Saturday, November 01, 2008

baking disaster, plus redeemable dinner

I worked on making Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls earlier this week, and have just now gotten around to posting about them.
example
Don't they look absolutely to-die-for??? They could have been, if I hadn't completely effed them up. (What happened, you ask?)

Well, I realized after the rolls were in the oven that I didn't actually have any powdered sugar in the house. Disaster!! But, I used my noodle and remembered long ago reading that you could grind regular sugar with a little cornstarch to make your own powdered sugar. So, I added some natural granulated sugar and a wee bit of cornstarch to my coffee grinder, and blitzed the heck out of it. Success! I had powdered sugar.

Or so I thought . . . I made the glaze, and it looked innocent enough. I glazed the rolls. I pulled two out of the pan and took the above picture. I took a bite . . . they tasted amazing for about two seconds, until this awful, metallic aftertaste took over. I was really confused -- what happened? I smelled the powdered sugar to discover it had the most awful, burned-metal smell. The coffee grinder must have overheated while grinding. NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! I had to throw out the whole batch.

But, not to worry -- I promise I will make them again. :) Because now the craving for pumpkin cinnamon rolls is worse than ever!!

I redeemed my culinary prowess last night with dinner, however:
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I made pho! This was so fragrant, clean, healthy, and delicious. Just what I needed after a long day of Mr. Dennis's taco salad (delicious, but NOT healthy,) and too much Halloween candy. I followed the recipe pretty much as written, except I used regular tofu, not Asian-flavored baked tofu (those pre-packed tofus always taste WEIRD to me,) and the co-op didn't have bean sprouts on Thursday when I went shopping, so the always-helpful produce guy recommended substituting julienned bok choy, which is what I used. (We also added more tamari at the table, since it didn't seem salty enough.) Dan and I had two huge bowlfuls each for dinner last night -- it was such a fun, slurpy dinner!

I have a few more cooking projects planned for this weekend . . . stay tuned!

7 comments:

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Ahhhh, I'm so sorry about the cinnamon rolls/powdered sugar tasting blah!! :0( They sure do LOOK amazing though, so just focus on that; AND focus on the fabulous dinner you made!! :0)

Anonymous said...

Oh I am so sorry - I would have been so angry! I make my own powdered sugar all the time, but luckily my little grinder is so whimpy it hasn't over heated on me.

Anonymous said...

Awww...I am sorry about the cinnamon rolls! They look fabulous, at least. Although that is little consolation to you, I am sure! I am sure they will be delicious the next time you make them. If you find yourself without an ingredient, just give me a call...I have lots of baking supplies on hand :o)

Courtney

Anonymous said...

Sorry about the disaster. The redemption looks delish though! I am in awe of anyone who attempts to bake at all.

J said...

Oh no! I'm sorry to hear about your fiasco in the kitchen - I've had my fair share of those too. I can't wait to see the recipe when you make them again. I bet that Pho did make up for it - yum!

Sharon said...

Mmmm everything looks so delicious! Especially the PHO!!! I love it! But I usually get vermicelli bowls when it is the summer.. too warm to have pho. But now that it's starting to get cold, its perfect!

Bex said...

Definitely make those rolls again. Way too good (and I don't even love pumpkin). They are good with or without icing. Of course extra sugar does seem to make everything better.