Cheesecake Brownie Goodness.

So. A few weeks back I mentioned I was trying to bake. I go through incredibly motivate (and sometimes strange) phases and seriously a few weeks ago I was convinced that I wanted to make baking my new life passion. I mean baked goods are jut delightful and they make people incredibly happy why not be the creator of delish bites that will make others smile?? Well I can give you the why not ... It is a whole new experience trying to translate French recipes but the kicker of the why not is baking in a foreign country requires a SERIOUS amount of math and patience and trial and error. So after weeks of searching for a recipe I could make the conversions rather easily I found a tasty little recipe for cheesecake explosion brownies. The name alone of that recipe made you drool... It's ok I understand that is why I selected it!! Well that and what better combo for dessert is there than brownie and cheesecake?!?! Ok well maybe if there was some peanut butter in the brownies but that is for another day... Anyhoooooo. I made all the conversions that needed to be made and started my search for measuring spoons (something I was sure I had but absolutely didn't... Just another reason why my first attempt at baking took almost two years). Now one would think that measuring spoons would be an easy peasy find, HAHA. THINK AGAIN!! They do not use measuring spoon well at least not on a regular basis. A teaspoon is à petit cuillère meaning the one you stir your coffee with and a tablespoon is a soup spoon. Which now that I think about it works but with baking being something you have to be rather precise with I was a bit hesitant. I mean any "baker" you talk to will make it very clear measuring is a matter of being as precise as possible it is pretty much a Science. But at this point I already had all the ingredients and my craving for cheesecake was only getting worse. So off I went... bake away baby. There I was with my makeshift measuring spoons, 1 measuring cup that I was hoping covered every amount liquid and non spoon measurements as possible!! And luckily it worked. I think half of the cheesecake batter ended up being taste tested because after realizing my spoons weren't that accurate my attitude was more along the lines of a little extra here and there won't hurt!! And it didn't. I ended up with a tasty delicious batch of cheesecake brownie explosion bombs that pleased me and my office pals. Now that all is said and done I won't lie... I think I will leave the baking to the professionals. At least until I am safely back in the US with a set of measuring spoons in hand!!

I swear I only taste tested the edges... how many edges I will never tell...

de Cuisson en France

For some strange reason I have had a serious urge to bake for the last week. Maybe becuase I overdosed on Red Velvet cake when I was home and I am going through withdrawls... I really have no idea, especially because I am NOT a baker. Not even a little bit. I love cooking always have , but that is mostly becuase when cooking there is the freedom to mix and match and sprinkle a little of this and a little of that. Baking on the other hand is precise and scary and revolves a bit too much around Math for my liking. Anyone who knows me, knows that Math and I DO NOT MIX - we are sort of like oil and water (funny enough those are also two things commonly found in baking recipes, I am sooooooooo hysterical sometimes I can't even stand it). Back to the baking... after finding an amazing osunding recipe for Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies I was ready and determined to make this happen. It has been quite the process. First I realised I didn't even have a pan to bake in - quick trip to Monoprix to find something that would work. Then after searching around for all of the ingredients, I came to the next realisation which put a huge damper on this whole potential project - I have NO IDEA what on earth the ingredients are translated into French. Seriously I was ok when it came to flour (farine), butter (beurre) and eggs (oeuf), heck I can even find a large egg (gros oeuf) but then came the difficult things... for example Baking Powder - I had no idea where to even start... so I stood in front of the baking aisle in Monoprox after work one evening and pulled up my trusty buddy - Google Translate on my even more trusted buddy, my iPhone, and started searching away. The worst part was once I found something that could have been it I couldn't remember if i needed baking soda or baking powder and what on earth the difference was in general, after my 25 minuites of translating then realising I still had no clue which one I needed, I began wishing for Mommy. So "why not just buy both" I thought... then came the search for baking cocoa - this is when I really started wishing for my Ma. Does baking coca have sugar or not and why on earth are there so many choices?!?!?! After making my best judgement about what resembled that box of Hershey's baking coca powder stuff, the biggest road block came into play - red food coloring, pretty much impossible to find in this lovely country and a serious neccesity for Red Velvet anything... at this point, after spending aover an hour and a half in Monoprix, my patience were gone, I was starving and I wasn't even halfway through the ingredient list. I won't lie - I plopped my basket of random selections that resembled baking goods down in the baking aisle and marched myself home, picked up some yummy China chow at the place across the street from ma maison, cracked open a bottle of wine and re-evaluated my mission to make a tasty treat. After some research I think I discovered what most of the baking supplies were that I needed when the next problem came into play. The measurement system in France is 100% absolutley not the same as the one in the US - meaning that my recipe now required some serious conversion... I don't know if you have ever tried to convert cups of flour into grams (especially when you aren't a mathematician) but as mentioned before baking is a science somehting that needs to be handled with care - or else you could end up with an explosion in your oven, hockey puck type treats or even worse a gooey mess in a pan that never turns into anything... needless to say, I have been working on this potential project for a week now and nothing delicious has come out of it. I have researched, purchsed the correct baking supplies and even found a recipe that sounds tasty and is in French (ingredients and measurments - now we just have to hope my French reading level is as good as I assume it is)!! Now the mission is to get my butt back to the store, buy all of the supplies I need and make it happen. Who knows, maybe baking will become my new past time and I can be the next Betty Crocker - if that happens I think I will bring awesome aprons into style...