Now that’s just going a step too far! 
I certainly appreciate all your complimentary comments but RLB is in a class of her own! We have many superb bakers on this site of whom I admire many.
I’ll look to see if house next door is on market!
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I was SO EXCITED to find this lemon verbena and pistachio ciambella recipe to make tonight to use some of my verbena before the likely overnight killing frost. I put my evening plans on hold to bake this, had to run to the store for some missing ingredients, measured out some really pricey olive oil, shelled the pistachios by hand, broke out my Italian tube pan for the first time since I bought it, read and re-read the recipe as I made it (I found the format a little hard to follow), and got the batter into two small pans… before noticing I hadn’t added the 160gr of milk! Shit! The batter already looked really loose so I was confused, but I figured I had to add it. So I swirled it INTO THE BATTER IN THE PANS and mixed gently and hoped for the best, put the pans back in the oven, then noticed I had a second, also empty measuring vessel with traces of milk in the sink … so I actually added DOUBLE THE MILK by mistake!
WHY.
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I just made a batch of lemon verbena possets to assuage my feelings of failure.
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I was in brownie heaven / hell earlier, having agreed to make them for dessert
for a friend’s dinner party
I thought I would get 24 minis out of a batch of batter, but I had a good bit of batter left, so a little chef’s keep-back for me.
I used a mix of browned butter and grapeseed oil (instead of all browned butter), and a generous portion of chocolate chunks mixed in to make them a bit extra — oh and some dark rum! (Also I used a cocoa version of magic paste and was very pleased that everything came right out of the pans.)
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I did that once, on New Year’s Day, when I ran out of flour when making scones, and had company coming. The stores were closed, so I couldn’t get more flour. The batter was too soggy to roll, so, not wanting to throw it out, I put it into a piping bag. The “scones” turned out great!
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Update: it’s delicious.
(I need better light for the interior shot - it’s a lighter green color, very pretty.)
Rewind to last night: after letting it cool slightly, I cut into the very small second cake, which I had baked in a small star bundt mold. I tasted it, then sifted some confec sugar overtop and tasted again. it had a crunchy exterior which appealed more than the softer exterior baked in the tube pan. After taking a bite, I went to the fridge and pulled out one of the many jars I have of homemade lemon verbena syrup. I heated it in the microwave and brushed it onto both cakes, hoping to counteract what I perceived as blandness caused by having added way too much milk. Then I covered both cakes and went outside in the dark to cover some of my lemon verbena with a garbage bag, hoping it would survive the night.
This morning I went outside to discover no frost, and uncovered my unscathed verbena. Then I cut into the cake baked in the tube pan, and BOY was I surprised. The pistachio comes through more this morning, for one thing, and the impression of “meh” and blandness from yesterday is gone. I don’t even mind the very soft, maybe a tiny bit flabby texture of the underside of the tube cake. It’s delicate and very tasty. The lemon verbena syrup
WAS the right move; the cake wasn’t quite sweet enough and I wanted a bigger hit of verbena flavor.
Hooray!
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I hadn’t realized how much I had internalized your initial disappointment until I felt a huge wave of relief at this report, lol. So glad to read it!
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I know. The excitement of a new recipe can ruin the plan. At my age, I have to read, re-read and repeat 2X and if I get it right…
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This story has been an amazing ride. I’m so glad that it turned out to be delicious.
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SAME! Which made it even more annoying that I screwed it up anyway!
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Italian hearth bread from KAF:https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/italian-hearth-bread-recipe
Delicious result for such an easy recipe - just dump everything into the mixer. I had some sourdough discard to use up so I added it and subracted water and flour accordingly. Also used white whole wheat plus gluten instead of semolina since I didn’t have any. Lovely flavor and soft, delicate crumb with a thin but sturdy crust. I made a few slices into garlic bread for dinner tonight and the rest will be used for sandwiches this week.
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RUM! Never would’ve thought of that for brownies.
Rum + Chocolate = delicious. Also bourbon.
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Especially bourbon.
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love that recipe
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I made chocolate chocolate chip banana bread with a few changes:
Subbed 1/4 cup ww flour for AP
Subbed 1/4 cup apple sauce + 1/4 cup oil for melted butter
Added 1 tsp instant coffee and extra vanilla extract
Subbed Guittard sweetened cocoa for the regular cocoa
…and forgot the sugar 
They still turned out pretty well, considering! I guess I got lucky that I ran out of regular cocoa and had to use sweetened.
I had six bananas to use and made a double recipe. Because if you’re going to fuck up, go big 
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Apple streusel walnut tart, a 4” mini that used just a half apple that was diced less than a half inch, and then pressed down into the frozen crust. Sprinkled with a walnut streusel and baked for about 25 minutes. We had it warm from the oven, a lovely crispy crust.
I used these disposable tart molds which were an excellent heat conductor and browned the bottom crust beautifully.
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That’s why I’ve learned to put all ingredients on the counter, put each item away after use. Sometimes I’ll see something still there and ask myself why. Once I had to swirl in sugar in little banana bread loaves, came out ok.
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Name of molds? Amazon?
These were gifted to me and I was told they are from Amazon. I would try
4” disposable tart molds, they are 50 in the pack.
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