Saturday, March 19, 2011

Chocolate-1, Susanne-0

I enjoy cooking, but a baker I am not. I attempted to make chocolate covered marshmallows today. I had a grand image in my head of a field of marshmallows, covered with chocolate, nuts, and sprinkles. Instead, this is what I got.


At first glance, they look half-way decent, so I'm recommending you not look too closely.  Chocolate, as I learned, is a tempermental #$*&%. Good heavens, she does not like to be told what to do. Silly me for thinking it would be easy.

But this was my first time really working with chocolate, so I'm considering this (and my next few attempts...if there are any) as a learning process. Here's what I learned:

1. Have your marshmallows skewered and ready to go before you melt your chocolate, because the chocolate cools quickly and then it gets lumpy and gritty. 
2. Marshmallows taste better coated with milk chocolate rather than semi-sweet.
3. The appeals (the orange stuff) melt easily and stay melted for a while. 
I like appeals.
4. I can chop nuts and chocolate quickly.
5. Next time I want to make some with crushed graham crackers and coconut.


I had also planned to make Banana Bread Pudding today, but my Mom, Sam, and Sammy left after lunch to visit with Stephan and his family, and they didn't get back until after 8:30. Bread pudding is best served warm, in my opinion, so I'll attempt to make it tomorrow. I have much more confidence in my ability to make it than work with chocolate.

I did get a little bit done. Here's as far as I got on it today.


Since I was planning on making the bread pudding, I went to Sam's Club to see if they had day old bread I could buy. Unfortunately (for me), they pull the bread the day after it's expiration date and donate it. So instead I bought a french loaf, cut it into slices, and left the slices out to dry so it can soak up all the creamy, banana-y goodness. Tomorrow is going to be a yummy day.

4 comments:

  1. I just had to comment because it is almost midnight and after reading mostly looking at the photos I am so darn hungry for chocolate covered anythings!

    Lumpy cooling chocolate or not they sure look good from this side of the screen.

    Jan

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  2. Thank you Kmilyun! My family enjoyed them when they returned. The chocolate/orange ones were the favorite with most. My mother (who lives next door) wants more today, so I guess I'll be attempting it again. I definitely learned a lot from this experience.

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  3. Who cares what they look like. Chocolate is chocolate. Yum.

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  4. I wish you were my neighbor :) I should not have come back to this post as I am hungry all over again and the M&M's are not working.

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