Baking

I didn't exactly intend to make brownies for us, but it's okay, because I don't know how they'll taste.

I had seen a comment on a fellow's blog to the extent that he occasionally sends chocolate chip cookies to his daughter in Iraq, and her Army company (which apparently gloms onto and divvies them up immediately) really appreciates it. So, as he included her address, I thought, that might be fun -- but instead of chocolate chip cookies, I'd make brownies. And not just any brownies, but the kind I made the other day, which were really good. Good enough so that I kind of regretted sending half of them in with my wife to work, especially when I found that the day I did that, someone else had brought in cookies, and there weren't all that many people in, so the odds are, they're still there, getting stale.

I was two steps into the recipe (just dumped a whole mess of sugar into some melted butter, and cracked four eggs, when I hit the point of adding the cocoa. Ah, dammit. I have plenty of cocoa, but not all that much dutch process cocoa, which is what this recipe needed. In fact, I had none. Now, it's possible to substitute unsweetened cocoa for dutch process -- its something like three tablespoons of unsweetened, plus one eight teaspoon of baking soda, for every ounce of dutch process. Three difference units of measure in one statement. Ah, great. Why not throw in some furlongs per fortnight, too? So, by the time I was done (um...one and a quarter cups dutch process equals one and a quarter teaspoons baking soda plus one point eight seven five cups unsweetened? Okay, we're going to eyeball that one...), I was getting a little irritated. I dumped the flour in, and the vanilla, and the other stuff, and slammed it into the oven, where it is now.

I'm still going to send some brownies to that person, but I think I'll wait until my order for more DP cocoa arrives, next week, and do it from scratch, with the right stuff. Or maybe just make a recipe that doesn't require the DP cocoa, period. As for this batch, maybe I can find a college student to pawn it off on.... or I could just eat it, myself. Hmm?

BTW, turns out my daughter has a garden variety pharyngeal infection. They thought it was strep - it looks nasty in there ! - but, the culture said nope. And its not H1N1, either. At least, they didn't say so -- though their intrusive as all hell television system, that they make you listen to in the waiting room, says that for all intents and purposes, they're not testing for H1N1 unless the kid's really small or frail. We're assuming she doesn't have it. So she can go to the game tonight. Yay.

Oh, and that thermometer? On the top shelf of her bookcase, of course. Silly me.