Until last night.
Epic fail for a pin I've seen pinned and repinned and pinned yet again.
Have you seen it?
I know you have. And some of you probably have it pinned, even!
Well, I've long been a skeptic of it. In fact, I'd vowed never to do it.
Until last night.
Dang.
It was about nine, and I asked my husband what he wanted for lunch (that's what we call our 9:30 p.m. dessert. Well, actually, it's what we call any dessert at any time of the day. Because, see, lunch is actually dinner and dinner is actually supper, which leaves ample room for "lunch" to be called, well, lunch. Follow me?). I offered him two choices: warm brownies with ice cream or cinnamon roll pancakes.
He opted for the brownies and ice cream.
So being the nice wifey that I am, I headed to the kitchen to throw together some Betty Crocker. See, I don't do the whole "from scratch" brownies. I have yet to have Betty let me down. She's always so fudgey and delicious... mmmmm.
Anyway, I was feeling the pressure to get these puppies in the oven and done by a decent time of night (it was, after all, already 9:00!). So I decided, what the heck -- why not try this one-ingredient trick. Not to mention, the added bonus of it all was that it would mean we could some pretty huge brownies with our ice cream if I used this recipe.
Out of the pantry came Betty, and out of the fridge came
I wish I would've taken pictures of this for you all.
Trust me, it started out weird.
The batter was runny like water. That was my first inkling that something was very wrong. SO weird. But according to the blog I was reading, that was very normal.
So away I went, and after plenty of mixing, dumped the brownie water into my 9 x 13 pan and tossed it in the oven. Being the batter lover that I am, I eagerly dove into the blue bowl I'd mixed the brownies in and started licking it up.
That was my second hint that I'd made a grave error in making these imposter brownies.
Anyone want a drink of some chocolate Diet Coke?
Yeah, didn't think so.
Anyway, I tried to believe that these would get better with baking and the Coke taste would go away. And I almost did believe it, because when I went to the oven 25 minutes later, that glorious brownie aroma filled the air.
So I nestled my hand into my trusty red oven mitt and pulled them out of the oven and onto the counter. And what I saw wasn't pretty. The brownies were not nice and raised, with a crusty, shiny top, like they normally are. Instead, they were low, matte and pulling away from the sides.
This image definitely didn't match the blog I'd read, which said "even the edges were fudgey!"
However, I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt. So in I dove, with my red handled steak knife (yes, everything in my kitchen is red. And yes, I use my steak knife for everything. Don't judge.) and what I got out was indescribable.
Think of it this way: have you ever chewed on a piece of rubber that has the flavor of chocolate Diet Coke?
Oh, you haven't?
Then you should probably make these brownies. Because that's what they taste like.
But in that moment, I couldn't believe that I'd been duped so horribly. So, naturally, I cut a larger chunk (this time, away from the edge) to see if there was some type of mistake. After all, there had to be. I mean, the blogger said "even the edges were fudgey!".
LIAR!
What a travesty. The entire pan went instantly in the trash.
I guess that's why you don't bake brownies with diet coke and try to be all stealthy about it.
The worst part about it all was that by that time, it was too late to make cinnamon roll pancakes... dang you, Diet Coke brownies! Double foiled.
I will add one disclaimer: I did not use "low fat" brownie mix from Betty -- it was normal (though I don't think that should impact the outcome). I also used caffeine free Diet Coke (infertile ladies like me best be stayin' away from that caffeine soda pop), but again, don't think that should impact the outcome.
Anyway, learn from my mistakes. Trust Betty. Eat the brownies the way she intended.
