster” story (which turned into a yeast bread triumph) from her friend Barbara Crafton: “The humidity didn’t break enough even to think of baking bread until at least five in the afternoon yesterday, and it was not what a person would call a welcome thought, even then. But we were fresh out of bread for toasting in the morning, so it was time.
“I got out the two old measuring cups I always use, and lifted the heavy stand mixer down from the pantry shelf. I checked the expiration date on two packets of yeast and sprinkled their contents over a cup of warm water in the little bowl I always use for softening yeast, setting it aside. I reconstituted some dry milk and boiled a little water, mixing them together with some honey and a bit of salt. I began to add flour to the liquid ingredients. I always enjoy that part: I allow the different kinds of flour to call to me, so that each batch of bread I make is as different from its predecessor as each day is different from each yesterday. Martha Stewart would have just died, but she wasn’t there.
“Whole wheat and rolled oats. No corn meal this time, and no wheat germ. Even a bit of white flour: I try not to be a prig about whole grains, and a little white lightens what can be a very hefty loaf of bread. Around and around went the heavy dough in the metal bowl, lifted and turned and folded in upon itself by the dough hooks. The kneading went on and on, longer than usual, and it became apparent that something was not right: the dough wasn’t its usual wonderful elastic self. It wasn’t stretching and springing back, as it always does.
“Hmmmn….the humidity? Too much whole wheat flour and not enough oats? Did I miss a liquid? I stared at the sullen lump of brown dough, turned to look for more oats, and my eye fell on the softened yeast, still foamy and all but breathing in its special bowl. Oh, no! No wonder the dough was so stolid; it was unleavened. I had inadvertently made a batch of whole wheat matzoh.
“Ah, well. Better late than never, I told myself, and dumped the lovely yeast onto the dough. It quickly formed a pool in the center, making the whole thing look a bit like a volcano. This was ominous, but I turned on the mixer anyway. After some initial splashing, the yeast was incorporated, so that now the dough resembled mud. I added more flour and oats to take up the moisture. Hoping for the best, I covered it with a clean towel and set it to rise.
“All was well in the end. For all it had been through, the dough rose magnificently to the occasion, once in a greased bowl and then again in four loaf pans. So there will be bread for the breakfast toast, bread to take as a hostess gift, bread to freeze for later.
“We’ll make mistakes. The goal is to think through the new situation they present: is there another way that will factor in the new truth which my mistake has brought into being? Can I change gears? Do I have the guts to make a volcano out of a lump of dough and see it through, in the hope that there is still a loaf of bread in there somewhere?
“I did yesterday. Today is a new day, pregnant with a new litter of mistakes. Let’s see where some of them will lead.”
And a late entry from Margaret Cox, via email: “I have learned that when a recipe calls for a certain pan size, you should use it. The feeling in the pit of your stomach that tells you, when the timer goes off, this is going to be burned on the outside and running in the middle–well, it’s a waste of heat, food and time!
“One of my disasters was at Thanksgiving when I was visiting my mother with my husband. I wanted to bake him cinnamon rolls for breakfast and my mom insisted that I use the toaster oven. BIG mistake! They were charbroiled on top and just about inedible in the middle. I threw two away because they were raw and crowded out by the other rolls that actually cooked–yuck! Where’s the oatmeal?”
One of the mistakes I detailed in my Top 10 Test Kitchen Disasters blog involved my favorite brownie recipe. The disaster? I forgot the flour–which one would certainly consider a key ingredient. Now, let’s take a look at how to bake these brownies the RIGHT way.
First, mix the dry ingredients. My favorite brownie recipe uses Double Dutch Dark Cocoa, not baking chocolate. I find cocoa makes a darker, richer brownie.
Next, add the eggs and vanilla.
Even though the only fat in the mixture at this point comes from the egg yolks and a tiny bit from from the cocoa, look how shiny the batter is. That’s a hallmark of brownie batter.
Now you’re going to add butter and sugar, but you’re going to heat them first. The easiest way is to use a microwave-safe container…
…and heat in the microwave till the butter is melted. Stir the melted butter and sugar together, then heat for another 45 seconds or so, till the mixture is VERY hot. Why are we doing this? Because dissolving the sugar in the butter will give your brownies a shiny, ultra-thin top crust, one that flakes off in tiny shards when you cut the brownies. The butter/sugar pictured above actually started to bubble; I went too far. Heating it this much will give the brownies a not-smooth top. BUT they’ll still be shiny, so don’t panic if you inadvertently bring the butter/sugar to a simmer.
Stir the hot butter/sugar into the cocoa mixture. Again, see how shiny it is!
Next you’re going to add the flour.
Beat just till combined, then add the chocolate chips…
…and mix just till the chips are incorporated. Some of them will melt; some will still be apparent in the batter. That’s just fine.
Grease a 9” x 13” pan, line it with parchment, and grease the parchment before scooping the thick batter into the pan. The parchment will make it easier to get the baked brownies out of the pan without sticking or crumbling.
Use a bowl scraper or spatula to spread the batter evenly in the pan, right to the corners.
Bake the brownies for 30 minutes in a 350°F oven. They’ll puff up, then settle when you remove the pan from the oven. Now, how will you know they’re done, but not overdone? Stick a cake tester or the tip of a sharp knife into the exact center of the pan, and dig around a bit. If you don’t see any wet batter—batter that looks jelly-like, or even liquid—the brownies are done. The crumb you see should be very moist, but not soggy/wet.
Ahhhh… See that shiny top crust? That’s what I was talking about. Serve with a glass of cold milk. And there you have it: my favorite brownie recipe, prepared without disaster!
