epic fail!

by Linda Hopkins

When you read all the recipes on here, do you ever think to yourself, “I wonder if Linda ever makes something that tastes just horrible? Or if she tries a recipe that just doesn’t turn out?”

Um… Yeah! Of course, it happens!

Let’s say I create a dish and it just isn’t all that. Well, guess what? We eat it but it doesn’t show up here.

Or if I see something on the web, let’s say on Pinterest, and I think, “Oh that looks So Good! I’m going to give that a try and post it for my readers.”

The same thing, if it’s good, I share. If it’s not, I don’t. Well, that’s about to change…

Let me share with you a little story about yesterday’s epic fail:

I’ve been planning on doing a series of recipes called “The 12 Gifts of Christmas” – you know, food gifts from your kitchen. There was this particular recipe I saw on Pinterest and it appeared to be the perfect fit.

Here is the LINK to make Maple Cream, also known as Maple Butter. Go check it out and then come back here.

Doesn’t it look divine? And it’ll keep for 6 months under refrigeration, making it a perfect gift to give. Just the sort of thing for my “12 Gifts” idea.

So I go to Trader Joe’s to get a 25-ounce bottle of grade “B” maple syrup that costs $13.99. I come home and get to work on the recipe.

I follow the directions to a “T” – using a candy thermometer to bring the syrup to 235 degrees.

Then pour into a metal bowl that is placed in an ice bath and wait until the mixture cools down to 100 degrees.

I know the photo above shows the temperature at 150 degrees, but I really did wait until it was 100.

The stuff hardened up so much that there was no way on earth that I’d be able to use a wooden spoon to mix that stuff! Ten people simultaneously using ten wooden spoons wouldn’t have been able to mix that cement. So I pulled out the hand mixer and tried to go to town on it. When I say it was hard, this is what I’m talking about…

… Yeah, it snapped one of the beaters into three pieces! So I gave up on the mixer and through the mess into the food processor. The stuff never did get to that gorgeous fluffy creamy texture like this…

Via

The only thing I can figure out is that instead of using a saucepan in the ice bath, as directed, I used a metal bowl. Maybe the bowl just wasn’t thick and heavy enough and the mixture got too cold and too hard too fast. Doesn’t seem like that would really matter, but maybe it did.

But you know what? It still tastes pretty darn great! So I’ll use this opportunity to remind you about a food processor trick.

After you get all the gooey sticky messy mixture you can out of a food processor. Put it back on the machine, turn it on for just a second and the centrifugal force will clean off the blade for you and push the mixture to the sides of the bowl, allowing you to scrape it out easier.

So that’s my story about my Maple Cream epic fail. And even though it was a failure and I’m out one hand mixer… I still jarred that stuff up.