Loser Cook Award: Anyone for Ugly, Chalk-flavored Brownies?

WHO'S A LOSER?  That would be ME!  Again. 


I don't know why I can't stop tweaking my own recipes?  I have perfected a wonderful lightened up batch of brownies.  You can find the recipe in my cookbook.  Yet for some reason, I decided to "adapt" it further to see if I could get an even better consistency over a week ago. 


First I thought if I added just a touch more of baking powder and baking soda, that maybe they'd come out even larger and fluffier.   Then I wanted to add mint flavor to it so I placed a dash of peppermint extract to it.


Here is what it looked like coming from the oven:




It looks sick, doesn't it?  Like the brownies have cold sores and moles all over their "skin."  Just odd and ugly! 


But the worst part about these brownies is not how they look.... Sadly, it's how they taste!  Did you ever put chalk in your mouth as a kid when you were assigned "eraser duty" by your school teachers?  Well, it tastes like that!  Like nasty chalk.  No chocolate-y flavor.  No minty freshness.  Chalk from a chalkboard!   :-(


That fluffier consistency I was trying to achieve actually turned more into bread.  If I was baking chocolate bread, then that wouldn't be a problem.  But I wanted brownies.  So yeah..... not a good thing! 





Sigh!  I give myself this big fat loser award.  I especially deserve it this time because I fudged up my own brownie recipe-- the one I worked weeks at getting perfectly for my cookbook.  So why did I mess with the best? 


I sit here before you with my head hung low in disgust.  In fact, I built a BROWNIE TOWER OF SHAME (pictured below) to express my remorse:





Good-bye disgusting treats!  There was no way to salvage you!  Next time, I'll just simply follow the recipe as it is! 


What's the last mess-up you had in the kitchen?  Have you ever tried to tweak your own recipe and been disappointed at the results?