I was reading one of my favorite and funny blogs, Expat Eye on Latvia about her cake making abilities. They turned out to be delicious of course. As I was leaving a comment on her hilarious prose I thought I would share the agony joy of cooking internationally. For me that of course is in Serbia.
The hubby and I had been craving brownies, but no such thing exists here, and I have only ever made them from a box mix. Let the adventure begin. I got the idea to look for a recipe in a peace corp cook book from an ex-peace corp guy.
Thank you Google Search for making that possible! I found one in just a couple of minutes.
That was the easy part.
Next began the mad scientist experiments. You think I kid… nope. You have a recipe, you think will give you a desired product, but what you don’t know is the ingredients are not standard all over the world. Who knew?
I made it once and found that the cocoa is weaker here, and it turned out more like a cake. 😦 SO I reduced it from two eggs to one and changed the 1/4 cup oil or butter to 1/2.
Still not right. With more tweaking I finally got something that we can enjoy, though not 100% like home. YUM!
One thing that my fellow gal pal blogger has taught me to do from now on is to cook with wine. I have heard of this concept .
I don’t believe I have ever tried it. Of course I have cooked with whine most recently, toddler at my feet arms up stretched and wanting to be held as I try to create a tasty treat. That is not as fun as you may think.
I try to focus without getting to angry and stare at the recipe blankly as I think to myself… “Why wasn’t I on birth control?” Yep, just give me the worst mom of the year award or punishment right now. It is no surprise to me!
With a little wine the little whiner may be less distracting. Then again, maybe not.
The brownie recipe I settled on is below:
I use English measurements…. but here is the untested metric measurements as well… good luck with that! 😉
American Brownie Recipe
1 cup sugar ~ 250 ML
1 egg… no translation needed!! 🙂
1 teaspoon Baking Soda ~ 5 ml
1/4 cup oil ~ 50 ml
1/4 butter or margarine 50 ml
2/3 cup flour~ 150 ml
1/4 teaspoon salt~ 1ml
1/2 cup cocoa~ 125 ml
Optional: 1 cup or 250 ml of chopped walnuts, almonds, or hazelnuts. or Chocolate bar! YUMMY
1 bottle of wine your choice to drink as you cross your fingers and hope for the best!
Grease a small baking pan 8″x8″ or a small round cake pan. Preheat the oven for 350 F or 175 C. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes until not gooey in the middle. They will be soft and yummy if this turned out well.
If they didn’t it is because’
A. You were using British English measurements instead of American English Measurements or European metric instead of Canadian. How is this even possible!! What the French Toast?
B. You drank too much wine and fouled it up.
C. Other ________________________________
Good luck with the Brownies. Enjoy the wine!
Chronicles of Serbia 