The Anatomy Of A Recipe That Failed

More often than not, recipes that I try from articles or cookbooks are successful. But, on occasion that one attempt at recreating a particular recipe, goes awry.

This happened to me yesterday. I discovered a vegetarian recipe for a skillet cookie. The photograph of the baked cookie looked wonderful. 

I bought the ingredients. Followed the directions. Everything looked great until, I cut into the cookie and it turned into a crumbly mess.

This looks exactly like the photograph-

until this happened. Nope not even a glazed sugary icing helped this mess.

This reminds me of the movie, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Everyone around the table is seated and ready to eat. Chevy Chase is carving the turkey. When he inserts the knife, the turkey collapses. When I inserted the knife to cut the cookie, it was as though a volcano was had erupted and cookie bits were flowing down the sides of the knife.

Let others see your mistakes

Earlier this summer, I tried unsuccessfully to recreate 3 different recipes using a new organic sugar. Each of the recipes failed. I tried to create my friend's cookie recipe using the sugar. The cookie turned hard and tasted like dirt. Another recipe was a simple lemonade drink. But, because the sugar was incredibly bad, the lemonade tasted like dirt. Also, I wanted to experiment with zucchini brownies, however, in the trash they went. Again tasted like dirt.

I missed an entire week's worth of posts because nothing worked. Instead of sharing my recipe mishaps, I started with the whole, pity party, feelings. 

But as I've shared before, blogging has taught me to step outside of my pity party box and try again. 

First thing first, in the trash went that sugar. 

Brittany Bullen shared a post in which she discusses the authenticity in your brand, she states:

"Readers/customers want to see who you really are. It helps them trust you. 

Sometime bloggers feel like they have to represent themselves as flawless in order to be respected, but in my opinion, it's more fun to read posts by bloggers who aren't afraid to embrace their imperfections. 

 
It's the flaws that set us apart and connect us with each other. Don't be afraid to let your readers see you make mistakes from time to time."

In order to succeed

That is why today I am sharing my cookie fail. I am out there "trying" to make great cookies. While this time my attempt failed, I will not let it get the best of me. Just because this recipe failed, does not mean the next one will. I don't know, maybe the person who shared the recipe forgot to add an ingredient? It does not matter, there are so many more great recipes I want to try that this mishap is inconsequential. 

On my wish list is a new Vegan Cookbook. Maybe I should start there.

Now to you-

I can not be alone in failed recipe attempts. Please share in the comments below, what recipes you tried failed miserably?