Cooking with Braddy: Dark Chocolate, Cinnamon and Clove Brownies

Despite some overwhelming, round, and delicious evidence to the contrary, I don't get all that enthusiastic about making desserts. I would LIKE to be, though, so I gave yet another recipe from The Mighty Spice Cookbook a go. I figured, "I've made brownies before. How tough could these be?"

Turns out this may have been one of the toughest recipes I've yet encountered. In my defense, though, I don't think it's all my fault.

The recipe calls for melted chocolate. Like, you're supposed to take some 70% dark chocolate and melt it in a double boiler. Now I don't have a double boiler, so I had to... improvise.

MacGyver would be ashamed.

By the way, I may have to change my whole attitude about desserts now. I'd do the chocolate melting thing again in a HEARTBEAT. Melted, liquid chocolate? That's almost like pornography. I'm seriously surprised that Willy Wonka isn't rated R.

I find that, when I bake, I spend a LOT of time mixing. Since I don't have a mixer, I do it all by hand with a big plastic spoon in a comically oversized blue bowl. I'd invest in a hand mixer but... well... me and cooking instruments don't really mix well.

I said "mix well"... Man, I'm an idiot.

The recipe said to pour all the batter into a 9-inch square cake pan. So I did... and I wound up with brownies that were about five-inches thick and took an hour to actually BAKE. So the recipe lied to me.

I wouldn't call the cinnamon and clove brownies a complete FAILURE, but it's definitely a recipe I'd need to try again. With a wider cake pan. And maybe a legitimate double-boiler. And a KitchenAid or something.