Mea Culpa Brownies

If you want to pique a foodie’s interest, struggle with a recipe.

When asked to divine disappointing culinary outcomes, we’re happy to run down a list of rookie mistakes: Did you use the right kind of flour? Forget a step? Set the oven too high? Usually within three questions we can diagnose the issue, dispense some handy baking advice and walk away looking like gastronomic gurus.

But when one foodie messes up another foodie’s well-tested recipe, be prepared for a cascade of self-recriminations and hand-wringing usually reserved for car accidents and acts of God.

And this is exactly what transpired when I asked Cheryl Sternman Rule, winner of the coveted Greenbier food writing scholarship and recipe developer / blogger extraordinaire, if her brownies were supposed to be crumbly. No?! We both scrambled for answers faster than kids diving for goodies when the pinata breaks.

If the Food Network needs fresh ideas for a new series, all they have to do is lock two perfectionist cooks, a pan of bad results and a perfectly good recipe in a room and start the clock. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll hurl your own outrageous suggestions into the mix. Within hours, Cheryl had:

• Retested her recipe, confirming its accuracy
• Added extra instructions detailing egg beating and cooking times
• Taken into account the goo-factor of white chocolate chips

Meanwhile, I had:

• Checked my oven temperature and measuring cups for accuracy
• Ascertained that my 8X8 baking pan is actually 7 7/8″ square
• Confirmed through various online conversion charts that 8 ounces of chocolate is still half a pound no matter which side of the Canada – US border you live on

Twelve emails, a $7 oven thermometer, a fitful night’s sleep and a fresh pan of brownies later, the solution was simple. Her decadent recipe for Cinnamon White Chocolate Chip Brownies works like a charm — if you use the right chocolate. In a moment of idiocy I will never understand, or live down, I used bitter chocolate, not bittersweet chocolate. And those five letters made all the difference.

Not only does Cheryl’s blog, 5 Second Rule, have a clever name and mouthwatering photography, its kitchen disaster category is conspicuously missing. And I can’t see that changing any time soon.

Photo by Brian-Progressive Spin available via Creative Commons License.