M for Mud Pie

this was so good!
I remember begging my mother if we could make this recipe many times as a child, and her telling me no every time. for some reason she was dead set against this recipe. too much sugar for one thing and I think maybe the name put her off. but the recipe is for a chocolate gooey goodness, how can one go wrong with that?

the reason we never just went ahead and made it anyway I do believe is the lack of ingredients as a child we never kept chocolate syrup in the house and even now that I am grown its not something I keep around either, and chocolate syrup is a main ingredient in this recipe it is part of what makes it so gooey. it definitely makes this recipe what it is. A delicious, mouth-watering chocolate feast of scrumptiousness. yep I liked this one. a lot.

the chocolate base is an very rich brownie (emphasis on rich.) that goes together fairly easily. its basically just mix everything together in the order given then bake.

as soon as the brownie base is taken out of the oven you poke holes with a toothpick then spread chocolate syrup all over it, letting the syrup soak in as is cools. this is what gives it that lovely gooiness.


once its completely cool ,whipped cream is spread on top, or if your feeling fancy one could pipe it on. which would be very pretty and I kind of wish I had done. although with the way I pipe it probably wouldn't have been any prettier anyway. seriously piping is not my forte. but looks in cooking only matter if your selling, entering a contest, or on a baking show. and since I was not doing any of that its ok if its not over the top pretty. its all about the flavor. nothing I make is ever going to be very showy, its just going to come as it come.

I was ever so excited to finally make this recipe and it was everything I thought it would be. it turns out some dreams do come true. its nice not to be disappointed by a recipe that has been so highly anticipated. this book really does do a good job at having basic recipes that turn out so yummy.

the hardest part of the recipe was of course the waiting to eat it. waiting for things to cool completely can be so hard sometimes. and I actually had to wait even longer then that, as I made it to take to a party. which is the reason the cut piece is on a paper plate and not the usual plates I use. I thought about bringing one of the plates but I thought it might be a bit odd to show up with a fancy plate to such a low key party.

it was a hit though, so that made me happy. in fact the mud pie was well received everyone asked me for a copy of the recipe, that is definitely a way to tell if something actually tastes good.

I loved this recipe and will make it again.

L for lemon bars

I have always loved a good lemon bar. that being said though they have been the bane of my existence for many years. I have spent so much of my life trying to make good lemon bars, and failing exponentially each time.


yes me and lemon bars have a sad history, I have tried many, many recipes in hopes of finding that perfect one and each time there is something wrong with it. if the crust is perfect the filling is not. and if the filling is perfect the crust is not. one week I made lemon bars daily trying to get it right, repeating some recipes because they were close and maybe if I just tweaked this little thing it would work. swapping around fillings from one recipe to the other because the filling was good on one, but the crust was good on another. then feeding them to various family members till they were so sick of lemon bars they begged me to stop trying. none of them were ever quite right. and so I am beginning to believe I am the common denominator in this.

I do have to say though that this recipe is the closest I have ever come to perfecting lemon bars. the filling in this is really good. which I have found other recipes I have tried to be mostly lacking in this department. lemon bars I feel should have a nice lemon tartness to them, while still being sweet. but it seems most recipes call for an overwhelming amount of sugar to lemon ratio. lemon should never be so sweet the tartness is gone. its just wrong. but at the same time you don’t want it taste like a straight lemon and I have also made them where the lemons tartness is too over powering. I have also tried recipes that call for too much baking soda in the filling. and that I have too say is horrible. it not only tastes incredibly salty, it also changes the consistency of the filling causing it to be gloppy, bubbly and sharp where the bubbles on top burst then crystallized on top during the baking, and this has happened to me on more then one recipe. those recipes I didn't even bother trying again, they were gross.


I feel as if we made this recipe when I was a kid and it turned out fine. but I do believe it is because either my sister made them or my mother did. my sister is better then baking then I am so I am sure she could probably make these no sweat. I should have had her help me. I figure it still counts as me finishing this book if someone helps me. as long as I do a good portion of the work.

so what in this recipe did I not like? it was the crust in this one. it actually tasted ok, and this was my fault, I didn’t par bake the crust long enough, so it wasn’t quite set. I am not exactly sure how its supposed to look when its only half baked what is that magic look that gives the shortbread that perfect texture? definitely not what I did as it was a bit too soft. I suppose I should try making them again sometime to figure it out. because being slightly underdone was the only thing wrong with this recipe, and that was entirely my fault.

the taste was good, both crust and filling, so this is the recipe I will work to perfect, and one day I will get my perfect lemon bars.

once I get them perfect the worst thing about lemon bars will be the waiting for it them to cool completely. recipes that one has too wait hours to indulge in are some of the hardest recipes in the world. even if they are simple to make inpatients is hard to cure.

found out gold metal has this recipe on thier website!