Emilee and I went with our mothers to their Quilt Guild meeting today (talk about feeling inspired and incapable at the same time...those ladies are amazing). Being the procrastinator that I am, I didn't ask Mom what I needed to bring for the meeting until last night around 8ish. Come to find out, today was their potluck and gift/project exchange...so Mom said to just bring cookies or a dessert or chips or something. I don't have any chips on hand...and I was too lazy to start making cookies at that time of night, so I thought, "Hey! Those lemon crumb squares I made for our Fall Feast were quick, easy and yummy...I'll just make those. Shall I remind you which scrumptious delights I'm talking about? Here:
The Original Pin
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| http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2010/08/creamy-lemon-crumb-squares.html |
Well, my first try on them wasn't bad...but it wasn't quite right either. Here's how they turned out for the Fall Feast:
The Pinstrosity, 1st Edition
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| http://pinstrosity.blogspot.com/2012/11/fall-feast-food-pins-tested.html |
The crust and crumbs were just so dry...the top was a powder you could blow right off. But I figured that was easy to fix.
So for this next time I went to make them and instead of 1 stick of butter I did 1 1/2 sticks of butter, and that was just a little too much. But unfortunately the problems didn't stop there. I didn't have a can of sweetened condensed milk. Now...you know those times you see a pin and think, "Hey, that's cool...I'd repin it but I don't think I'll ever use it or need it." Well...a week ago I saw a pin on how "making" sweetened condensed milk from evaporated milk. Of course now that I needed it I couldn't find the pin on Pinterest, so I Googled it and came up with these instructions:
"If you have a can of evaporated milk on hand, you can make a very good approximation of condensed milk. In a saucepan, combine a cup of evaporated milk with 1-1/4 cups of sugar. Heat until the sugar is completely dissolved. Let cool." (http://www.ochef.com/500.htm)
I decided to give it a try...and it worked decently well. It looked like sweetened condensed milk, it tasted pretty similar to sweetened condensed milk...but it was a little more runny than normal sweetened condensed milk. I hoped that maybe that wouldn't matter too much as it wasn't too badly runny.
So...with my substitutions I tried making this delectable dessert again. I should have known better than to test something out for a potluck. I broke the 2nd commandment of potlucks...Thou shalt not test out anything new, or the potluck gods shall smite thy offering. Oh well. While it tastes wonderful, it ended up being one of those dishes at the potlucks that you skip over because it looks like it could give you cancer.
The 2nd Pinstrosity, 2nd Edition
So...yummy? Yes. Pretty? No. Gooey? Yes!
Next time...I'm going to try 1 1/4 sticks of butter, real sweetened condensed milk and a smaller pan to try and get thicker "cookies". These really do taste so good, and they are so easy to make...but I'm finding them to be a little temperamental. Has anyone else had problems with this or am I just a dork (which I actually am by the way...President of the Dork Club. No joke...we even made t-shirts)?
The first pictures didn't really appeal to me, but the last one I feel like I could grab a spoon and just start to eat it. Must be all that butter :)
ReplyDeleteLOL...you tickle me to no end.
ReplyDeleteI got a big kick at out of this one. I, too, have broke the "Thou shalt not test out anything new" potluck commandment and have had my offering smote. Live and learn (and teach since my teens are now bring things to their own potlucks).
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