Polk County
Living
Polk County Itemizer-Observer • December 14, 2016 8A
PINTEREST CHALLENGE
For the second year, your Itemizer-Observer newsroom tackled a bake-off
By Lukas Eggen
Who could mess up Rice
Krispie treats?
Those were the words
said to me when I told my
“advisor” about the news-
room baking challenge.
It’s a recipe that, in theo-
ry, should be fool proof.
I would certainly test
that.
Yes, I’m aware there is no
baking involved in making
Rice Krispie treats. But hey,
last year I made brownies
from a box … so cut me
some slack here. At least
these would be from
scratch. Sometimes it’s the
small victories that matter.
Pinterest gave me the
idea for reindeer Rice
Krispie treats. I followed the
link and look! There were
photos of parents and kids
making these. How hard
could this be?
I mixed the butter and
marshmallows together,
poured in the rice krispies
and stirred it all together.
So far, so good.
Mistake No. 1 — It’s hard
to get rice krispie treat bat-
ter even in a pan. My initial
attempt looked roughly like
the equivalent of a 3-D top-
ographical map of the
Rocky Mountains.
I eventually got it
smoothed out (sort of) and
waited for the rice krispies
to cool down and harden.
Then the real battle
began.
Mistake No. 2 — you’d
figure one day I would learn
that I’m about as talented of
an artist as I was when I
was 5.
And I was no savant then.
But this truly seemed
simple. A red M & M for the
nose and green ones (in
place of edible eyes) for the
eyes. Chocolate frosting to
draw the antlers. Popsicle
sticks for looks and to pick
them up without getting
your hands sticky. I got this.
Then, reality set in and
my ... amazing … artistic
skills kicked in.
The first one I did I put
the nose and eyes too high
up. The next one, they were
too far apart. The “antlers”
looked like eyebrows that
grew vertically instead of
horizontally.
I felt lied to. The family in
the photos online were all
smiling at perfectly done
reindeer.
I was getting frustrated at
mine that looked like they
were done during an earth-
quake with one eye covered.
Either that family had the
steadiest hands in the histo-
ry of families, or Pinterest
lured me into a false sense
of security.
My “reindeers” looked
like well, I’m not exactly
sure. Perhaps demented
elves? Crazy Christmas mu-
tants?
But all was not lost. A
coworker’s child told me the
Rice Krispie treats were “re-
ally good.”
I’ll take that as a win.
And hey, I made some-
thing from scratch, which is
a step forward (I think).
At this point, I’m like two
steps away from opening
my own bakery.
—
By Jolene Guzman
Who could resist a Santa
hat brownie?
PINTEREST/Itemizer-Observer
According to Pinterest, this toffee is so good, you can’t
keep enough of it around the house during the holidays.
LUKAS EGGEN/ Itemizer-Observer
The final result looked less like a group of reindeer and more like Christmas mutants.
Not me, so when the
three of us in the I-O news-
room decided to do a “Pin-
terest Challenge” baking
contest, the adorable little
sweets were my immediate
choice.
Of the several recipes on
Pinterest, I picked the easi-
est — whipped cream in-
stead of buttercream frost-
ing. I’m not much of a baker
outside of a few favorite
recipes, so making the frost-
ing required cooking tools
I’m not familiar with (stand
mixers, double boilers, what
is this strange language?).
Whipped cream? Now that’s
easy.
In the spirit of competi-
tion (that I do have), I need-
ed to increase the level of
difficulty. I decided to find a
from-scratch brownie
recipe.
The result was chocolatey
goodness. I did have to bake
them much longer than the
recipe called for, I think be-
cause I used a smaller pan
than I should have, making
the brownies thicker.
No matter, I like fudgy
brownies better than cakey
brownies anyway.
Once out of the oven, I
confronted a different prob-
lem.
I wanted the brownies to
be round to match the Pin-
terest picture. The lesson
here is I should have used a
mini cupcake pan, but ap-
parently improvising is
more fun for me.
My solution was to use a
shot glass — no, not for
what you are thinking —
but like a cookie cutter. It
wasted a lot of brownies,
but got the job done. Don’t
worry, the leftovers won’t re-
ally go to waste.
