Baking DISASTER!!!!!

Last time I baked for an event at Carissa's house was not a disaster

 

I want to start off by saying I have never claimed to be a baker. I can bake, I enjoy baking (occasionally)... but I am no baker. I make pretty kick ass bread and some pretty decent cookies, but I have never claimed to be a baker... I prefer cooking.

That said I had to get passed that and get out the sugar and candy thermometer for a cookie exchange party my friend and fellow blogger Carissa and her husband Kyle are having. Well of course I had to be difficult and instead of making cookies I wanted to take it up a notch. I was going to make Pistachio Nougat from scratch... Or so I thought!!!!

I got a recipe from food network for the nougat and I was ready to go. I got out my sugar, honey and my thermometer and I was on my way...

The recipe called for me to heat the sugar and honey in the microwave which I thought was odd because I have always done it on the stove, but hey who am I to argue with food network?

After the first round in the microwave and the overflow of ingredients into the microwave I decided to transfer the mixture to a bigger bowl.... and so disaster #1 begins.

As I was transferring the sugar honey mixture into the bowl I absentmindedly used my finger to clean the spoon... UMMM NOT SMART!!!!! I immediately realized my mistake and quickly wiped off my finger, but it was too late. It instantly blistered,  and I had to keep my finger in a cup of ice water for over an hour because the second I took it out of the cup I was in so much pain.

The pictures does not show the half of it. At this point, about 2 hours later, the entire top of my finger is white and the blister is huge.

Anyways... I tried to suck it up with one hand in a cup of ice water and the other hand trying to stir the sugar and honey mixture every so often.

Well as I suspected the microwave was an odd way to heat the mixture and it ended with disaster #2
I opened the microwave to mix and it smelled like a nice bonfire instead of a sweet candy...

I did not think my friends and their family would appreciate being served bonfire candy nougats... so I tossed it and decided to try to come up with something else.

With my finger still soaking I went through my freezer and found some white and milk chocolate. Thinking about another recipe I had from food network I decided to give it another shot.

I decided upon Pistachio- cherry Buttons with the white chocolate (hey I had already chopped the nuts up for my non existent nougat lol) and Pistachio-Blueberry Buttons with the milk chocolate.

This had much better results than my first venture. I got out some festive cookie platters and my time in the kitchen was done.

   

 If time permits tomorrow I plan on trying my hand at something special for the hostess... we will see how that one turns out... fingers crossed.

Ciao with a throbbing finger

Alexis