Sneak peek

I’m traveling today, so I won’t have time to link up with today’s Yarn Along until Thursday, but here’s a sneak peek to tide you over:

The idea is good, but…

Sometimes an idea is better than the result. Such as in this case. I thought that brownies in a mini-muffin pan = perfect Toddler distraction technique. My nephew is a chocaholic, so instead of making a chocolate cake, I sold him on making chocolate ‘cupcakes.’ The recipe mentions that Deb from Smitten Kitchen had made them as mini cupcakes – the perfect small serving, especially for a toddler. I figured that he’d probably ask for frosting, but I think adding a chocolate ganache would be overkill. These brownies are decadent enough as it is.

The specific recipe is the ‘outrageous brownies‘ recipe – very yummy, and very chocolatey. But I do have to say that while delicious, I wasn’t that knocked off my feet. Then again I did modify the recipe. When I saw that 1 lb of butter would be required, I figured that the butter and chocolate content is the outrageous part. I mean really, 1 lb of butter? I can hear my arteries – and my stomach – groaning. Not to mention toddler teeth, which are hard enough to brush: “No! I want to do it myself” – which means lots of toothpaste eating with little brushing. Ah, the (nighttime) power struggles.

Back to the recipe. I had only half the amount of chocolate chips required in the recipe. But I did have a batch of chocolate truffles that had an unfortunate encounter with sunlight, resulting in a truffly mass. I figured that using that would approximately amount for butter and chocolate in the recipe. So instead I only used 8 ounces of butter (which is still plenty) and a bag of chocolate chips, which I melted together in a microwave. A double boiler is just too dangerous when you have a toddler stranding beside you who wants to help and stir every step of the way. Normally chocolate easily burns if you heat too long in the microwave, resulting in rather charred chocolate rather than a delicious chocolatey goo. But melting both butter and chocolate together seemed to do the trick. Then I softened the truffle mass in the microwave and added it. I didn’t include the 6 oz of unsweetened chocolate.

If I’m baking on my own, I don’t really mind multiple bowls. But with mister “dump it into the bowl?” assisting, I decided to add the eggs directly to the chocolate mix. I have to say though that by the time I added the eggs the mixture was still liquid, but only room temperature. No chance of chocolatey scrambled eggs. I used a lot less sugar, maybe 1/3 of a cup since the truffles were plenty sweet. I also omitted the coffee – I really don’t need a hyper toddler running around. He’s already energetic enough. I used baking soda instead of baking powder and left out the walnuts.

I baked the brownies in a mini muffin pan – and I ended up with 40(!!!) brownies. I should have stuck with my original plan of halving the recipe. And it was a good reminder that baking basically is about chemistry – if you mess too much with the recipe, you’re also messing with the proportions. There should sign for bakers saying: “Mess with the proportions at your own risk.”

Still, the brownies are delicious, but they didn’t meet my expectations. They aren’t the best brownies ever. They’re probably a lot better when the proportions are right, but really, 1 lb of butter? There are other great recipes out there. I’m going to have to try out a few other recipes on my hunt for the best brownie. Only my waistline will be complaining.

Do you know your numbers?

My (3 year old) nephew counting yesterday: “One, two, three, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, eleventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty…”

shroom, shroom

Another gift for my little munchkin nephew. The pattern is Purl Soho’s Toadstool Baby Rattle pattern, and it makes such a cute little baby gift. You can easily whip it up in an afternoon, and it’s easy to customize – you can use self-striping yarn,make polka dots through double stitch, and create patterns through the use of different yarn colors.
I didn’t add the cat toy rattle, instead I wedged three jingle bells next to each other, surrounded by stuffing, and that did the trick. The rattle jingles nicely, but it’s not too loud for a little newborn – or for parents. One of the most annoying thing about children’s toys is that so many of them are really repetitively loud – the kind that make the same noise over and over and really gets on parents nerves. I mean, who really needs a toy that makes loud hammering and ratcheting noises, when you know the kid will make all those on his own? You start to have an amalgam of loud toys and loud toddler noises. I still maintain that toddler noises reach the same decibel range of airplanes. Ok, maybe that’s exaggerated. But really, there’s no need for annoyingly loud and repetitive toys. You’ll hear enough repetitive kid favorite animated and puppet character theme songs to have them memorized quickly. (I already know the themes for Curious George, Olivia, and Elmo, sigh).

Ok, rant over. So really, it is a very cute gift that the kid, the toddler, and the parent can all enjoy.

Sendung mit der Maus

I grew up with the TV program “Sendung mit der Maus” and I still try to watch it to this day. It’s a wonderful children’s program that includes stories answering kids questions like how the stripes get into the toothpaste. You can actually subscribe to a podcast of the episodes. Then there are these cartoon shorts with the mouse, elephant and a little yellow duck, often a little song or children’s story, and a little animation like Shaun the Sheep TV episodes. Even though its aimed at kids it’s also made to be fun and interesting for adults too. It’s also really popular – over a million people watch it every Sunday. This year is the 40th birthday of the show and the theme of this year is to open doors – showing everything from how Euro bills are made to how astronauts train and live in space, to the narrowest house (it’s in Barcelona) and on and on.

Since my nephew loves to watch the little Maus/mouse cartoons I made him a kiddie sized shopping bag: