The Accidental Brownie

As a way of expanding my baking knowledge, I asked Mr. Boyfriend what I should attempt next. Without hesitation he said, "Almondine cookies," as these are his absolute favorites. And, so, I set out to find a recipe to emulate.

Since Lazzaroni Amaretti di Sorono have a seriously deep hold on Mr. Boyfriend's psyche, I was definitely in for some hard work. And there was certainly a lot to live up to.

So, after a few days of searching, I settled on a recipe I found on Epicurious.com and after a quick trip to Target, voila! I was set. All I needed was the almond extract.

A few days later Mr. Boyfriend and I set out to have a culinary date at my place. He was going to make us some deliciousness for dins and I was in charge of the sweets. Together we ran to the supermarket excited for the evening's fun and purchased everything we needed. And, when we got home I realized the major mistake.

I forgot the almond extract.

Oh, cwap.

What do I have in the cabinet? Cocoa powder, a few squares of baker's chocolate, flour, sugar, baking powder... "I know! I'll make chocolate cookies!" I exclaimed after a few glasses of vino.

(***For reference, here's the original recipe: Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Fudge Cookies***)

In my head, I was like, "SCORE! I have almost all the ingredients." Which would have been fine had I had the correct proportions of all the other ingredients. Either way, my tipsy self decided to forage ahead.


So, using the whole recipe with the exception of a few things I began combining and beating and mixing. Here are my revisions:
- 3/4 cup chopped almonds (because I was supposed to make almondine cookies)
- 1/4 bag of semisweet chocolate chips (about 3 oz... instead of 12 oz)
- 4 squares of baking chocolate (about 2 oz... instead of 6 oz)
- 2 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder (because I was short on the other chocolate)- NO COCONUT
- NO PEANUT BUTTER CHIPS


Anyone who knows anything about baking knows it's about science and precise measurements. In fact, professional bakers generally measure in weight rather than volume so that they can be as accurate as possible. With that said, it should have been no surprise that the "dough" (if you can call it that) didn't turn out quite right. In fact, it was pretty much, downright wrong.

I called Mr. Boyfriend into the kitchen, poured out my liquidy, chocolatey mix of stuff and asked, "What am I supposed to do?" And with a not-so-rare stroke of genius he said, "Make brownies!"

And, so I did. And they were pretty damn good, though they weren't quite brownies. They were a cross between brownies, fudge, and cake. I suppose you could call it brudgake. Or fraknies. Or accidental brownies.

I liked the latter.



Icing: Collide - Razor Sharp