There are certain cooking challenges that I am up for (roasting bones, toasting spices, adding alcohol to a hot pan and causing a spectacular fireball) and there are others I’m not. Case in point: complicated baking recipes. If I even see the words “fondant” “tiers” “candy thermometer” I usually close the book and just make brownies. But this weekend I forgot my own rules and took on a recipe that at first glance seemed fairly straightforward (only a few ingredients) but then quiickly revealed itself to be a monster of time suckage.
By the time I realized what I had gotten myself into it was too late…so what was the recipe? Rhubarb and Blood Orange Bars from The Big Sur Bakery Cookbook. Were they scrumptious? Yes. Will I ever make them again? No Way.
It all started when I was given the gift of a bag of fresh stalks from my neighbor Rita, who always has tons of rhubarb this time of year. Usually I just make a pie or a crumble–easy, perfectly fine. But for some reason I felt like challenging myself this time. You may know this feeling: you are feeling pretty confident, you have some gorgeous ingredient that you want to do something new with, you forget that you don’t have access to a sous chef….before you know it you’re surrounded by angry crustaceans and weeping over a recipe for lobster chowder. In my case I had been reading The Big Sur Bakery cookbook (which is gorgeous and inspiring but beware…is safer for armchair cooking)
