Slice of Life 2018- 24 of 31

For the month of March, I am participating in the Eleventh Annual Slice of Life Story Challenge. That means that I am writing every day for the month of March in the good company of the Two Writing Teachers community. 

I had great plans for my gingerbread. 

Maybe my expectations stemmed from all that I had to do in order to make it in the first place. I'd tried it a couple weeks ago, and the woman who made it showed me the cookbook with the recipe. There were so many recipes in that cookbook that I went home and tried to order it. It was out of print. I really wanted that cookbook, so I ordered it from one of the second-hand sellers from Amazon, and I had to wait ten days for my cookbook with the Irish Stout Gingerbread. (Yep, that was too late for Saint Patrick's Day which was my original thought...)

Wednesday night in Connecticut had a nor-easter in the forecast, so I figured I'd be safe to go to yoga and get home at nine and make my gingerbread. I was short on ginger so one of my yoga friends brought me some to fill the ginger shortage. Naturally, everyone wanted to know what I was making. "Will you bring us a piece on Saturday?" Erin asked. "Of course," I said. Remember, I had great plans for my ginger bread. 

My doubts wiggled in when I had to bring a cup of stout and 1 1/4 cups of molasses to boil--can't say I enjoyed that smell much, but I kept beating the butter and sugar, sifting the flour with lots of ginger, cinnamon, and ground nutmeg. A little more doubt when I tasted the batter, but I convinced myself that baking it would somehow make it a little milder. (Those great plans...)

Even though the recipe called for baking the two loaves for 60-70 minutes, they looked and smelled pretty done after 50 minutes. "Smells good in here," my husband said as I took them out. He and I both looked at the gingerbread loaves. "Looks a little overdone," I said. 

When I turned the gingerbreads over on the cooling rack, they looked a LOT overdone. Sort of like a mahogony brick. Garth decided to pass on the taste test, but I cut into my creation, even debating whether to pull out the vanilla ice cream at 10:30. I was reasonably sure we'd have a delay in the morning, if not a snow day, so if I had a little late night sugar, it could be okay. 

I took one little bite. I tried to talk myself into the possibility that maybe it would be better in the morning, better with ice cream, better with some coffee and whipping cream. In the morning, it was even harder and even more of a colossal baking fail. 

Sometimes it's not worth keeping something, even when it's involved a lot of planning and some high expectations for greatness. Sometimes those high expectations are a set up for an even bigger feeling fail. Sometimes, it's wisest to just throw it away and move on. 

I'll try something new again in the kitchen--I have no doubt of that--but the next baking project might have to be the tried and true chocolate chip cookies. 

Happy Slicing!