Mood:
specialTopic: Food
Well, it finally happened. I know all you cynics out there were just waiting for the day I had my first baking failure. Well happy, happy. joy, joy! You should’ve seen me last Saturday cursing in my kitchen over a batch of 3-layer brownies.
For me, cooking and baking is sometimes a challenge, but most of the time I enjoy getting the chance to make something new…and when it tastes good, I feel proud of myself knowing that I will never starve and I can make a 5-star dinner, even in a cave (with only a rock and a candle).
So I had my heart set on baking these raspberry cheesecake brownies for a “happy moving day” treat for a friend. Well…let me tell you…I had the recipe in my Hummingbird Bakery cookbook—a book that’s not failed me thus far. Everything I bake from there tastes great, and even looks just like the photos.
I was ready for action, with all of my ammo in check; the brownie dough, the cheesecake mixture, and the cream topping.
So I pour the brownie mix into the pan first, as it forms the bottom layer of the triple-layer dessert. Next, I poured the cheesecake. At this part, it said to put in the oven at 325 degrees for 30-40 minutes, or until the cheesecake is firm to the touch and a light golden around the edges.
Ok, will do.
Well I had that cheesecake brownie thing in the oven for at least 45 minutes and it STILL wasn’t looking “light golden around the edges.” Well, I didn’t want to burn it, so I took it out and started the cooling process…which I then saw the recipe said “Let cool completely, then cover and refigerate for 2 hours or overnight if possible.”
Seriously? Damn. So it took around three hours for the dish to cool so I could put it in the fridge. Once there, I went to bed and was going to have to finish things in the morning.
Rise and shine! In the morning, I had to make the top layer for the brownie/cheesecake—the cream topping, basically a homemade raspberry whipped cream. It was my first time ever making my own whipped cream, so I was nervous. I mixed the cream, sugar, and raspberries until firm…and already it was not looking like the picture. The picture looked like the cream had been colored a nice magenta…mine was barely pink.
Oh well, no biggie (in reality, this bugged the hell out of me. I am big on presentation and if Hummingbird Bakery used food coloring, then they need to tell me!). So the recipe said “turn the brownies out onto a board and turn right-side up.” Okie dokie. So I flip the dish over onto a large cutting board.
Nothing happens. The dish and brownie/cheesecake was TOO COLD from being in the fridge all night that it wasn’t coming out of the damn dish. So I tried pulling on the parchment paper I had lined the dish with, still nothing. I let it sit for an hour to warm up, still nothing. So I put it in the microwave for 2 minutes.
Pretty big mistake. Although it came out of the dish, I had to let it cool before I could put the cream topping on, or else it would melt. So there I was, waiting again.
Once cooled, I plopped the topping on. It didn’t look like the picture’s set of cute lil thriple brownies, it was a damn cake. So whatever, I got all the cream topping on and started to do the cutting.
Biggest pain in my ass! This is when the cursing started. Every time I would make a slice, I had to wipe my knife so the layers wouldn’t mix. Do that 24 times and see how you like it. So as I’m starting to cut and rinse and wipe my way to the middle of this god-forsaken dessert, I’m noticing more and more chocolate on my knife. Yeah, the flipping brownies weren’t even done in the middle! After 45 minutes of baking, the damn thing wasn’t even cooked! Argghh!!!!
I ended up dumping about half of the dessert down the drain. It tasted good, I’ll give it that, but it was too complicated and didn’t look as pretty as the picture. Don’t even THINK about baking these brownies!
