Bake Sale the Sequel: Brownies, Mice and Monkees

Posted: October 28, 2010 | Author: Alyssa | Filed under: Alyssa | No Comments »

Let me start by saying that the apartment I moved into this summer is wonderful except for two minor issues.  1)  Families can not live in my apartment because there is lead paint.  Apparently, instead of removing it the people in charge think it will be cheaper to pay for my chelation therapy.  2) I can see my basement through the floorboards of the living room.  Now, this isn’t a major issue except it shows exactly the level of energy efficiency i’m working with.  I am not exactly sealed off from the environment and therefore have had to deal with some critters in the house.  My first experience with this was about three days after I moved in.  I woke up around three in the morning hearing terrible scratching noises from the wall behind my bed.  Now, obviously, my first thought at that point was Holy Crap something is coming to steal my soul, but luckily I had been working like a feind all summer so I swiftly rolled back over and went to sleep.  When I awoke at 8am with a much clearer head I realised that rather than dealing with issues similar to the family in Paranormal Activity, I was dealing with issues common to most home owners: squirrels in the wall.  It then became really funny when my dog started following the squirrel running up and down my bedroom looking at me totally confused.  After a couple of days the moving stopped and I figured the situation had dealt with itself, until the fateful day that I made delicious treats for the GSA Bakesale…

I have already discussed the fact that i was invaded by teenagers for a while, so I didnt get to start baking until about 9:30-10pm ish that night.  The plan was to make brownies with frosting and rainbow sprinkles and individual monkey bread.  I had already prepped the monkey bread to make my life easier.  All it takes is a couple canisters of refrigerated buttermilk biscuits cut into quarters, a mixture of cinnamon sugar, 2 sticks of butter and 1/2 cup of light brown sugar.  Its the same process as regular monkey bread, just in extra large muffin cups.  Roll the biscuit pieces in the cinnamon sugar mixture and place them in the muffin cups about 5-6 pieces in each.  In a saucepan melt butter and stir in brown sugar.  Heat while stirring until the mixture is smooth then pour evenly over each cup.  Bake at 350 for about 20-25 minutes.  These bad boys sold out in about 15 minutes.  I feel like I cant take much credit for that though, because high school students would eat their own shoes if you coated them in sugar and told them it was the cool thing to do. 

While the monkeys were baking I threw together some brownies.  The brownies I make are pretty basic, one saucepan and done.  I have already posted about my Easy From Scratch Brownies so I won’t go into it again, but this time I also threw in an easy chocolate ganache on top which just increases the gooey deliciousness.  All you need is 1 cup heavy cream and 8 oz chocolate.  I use a combination of 6 oz semisweet and 2 oz dark chocolate to give it a little more intense flavor, but you can use whatever chocolate you prefer.  Break the chocolate into small pieces in a large bowl.  Then bring the cream to a boil and pour over the chocolate.  Let it sit for about 2 minutes and then whisk until the mixture is smooth.  TaDa!  Ganache!  I usually wait until my brownies are still a little warm to the touch and then pour the ganache over them to coat the top. 

Since I was performing this feat of deliciosity at such a late hour, I figured I would just let my brownies sit out over night to cool and finish everything up in the morning.  This was a terrible plan.  When I came down the next morning to let the dog out and finish my baking escapades, I noticed something strange about my now cool brownies.  Foot prints.  And teeth marks.  Now I was tired the night before but I distinctly remember that there were no footprints on the brownies when I went to bed.  Apparently I have mice.  The major issue is that I know I need to get rid of said mice, but I can’t bring myself to kill them and I know the no-kill traps are fairly useless unless i follow the old cartoon adage of trapping a varmint and driving an impossible 1200 miles to the middle of Australia to drop it off, and with my schedule, I’m lucky if I find 20 minutes to go “grocery shopping” at the gas station down the street because its closer than the grocery store.  Forget about a nice little intercontinental road trip.   

Moral of the story: One: Never assume the furry woodland creature situation in your house has ‘taken care of itself’ and Two: Always cover your baked goods.  No that is not a euphamism.

Luckily I have learned my lesson and now I’m not a fool, I wrap my…brownies.  That was a euphamism. 

TT