So for one of my last spanish classes our assignment was to cook something and then explain the recipe using commands. Sounds simple, right? Wrong.
I decided that an easy thing for me to make was brownies. I went through a phase in 6th or 7th grade of baking brownies almost every week, so I basically have the Baker's Chocolate one bowl brownie recipe memorized. Plus, is there anything more delicious than those brownies? Probs not.
I decided to make my brownies on Sunday since the assignment was due on Monday afternoon. I went to the grocery store after lunch and bought a HUGE thing of baking chocolate (after asking the lady at the store if this was in fact baking chocolate), eggs, and butter. My host family had sugar, vanilla, and flour that they said I could use. Here lies my first mistake.
After getting back home I made a double batch of brownies because I had gotten about 10 times as much chocolate as I needed. It tasted slightly different because it was sweetened chocolate but mostly the same and seemed to have the same consistency. Our oven here has the settings low, medium, and high so I just kind of guessed and stayed in the kitchen so I could make sure they wouldn't burn. Ah, it is making me nervous just writing this.
Anyway, after about 15 minutes in the oven it started to smell like burning so I quickly checked on my brownies. They had risen an absurd amount and the batter had proceeded to spill EVERYWHERE in the oven. I immediately started to panic and didn't know what to do. This was so awkward. My host family already assumed that I had no idea how to cook and now I just felt like an idiot.
My host mom came in and told me that I had used too shallow a pan, but those brownies never rise so that didn't make sense to me. My host sister came and said maybe I had done some conversions wrong or perhaps it had happened because of the altitude. I felt really stupid but they were both super nice and laughed it off. They helped me clean up the mess and then my host mom and I found a different recipe that needed no conversions and tried again. The batter wasn't quite as good, but it seemed fine. We put them in the oven and what do you know? It happened again. My host mom was so shocked and confused. She told me that I must've bought the wrong kind of chocolate and once again I felt like an idiot.
At this point I had spent about 4 hours or so making batter, cleaning dishes, cleaning out the oven, and then repeating each step. I had also wasted like 10 eggs and tons of other ingredients. I was so frustrated that I just left the kitchen and decided I would either make something the next day that didn't involve using the oven, or just show up to spanish without anything.
My host sister came home that night and informed me that it was not the chocolate that I had gotten but the fact that we had accidentally been using self-rising flour. So it wasn't my fault! Hooray! She searched for a recipe that called for self rising flour and while I was skyping she ended up making me new brownies (don't tell my spanish teachers)
I apologized and thanked her many many times and I was just so relieved when that spanish presentation was over and I could stop thinking about my baking disaster. I will have to cook for my host family in the future to prove I am not an idiot in the kitchen, but for now I would just like to forget about the whole thing. My sister thinks it was funny and assured me that "it is all part of the adventure."
I decided that an easy thing for me to make was brownies. I went through a phase in 6th or 7th grade of baking brownies almost every week, so I basically have the Baker's Chocolate one bowl brownie recipe memorized. Plus, is there anything more delicious than those brownies? Probs not.
 |
| the second fail |
After getting back home I made a double batch of brownies because I had gotten about 10 times as much chocolate as I needed. It tasted slightly different because it was sweetened chocolate but mostly the same and seemed to have the same consistency. Our oven here has the settings low, medium, and high so I just kind of guessed and stayed in the kitchen so I could make sure they wouldn't burn. Ah, it is making me nervous just writing this.
Anyway, after about 15 minutes in the oven it started to smell like burning so I quickly checked on my brownies. They had risen an absurd amount and the batter had proceeded to spill EVERYWHERE in the oven. I immediately started to panic and didn't know what to do. This was so awkward. My host family already assumed that I had no idea how to cook and now I just felt like an idiot.
 |
| Who knows if it will work |
At this point I had spent about 4 hours or so making batter, cleaning dishes, cleaning out the oven, and then repeating each step. I had also wasted like 10 eggs and tons of other ingredients. I was so frustrated that I just left the kitchen and decided I would either make something the next day that didn't involve using the oven, or just show up to spanish without anything.
 |
| Finally success! |
I apologized and thanked her many many times and I was just so relieved when that spanish presentation was over and I could stop thinking about my baking disaster. I will have to cook for my host family in the future to prove I am not an idiot in the kitchen, but for now I would just like to forget about the whole thing. My sister thinks it was funny and assured me that "it is all part of the adventure."
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