Brownie Fiasco

We had a fiasco in our house yesterday. Not that we don't have some kind of fiasco every day, after all we do have two kids around. But this was a cooking fiasco and I love writing about my cooking fiascos. I was making brownies. Not just any kind of brownies, mind you. I was making... these brownies. And for those of you who have never made those brownies, they are wonderful (I've never made the mint frosting - in fact as far as I'm concerned they don't need frosting!).

Well, being the kind of person I am, I decided to make a few changes to the recipe. I've never been completely satisfied with how they have turned out when I make them. So this time I thought I'd change the pan. Instead of a 9x13 pan, I decided to put them in a half sheet pan. I thought for sure the recipe would be too small to fit in an entire half-sheet cookie pan so I multiplied all the ingredients by 1.5 - which works out rather nicely with this recipe, if you notice.

I whipped them up (feeling rather guilty about the 3 cubes of butter that I used - yes I used butter not margarine). I did substitute wonder flour for 1/3 of the flour, which made me feel a little better. These were for guests, otherwise I would have made them whole wonder flour. I usually try not to make them totally whole grain if my guests aren't used to eating that way already. So anyway, I popped them in the oven and went to finish cleaning my guest room.

Well, a little while later I smelled smoke. I ran to the kitchen and open the oven door. My brownies grew! In fact they grew so much they were spilling over the sides of the pan onto my freshly cleaned oven! I really didn't know what to do. The brownies were really runny inside so I knew if I took them out they would be ruined. So I quickly put some pans underneath to catch the rest of the drips and went to finish my cleaning.

Brandon came in a little while later wondering what was going on. Smoke was really billowing from the oven. He went and hid the smoke alarm so it wouldn't wake up the kids. We were really worried that the brownies would be ruined and taste like burnt, smokey brownies (because that's what they smelled like). Luckily I had lined the bottom of the oven with aluminum foil (which is a great idea for times like this) so he was able to pull out the aluminum foil which had most of the burnt brownie parts on it. We turned on all the fans to suck out all the smoke and opened the door. We left the brownies alone to finish cooking.

I really had little hope that they would even be edible, let alone taste very good. But when we tried them, we were both very surprised and actually quite impressed. These were the best brownies that I've ever made from scratch. So...I guess my story has a good ending. I like fiascos that turn out that way. I'll have to post my new modified brownie recipe after I try it with the regular-sized recipe. If you want to make them before then, beware! I don't gaurantee that it won't spill over the pan even then....

Here's the recipe:

Whole-Grain Brownies

MAKES ONE 9-BY-13 PAN OF BROWNIES.

1 c. butter
1/2 c. cocoa
2 Tbsp. honey
4 eggs
2 c. sugar
1 3/4 c. wonder flour
1/2 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. chopped walnuts
12 oz. chocolate icing (Use your own icing recipe or purchase some chocolate frosting. You can also search the Internet for chocolate icing recipes.)

Melt margarine and mix in cocoa. Allow to cool. Add honey, eggs, sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix well. Add nuts. Pour batter into a greased 9-by-13 baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Cool. Frost with icing, if desired.