holly by golly!

the brownie disaster

ever since i was a kid my mom has made these awesome “blonde brownies,” which are basically chocolate chip cookie bars. i decided i wanted to bake some myself sometime, and when i got invited to a halloween party i figured that would be the best excuse to do it. so i had all the ingredients on hand, and had set aside an hour in my pre-party day to bake and cool them.

i mixed up all the ingredients in the manner my mom and i always did. melted butter, brown sugar, vanilla, egg, flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt. stirred into a beautiful light brown amber colored batter. poured the batter into the baking pan, sprinkled liberally with chocolate chips. into the oven at “350 degrees” for 20-ish minutes. mom usually cooks them for 28-30, but my oven seems a bit overzealous so i set my timer for a shorter time, planning to check on them and see if they needed anymore time. 15 minutes later, i smelled a burning smell. I checked on my brownies - and i saw the horror you see there. no rise, the chocolate chips vanished into the surface, charred black on the edges and an entirely too-dark shade of brown throughout. the consistency of the batter was not much different, but the color and the smell certainly had changed.

so now i am going to the party empty handed. it makes me wish i had brought them as a surprise instead of promising them, since now i am a liar with pants a-fire and no blonde brownies.