We all have an occasional kitchen disaster or recipe gone wrong. Today I want to encourage you to think outside the box when this happens.
Many times our instinct is to throw the disaster out, but often with a little thought, a cooking disaster can be fixed and used in a different way. This is especially true with desserts.
A cake that did not come out of the pan quite right can easily be turned into a trifle.
Brownies that are over done, or not quite done, can be turned into a trifle, but they can also be used in a sundae or milkshake.
The same basic idea can apply to cookies that don’t come out quite right. Add them to a milkshake or use them as the base in an ice cream sundae. Once something is covered in chocolate and ice cream it is hard to tell what is wrong with it.
So next time you have a kitchen disaster, or recipe that does not turn out quite right, think how you can use it in a new way.
What is your favorite way to turn a kitchen disaster into something tasty?
Wish I knew how to turn last night’s disaster into something more palatable! I followed a recipe for a lower fat Chicken Tortilla Casserole. The corn tortillas turned to mush. The recipe called for 1 cup milk added to 1.5 cup chicken broth mixed with a T of corn starch. The liquid never really thickened up. I think there was just too much liquid in the recipe. If anyone has Juan-Carlos Cruz’s cookbook; he made this recipe to replace a recipe his mother made. (Yes I know, he is serving time right now.)
What a great idea Lynn! I bet I can freeze part of the cake in chunks for future ice-cream sundaes and milkshakes. Since I’m experimenting with gluten-free flours mixtures, this is a great tip.
I can’t think of any right now, other than when I’m making chocolates and they get out of temper or bloom, I let the chocolate set and when it’s hardened I throw it in the blender and make sipping chocolate out of it (melt one part chocolate w/ 2-3 parts milk).
But I did make a chicken stock this afternoon that has way too much garlic, even for me. Don’t know what I was thinking when I tossed in so many bulbs. I can’t use it as an all purpose stock, so I think I’ll make a take off on French Onion soup — add paper-thin slices of onion, top with parmesan cheese and croutons — but if anyone has other ideas, let me know!
Wow Lynn, those are some nice saves. That trifle looks like anything but an accident!
My favorite tip is for when I’m baking cookies and they get a little too done, I just melt some chocolate and dip them in it! You can dip just the bottom, half or all of the cookie. The darker the chocolate the better it will hide the burnt taste. I like to use semi-sweet baking squares but chocolate chips could be used as well. I can’t afford to throw ANYTHING away so I too make trifles, sundaes, milkshakes, etc out of cakes and brownies that just didn’t turn out right.