BAKING ONE-OH-ONE

. . . or read the recipe carefully, dumbo.

I had this recipe printed out from the Internet for Dark Chocolate Coconut Macaroons.  It came from the Smitten Kitchen.  (If you click on that link you can see her recipe and pictures of the product and the process.

If you are a careful reader, you will note that the cookie mixture is combined in a food processor.  This is NOT a food processor.

While it says Cuisinart on the front and it looks tough and sturdy, it is NOT a food processor.  It is a blender.

Apparently I was not a careful recipe reader.  Although it says to blend the coconut for one full minute, it does NOT say to use a blender.

Dumping 14 ounches of sweetened coconut flakes into it will make your blender heat up, smell bad and eventually stop running altogether.  Which is what happened to mine.  

I dumped in the other ingredients, thinking that the liquid from the 3 egg whites, a tad of vanilla and the melted chocolate would eventually free up the mess in the blender and cause it to start whirling again.

It didn't.

So I dumped everything into a bowl and combined it by stirring with a wooden spoon.  Not easy but eventually everything was pretty much combined and then messily apportioned out onto the baking pans.

Well the macaroons came out wonderful.  They are rich with the deep chocolate taste and a hint of coconut.  As the wunderkind of Smitten Kitchen accurately predicted they are crisp on the outside but still a bit soft and chewy inside.

Even SWMBO, who said she didn't really like macaroons, pronounced them "great".

She did, however, note that they were very expensive, considering the apparent loss of our blender.

Until last night.

I was putting away dishes, pans and utensils as SWMBO began preparing dinner.  When I got to the blender, I decided to plug it in and give it one last try.  I started with a slow speed.  IT WORKED! 

SWMBO looked at me and said "try it on high".  

I did.  IT WORKED!  She said it apparently had heated up enough during my idiot period that something had expanded and prevented it from spinning.

I had survived, as had the blender!  SWMBO said I was very lucky. But she added "next time, read the #@****!!! recipe."

I shall.