December 10, 2008

When Squares Go Wrong - Horribly Wrong


I have discovered a number of very good recipes to add to the Christmas menu over the last few years - provolone and amaretti cookies, rosemary bread sticks, Cornish saffron bread, Hello Molly's, roasted squash soup, yule log, etc. Alas, last evening's experiment will not be repeated - a disastrous waste of time, electricity, chocolate, pecans, and caramels. The end result was a molten, sickeningly sweet mound of disgusting matter. Looking critically at the recipe, I suspect the problem is the addition of too much liquid at the various stages of execution.
Julia Child maintained that an extremely high percentage of recipes written and published had errors. She was known for exhaustively testing and retesting a recipe. Her first book took over ten years to go to press as she and her two colleagues in France made sure that every recipe was error free and every French ingredient had a suitable American equivalent. This recipe has the potential to destroy reputations on either continent.

8 comments:

movita said...

This is your punishment for giving up Hello Dolly's for Hello Molly's. Who the hell is Molly?

Joey said...

Ah, I see you have made ze incomparable French delicacy: "Merde! Où est la poubelle?" (highly suspect translation: "Exquisitely delicious dessert which uncultured anglos will never truly appreciate").

Never have I witnessed such perfect execution and presentation. I salute you, Madame Beaucoup. You are forever and in all ways, beaucoup.

Chef Ignorant Le Condescendant

Anonymous said...

And yet, it looks like people have been eating it.

Movita?

Anonymous said...

The photo shows what happened in the attempt to get the squares out of the pan. You can see the total absence of structure and cohesion.
Eat them?! No one would eat them!They were cloyingly sweet and disgusting.
Hmm... well, okay, maybe Movita would nibble on them.
(Memo To Self: Make sure pan is no longer in dishwasher.)

movita said...

Yup. I'd totally eat 'em.

Anonymous said...

Me, too.

Anonymous said...

I did, actually.

Anonymous said...

As it turns out these are actually fantastic. The key is to have them directly out of the freezer though. If eaten at room temperature they are a messy glob of sticky, sugary, goo.