Another lesson: let the
brownies cool thoroughly
before adding whipped
cream. A few minutes after
transforming the brownies
into cute little Santa hats
with whipped cream and
strawberries, they were
melting. (Did I mention I
don’t bake that often?)
Flavor-wise, I’m quite
pleased with my creation. I
was lucky enough to find
out-of-season strawberries
that were red and didn’t
taste bland. The brownies
were delicious — I may
never use box brownie mix
PINTEREST/Itemizer-Observer
Who could resist such a lovely little treat at the holidays?
EMILY MENTZER/Itemizer-Observer
My first attempt at toffee resulted in a burnt mess.
EMILY MENTZER/Itemizer-Observer
It’s nearly the right color now — just a few moments
longer.
PINTEREST/ Itemizer-Observer
Pinterest said making these would be a simple and easy
activity the whole family could enjoy.
again — and the combina-
tion of chocolate, strawber-
ries and whipped cream is,
in a word, yummy.
One last suggestion: This
recipe is probably best
made on the day you plan
to serve it. The Santa hats
are easy to topple over and
the cute presentation is ru-
ined if that happens too
much.
—
By Emily Mentzer
Ugh, Pinterest. It’s a
blessing and a curse.
Last year, the newsroom
did a bakeoff, writing
columns and sharing pic-
tures of our successes (fail-
ures) in the kitchen. This
year, readers requested we
pull ideas specifically from
the website Pinterest, where
millions of photos of per-
fect, Martha Stewart-like
crafts and recipes (and any-
thing else you want to find)
are all lined up to make you
feel inferior.
I spent some time last
week browsing the site,
looking for something new
and interesting, something
challenging, but not impos-
sible. The most frustrating
thing wasn’t the perfection
presented, but finding the
right thing to click on to get
to the actual recipe and in-
structions.
I settled on English toffee.
Making candy of any kind is
not easy for me and rarely
turns out. But this recipe
promised to be easy. In fact,
the instructions say, “My
family starts whipping up
JOLENE GUZMAN/Itemizer-Observer
Santa hats melted just a bit after being placed.
EMILY MENTZER/Itemizer-Observer
Second pound of butter later, and it’s at least photo wor-
thy.
batches the day after
Thanksgiving.” Sounds easy,
right?
I put together the ingredi-
ents and found my candy
thermometer. OK, easy.
I read the directions —
and my classic dyslexia
kicked in. “Heat to 305,” the
recipe said. My eyes were
certain that said “heat to
350.”
Needless to say my first
batch was black. It smelled
terrible. The only reason it
did not set off our smoke
alarm was because my hus-
band is well-trained at
opening windows and
quickly airing out the
kitchen.
My pan was burnt, too.
One pound of butter wast-
ed.
Well, there were no rules
about do-overs, it just
meant risking another
pound of butter.
My friend said, “Butter is
on sale this time of year
anyway. Support your dairy
farmers.”
So I set off to make a sec-
ond batch, this time re-
membering to heat to 305
(hard crack), not a scorch-
ing 350.
I watched carefully. I did-
n’t even leave the kitchen
until it reached 305. It still
looked a little light in color,
but I thought, better pull it
now. I was probably a little
worried about overdoing it
like the last batch. Once it
cooled and was covered in
chocolate and toasted al-
mond slices, I realized I’d
undercooked it by about
five minutes — maybe less.
(After speaking with more
candy-skilled co-workers, it
may have helped if I’d put
the toffee in the refrigerator
to cool. Apparently toffee is
very sensitive to heat.)
It’s chewy toffee, lacking
the crunch of English toffee.
The recipe says to break it
apart with your hands —
this is impossible with my
toffee. It just bends, and
then the chocolate layer on
top falls off, leaving naked,
brown toffee sitting there
sadly.
It’s not a complete waste,
as the flavor is good, but be-
ware false teeth, crowns or
fillings. You may lose some
if you eat this batch of tof-
fee.
The good thing is it got
me to break out of my bak-
ing shell and use my candy
thermometer again. That
thing had been hidden
away in a drawer for five
years, unused.
I will try toffee again, but
I will not likely search Pin-
terest for recipes anymore. I
have enough interesting
cookbooks on my shelves at
home to choose challenging
and new recipes.