Dessert disaster

So the Superbowl made everyone all abuzz about eating and partying and what not. I personally wanted to take the opportunity to try out some of the recipes that I've been reading on my HungryGirl emails and also try one out my mom recommended. We were headed to a SB party at a friends' house who is allergic to chocolate (I know its horrifying to me too!) so I set my sights on non-chocolate dessert items.

I didn't photodocument the first disaster, but the recipe was for Caramel Brownies and even though Kevin (super sweetie) is still eating them a few days later (they're still chewy), my major error makes them taste funky to me so I'm out!

Error #1 Do not use non-stick vegetable spray on the base of a pan for dessert sugary lovey type items. It tastes gross.

So the second recipe was for Lemon Raspberry Bars.

So after dessert disaster #1 this time I buttered the pan instead of using my nasty spray (I didnt have any butter flavored spray but I'd learned my lesson).

First you make the crust:


Then add in the butter till it gets all streusely/crumbly


Then you put it in the 8X8 pan. They said 'press into pan'. I suspect this became part of the problem later because I pressed and I probably should have just like 'put' without the "PRESSure".... Anyway so we cooked it!

Meanwhile in another bowl far far away.... we're making the filling.


I'm not sure here if I was supposed to use an electric mixer based on the fact that they said 'mixing bowl'. And if 'stir constantly' meant to electric mix constantly. But I stirred with my spoon and it seemed to coalesce quite well.

So we take out the crust and spread a layer of Raspberry joy! The recipe called for reduced sugar jelly but we had regular raspberry at home and I wasn't watching the calories on the dessert as much as trying it out.

Can you see here how a series of "I didn't do this and I wasn't sure about that" might create a problem?



Then it says "GENTLY pour the lemon joy on the rest of the yumminess"... Which I was totally gentle but I think the reasoning was to keep the little raspberry jelly seeds from floating and creating a mosiac instead of a solid lemon line. (Epic fail).
If I knew how to make an arrow on my picture I'd point out the lil raspberry seeds.



Okay so then ya cook it! Easy Peezy, right?
PS it says let it cool and then put in fridge for 2 hrs.... Okay well I let it cool for about 45 min and then I only had 2 hrs left till we were supposed to go to the party for which this dessert was my last resort (based on the bad brownie batch),, so into the fridge it went for the last 2 hour hurdle!.


What it looked like after it was out of the oven .

So I won't lie when it was in the fridge it was a little jiggly which is why I had 2 hrs to mentally panic and also create a tertiary back up plan. I was just praying that my lemon bars would do some kind of jello-act where it would be awesome in 2 hrs.

Alas,, this is me attempting to cut a piece out.


Clearly its all mush, and frankly if I hadn't pressed the bottom it might have not been such a fight to get the crust out. So at the ninth hour I drove to a local restaurant that I knows makes their own Lemon bars and I bought a tray of them. Thankfully they're family owned and therefore don't charge you tons for their goods at the last second and they even made it look gorgeous on the tray.

So not all recipes work out.. and this is a classic fail. I was told I should have cooked it longer perhaps,, and I was also told that maybe I just have to eat it out of a bowl and give up the 'bar-like' concept. I've been eating it in a dish for a few days now... ps.. ITS DELICIOUS and not too sinful... but its not a bar..

NOT a BAR!