A baking frenzy
Every once in a while, I get into a baking mode. Maybe I see some ingredients in the cupboard that need used up, or maybe I see a recipe online somewhere that looks good, but I will bake and cook until my countertop is full of goodies.
This happened over the weekend.
I have seen a recipe numerous times for what is called “cracker candy,” and I decided to make it. This candy is a simple mix of saltine crackers, butter, brown sugar, and chocolate chips. First, you lay the crackers out on a cookie sheet that is lined with aluminum foil. Then you boil the butter and brown sugar together and pour it over the crackers and broil it for a few minutes. Finally, you melt the chocolate chips over the top and let it all cool. Once it’s hardened, you break it into pieces.
It is a five-minute recipe that makes a large batch of candy. (And it is delicious!) The crackers make it light and flaky while the toffee and chocolate make it sweet and crunchy. Add in the fact that the crackers give a hint of saltiness, and it is very addicting.
But it wasn’t enough.
You see, I had also discovered that we had a few boxes of cereal in the cupboard that needed to be used up. So, I looked for ways to use up the box of crispy rice and the box of raisin bran that were getting stale.
Of course, I used a stick of butter and a bag of marshmallows to make rice crispy treats, even sprinkling them with the last of a container of red sugar to make them look pretty. I tasted them before they had fully set up and ended up with marshmallow strings from the pan to my hand.
Then I looked at the raisin bran. I found recipes for bran muffins but wondered if I was expected to pick the raisins out of the cereal I was using. I also wasn’t sure if the sugar on the cereal would mess up the ratios in the recipe.
Finally, I found a recipe that called for raisins, and began to mix it up. It was a looser batter than past muffin recipes, but I trusted its inclusion in my mother-in-law’s grange recipe book and kept going. I greased the pan, scooped the batter, and set the timer.
When they finally came out of the oven, they popped right out of the pan with no trouble. Excited, I cut one in half and spread some butter on one side. It began to melt down into the bread, and steam rose from it. After a moment I took a bite.
I was surprised to discover that it wasn’t sweet. I realized I hadn’t added any sugar and I consulted my cookbook again. After double checking, I noticed that it hadn’t called for any sugar. It was a genuine muffin, not a sweet bread or cupcake.
This, in itself, was not a problem, it was just that I had BELIEVED I was making a sweet bread. My expectation didn’t match up with the outcome, and so I perceived a problem. Once I realized that the muffins would make a great breakfast food but not a dessert, all was well.
Except that I realized I was going to have to share more of the cracker candy and the marshmallow crisps than I had originally intended.
Laura Zoeller can be reached at zoeller5@verizon.net.