Brownie Bowl Blunder

The only thing better than a bowl of ice cream is a bowl of ice cream in an edible bowl. How fun would these be at a party (or by yourself at home curled up on the couch)?!

The Original Pin

(source)

If I hadn't run out of sugar last night making pancake syrup to go with our pancakes (breakfast for dinner...best thing ever!) I'd be making this right now. Looks simple. Mattie learned though that if you don't have muffin tins, this isn't the dessert to try to make last minute to impress the future in-laws. Mattie related her story like this:

The recipe is called “Dreyer’s Super Sundae Brownie Bowl” and the pictures looked awesome and easy! Chocolate and ice cream = WIN. Unfortunately, when I first clicked the pin, I was told it led to a “suspicious link” by pinterest so I didn’t read the full directions beforehand. (The link seems to be working now.) Even if I had, I’m not sure it would have helped—it just says to use your favorite brownie batter.

Anyways, here is what happened: my fiancé and I decided to invite his parents over for dinner. When I asked if we should do a special dessert, he suggested the brownie-bowl recipe he had seen me pin the other day while looking over my shoulder. So, I picked up Ghirardelli dark chocolate brownie mix from the store, mixed it up, and put it in the oven to be ready by dinner. As you can guess, a number of things went wrong.

1)      No cupcake pans! This happens when you’ve recently graduated and moved. I decided to improvise using two glass nesting bowls.

2)      High Altitude! My fiancé and I live at a really high altitude and didn’t have any flour on hand to follow the high altitude directions…so…with the dinner clock ticking, I just went with it.

3)      The brownies stuck! Despite a decent amount of oil on both the bowls, the brownies sort of stuck and then lost their shape once removed from the bowls.

Upon further reflection, the Pinstrosity might be due to the supplies I used, but it was such a fail that I thought others should be warned.

The Pinstrosity

Mattie continues, "On the bright side, anything looks better (aka edible) when it is topped with ice cream. If I were to try it again, I would definitely use cupcake tins and aim to make more of an “impression” than smashing them into a bowl shape. Follow the directions and bake them with another greased cupcake tin on top. I would also aim to make sure they are baked until firm, not fudgy…but again, that might have been due to altitude and/or heat. I bet they would also hold their shape better if cooled in the refrigerator or freezer. Anywho, it gave us a laugh as we tried really hard to turn those brownies into sundae bowls."

This is one of those Pinterest recipes that works better with the right pan. If you are going off the original directions, the muffin tins only get filled 2/3 of the way full of batter, and then the 2nd tin is placed over the top. This is going to give less batter to cook for each bowl, so it will be easier to get a more "crispy" bowl rather than a gooey one. 

Another help with this pin is to use a less gooey brownie. I know, it says to use your favorite, and my favorite ones are the gooey ones that only get hard when they are over cooked by a long shot, but gooey won't hold a bowl shape very well. 

If you get into a predicament like this still though, just crumble up the brownies and use them as a topping and pretend that's what you were going for in the first place. If you are confident, no one will doubt you!