topic Re: There Goes The Fudge! in Kitchen

There Goes The Fudge!

ECBG — Sat, 18 Dec 2021 16:51:53 GMT

Yesterday, I worked, drove to the other side of the county to get DIL's Christmas from a Guild craftsman, then went to the grocery store.

We had leftovers for dinner, and I started on the fudge. I was rolling along, wishing I could manufacture time, even though I had carefully timed and planned all I have to do and BOOM! There sat the evaporated milk! I was to the cooking stage where it couldn't be added.

SHOT DOWN!

Cooking disaster you'd like to share?

We might as well all laugh together!!!

Re: There Goes The Fudge!

Desertdi — Sat, 18 Dec 2021 19:28:55 GMT

I would finish it and see what happens. You might have "invented" something NEW..........

Re: There Goes The Fudge!

ECBG — Sat, 18 Dec 2021 22:43:06 GMT

@Desertdi

Thanks, with my background in chemistry, I knew it was a "train wreck"!

Re: There Goes The Fudge!

kitcat51 — Sat, 18 Dec 2021 23:10:08 GMT

I made lasagna & forgot to put cheese between the layers, of course it happened the first time I made dinner for my finance parents...his mom asked me, Oh my, what happened here dear?

Re: There Goes The Fudge!

chickenbutt — Sun, 19 Dec 2021 00:12:59 GMT

Oh no! BTDT in a few ways over the decades.

One thing I did, just some point in the last few years I'm pretty sure, was making pumpkin pies.

Aside from blind-baking the crusts, the first thing I do is mix up the dry ingredients in a small bowl and put that aside.

Then I start on the wet ingredients, it all ends up together, etc. Well, on that day it didn't. I totally forgot to put in the dry ingredients, put them in the oven, was cleaning up, and found the bowl of dry ingredients.

D'OH! Well, I pulled them out of the oven, poured it all into a bowl, added in the dry, and back into the crusts. I guess the good thing is that I don't even remember how well they came out but I just remember that they did come out well enough to use so I guess they were ok.

That was a drag because it got all over the outer crust parts so I had to clean that off as well as possible.

Re: There Goes The Fudge!

AuntG — Sun, 19 Dec 2021 00:13:23 GMT

DH and I decided to make toffee treats together. It's a simple recipe using saltine crackers as the base. His job was to stir the sugar/butter mixture and let it boil gently for three minutes. I decided not to micro-manage him and did other things as he stirred and stirred. Well the mixture turned almost black instead of pale brown. When I discussed it with him later, he said he didn't realize those little bubbles around the edge of pan were part of the boiling process. He thought it had to be a full, rolling boil. We're making another batch tomorrow.

Re: There Goes The Fudge!

Venezia — Sun, 19 Dec 2021 00:22:00 GMT

I made a seafood dish, as a relatively new cook, that called for Tabasco Sauce. Something I'd never used before. I didn't think anything was coming out of that tiny little bottle, so I just kept shaking it (the recipe called for two drops) until I finally said to heck with it.

Can I say inedible? Burn your mouth off blazing hot? I've never used Tabasco Sauce again. But I did learn why that plastic stopper was in the neck of that small bottle.

Re: There Goes The Fudge!

homedecor1 — Sun, 19 Dec 2021 02:31:00 GMT

The one that comes to mind as the biggest disaster ever was years ago making saltine cracker toffee.

As @AuntG stated in her post the "toffee" mixture needs to be constantly stirred & it's extremely hot in temperature.

Well, I pulled the spatula out of the drawer and started stirring. Then slowly I noticed something was wrong - the spatula was MELTED into the mixture😲😲😲only the handle was left🤦‍♀️

I then realized I used a "plastic" one vs. the "silicone" one🤦‍♀️😡

Oh my, what a mess! that was the worse one I can think of, but, there have been more in my 50+ years of cooking😉

Re: There Goes The Fudge!

Leggett28 — Sun, 19 Dec 2021 02:36:48 GMT

I made tuna casserole and forgot the tuna.

Re: There Goes The Fudge!

Azcowgirl — Sun, 19 Dec 2021 03:37:05 GMT

A week ago, I made pumpkin walnut chocolate chip miffins .The recipe called for a half cup of oil. The oil I used was an old one that had been in the back of the spice cupboard, that I didn't realize was rancid . 😝 It sure ruined the muffins, that rancid oil taste.....blech. In the trash it went.

Re: There Goes The Fudge!

Enufstuff — Sun, 19 Dec 2021 04:23:27 GMT

@ECBG

In the early 90's, not long after I met my second husband, he

came visiting while I was baking. It was Christmas time and I was making mini cranberry orange breads to give as gifts at work

and some for friends. The recipe was tripled to make about a dozen loaves.

