Brownies

I set about making brownies yesterday.  I just won some new kitchenware through the cooking club that I belong to, and I wanted to try out my new pan.  I've been craving brownies for a while, and when I realized I had all the ingredients at home, I decided to christen the new pan with a forbidden yummy.

First, I melted the butter.  The recipe called for a half a cup of butter, so I chopped a block of butter in half and tossed it into the hot pan.  Then I measured out the sugar and vanilla put them into a bowl.

Right about then, I clued in that a half a block of butter is actually a cup of butter.  Since I can't unmelt butter, I decided that I'd have to double the recipe.  I doubled the sugar and vanilla.  I added the butter, and then cracked 4 eggs into the mix.

Then I was distracted for a few minutes while I figured out what the heck pan I'd use because the new pan was too small for the doubled recipe. I oiled and washed three different pans before I finally settled on the one I used.

Back to the batter, I added the remaining ingredients.  I mixed it up with the magic 200 beats of a wooden spoon (because somebody once told me that brownies have to be hand mixed, and that you can't beat them more than 200 turns of the spoon or they'll end up like rubber.)  I poured the batter into the bar pan, and placed it in the hot oven.

As I started to gather up the dirty dishes to clean up while the brownies baked, a thought occurred to me:  I'd doubled the ingredients until I changed pans, and then I'd forgotten to double the remaining ingredients.

So...  I yanked the brownies out of the oven, and poured the batter back into a (new) mixing bowl.   Except, my spatula - the last clean one because I'd been cooking all day - had gone into the sink.  Once a dish touches the sink, I never let it touch food until it's been thoroughly washed with soap and hot water.      So, I balanced the dirty pan on top of the mixing bowl and a few pots I'd stolen from a nearby drawer.  Batter dripped all over while I washed a spatula and then used it to scrape what was left into the bowl. The batter was only slightly chunky and cooked.   additional ingredients were mixed in.   The mandatory 200 beats of the brownie batter were exceeded.  

...Back into the oven it went.  There was some debate about how long a double recipe of brownies should back (vs the 30 minutes needed for a non-doubled batch).  Ultimately, I decided to stick with 30 minutes.

I made brownie frosting.  Then I made some more when I remembered that I'd doubled the original recipe.  I spread it on the still warm brownies, and called it a day.

A few hours later, Jen came over to help me make some apple crisp so that I really could try out my new pan.  When she left, I sent her home with half the brownies and instructions not to judge me based on them alone.  This was not my best day in the kitchen.