Orange juice, orange peel, pecans were all included in addition to cranberries. Well, we were talking and I was distracted from my baking. When I checked my breads, they were not browning on top. This had never happened before, in

all the years I made this recipe. I went over each ingredient and

then realized that I forgot to put in the sugar.

What to do with all those loaves? I could not bring myself to just throw them out and waste all those ingredients.

Then, I thought of making bread pudding. All I needed to add

was sugar, eggs and milk. My family loved the cranberry, orange bread pudding.

Another time, I was making oatmeal cookies and added

maple flavoring by mistake, instead of vanilla. They were delicious.

At least the mistakes weren't wasted.

Re: There Goes The Fudge!

ScarletDove — Sun, 19 Dec 2021 06:05:59 GMT

My MIL's cooking disaster one Thanksgiving was making pumpkin pies and forgetting to add the sugar...everyone served pie was beyond words...never forget the reactions...YUK!

Re: There Goes The Fudge!

Mom2Dogs — Sun, 19 Dec 2021 12:59:42 GMT

I was dipping buckeyes and the chocolate seized up...first time that ever happened.

I was trying a friends method of using the microwave to melt the chocolate instead of my double boiler. I was almost done and reheated the chocolate one more time...boom, chocolate ruined. I had to go to the grocery for more ingredients.

Re: There Goes The Fudge!

Harpa — Sun, 19 Dec 2021 13:05:46 GMT

@ECBGAnd I was going to ask you for your fudge recipe!

(Actually, I don't understand what really happened.... Are you saying the can of evaporated milk exploded?)

My disasters are numerous.... Here's 2:

The fresh-out-of-the-oven peach pies that I so carefully made from scratch - literally blew up when I placed them on the stove top. (How that burner was on, I'll never know!)

The yeast dough for my Candy Cane cakes that I so diligently kneaded & rose in the pyrex bowel - and with 1 swipe of the hand all came crashing down to the floor. And you know how pyrex shatters & splinters into a zillion pieces!

Re: There Goes The Fudge!

wagirl — Sun, 19 Dec 2021 14:42:30 GMT

when I was a teenager and cooking for my family, I made some rather pale colored gravy so i tried to add some food coloring to it--you know, a bit of green and a bit of whatever else makes the brown color---well used way too much green and , although it tasted good, looked like you know what----on mashed spuds!!! Yikes!!!

Re: There Goes The Fudge!

ECBG — Sun, 19 Dec 2021 18:07:43 GMT

@Harpa

No, my Dear. The milk didn't explode. I created my own disaster! All by myself!

DH put all of that caramelized butter and sugar in the woods for the critters. Something enjoyed it immensely and had their own celebration!

I make the real, original Fantasy Fudge. Please enjoy!

I do use a candy thermometer and find by reaching 234 degrees it's ultra creamy!

I bought resturant quality slotted and solid spoons years ago when I got tired of throwing out cheap grocery store spoons and turners. They are SO strong they help me do the work! Many resturant spoons are on ebay! This one from amazon. Stainless steel.

Fantasy Fudge

3 cups sugar

3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks)

2/3 cup evaporated milk

1 12 oz bag semi-sweet chocolate chips (TRY to get

Ghirardelli, there's a massive difference!)

1 7 oz jar Kraft marshmallow cream

1 Cup chopped nuts (optional) I don't put nuts in fudge since my other things have nuts.

1 teaspoon vanilla

In a large pot combine sugar, butter, and milk.

Bring to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly.

Continue boiling over medium heat, stirring until 234 degrees is reached on a candy thermometer.

Remove from heat.

Stir in chocolate and vanilla until blended.

Add marshmallow cream and optional nuts.

Pour into a greased 9 x 13 pan.

I line all of my 9 x 13 pyrex casseroles with 2 thicknesses of aluminum foil which overlaps the handles by about 6 inches.

When the fudge or bar cookies are hardened, I just lift the "cake" by the handles onto a waiting cutting board in front of me. I can cut perfectly and it's so much quicker and easier.

Enjoy!

Re: There Goes The Fudge!

okaywitheasypay — Sun, 19 Dec 2021 18:10:21 GMT

yeast bread -- forgot to add yeast .The sad thing is I have done that more than once ! Now I try to set out all of the ingredients called for in most recipes I make into bowls or the smaller amounts of whatever in silicone muffin cups and do a double check before concluding,

@homedecor1 I made scrambled eggs once with what I thought was a silicone /heatproof spatula and just ended up tossing skillet, eggs, & spatula .