My dad gave an illustration in his sermon last Sunday and part of it referred to “his daughter who never follows recipes and is known for making up all sorts of interesting concoctions as a result.”
My husband turned and looked at me during the sermon with a smirk on his face. He knows all too well about my “interesting concoctions”.
Back when I was living at home, my poor family was subjected to all sorts of my failed experiments and to this day, I think they are afraid to eat my cooking. However, I have improved over time and, gratefully, mishaps are fairly rare occurrences these days.
This week, though, I think my waffle experiment topped some of the worst kitchen fails I’ve had in my history of cooking. Yes, it was bad.
The recipe looked so simple and delicious. How could you go wrong with brownies and bananas in waffles?
Well, let me tell you, you can go wrong with brownies and bananas and waffles. Very, very wrong.
It started off on a bad footing when I decided to substitute the Homemade Baking Mix in place of the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. I added in the cocoa powder, cinnamon, and wheat germ, then I mixed together the milk, bananas, and eggs.
That was when I got stumped. You see, the Homemade Baking Mix has coconut oil already in it. So I realized I probably didn’t need the oil.
But after I mixed the wet ingredients in with the dry ingredients, I noticed big chunks of coconut oil in the batter. And it struck me that that could be a problem.
Not easily deterred, I pressed on, heated the waffle iron, and poured some batter on it. The batter looked unlike any other waffle batter consistency I’d seen before and I became a little concerned.
The first waffle wouldn’t even come off the waffle iron without lots of effort — and it ended up breaking into a hundred pieces in the process. “Oh well, the first waffle is always the worst,” I told myself.
But then I decided to taste-test it. It was disgusting.
I thought maybe it just needed more sugar, so added more sugar and poured more waffle batter on. The second waffle was even worse — and it still tasted gross. There were white chunks in it (coconut oil?) and it fell apart in dozens of pieces while I tried to get it off the iron.
I decided to give up on the waffle idea and began wracking my brain to see what I could instead turn this icky batter into. “Pancakes!”, I thought. “I’ll make pancakes with it!”
But the pancakes I tried to make with it were gooey and crumbling and tasted terrible. The kids wouldn’t eat them — even with coaxing. And I’m guessing if we had a dog, he wouldn’t have eaten it either.
I finally gave up and threw out all the waffle and pancake pieces as well as the batter. It was a lost cause.
The good news? The Double Chocolate Oatmeal Muffins I made during that same cooking session (and, of course, tweaked the recipe for) actually turned out beautifully and delicious.
So I think there still may be hope for this experimental cook, but I know it’s going to take me a few months to work up the courage to try experimenting with a waffle recipe again!
Sarah says
These sounded so good, I had to try the original recipe and learn from your mistake and follow the recipe exactly! I have to say, it might be destined to fail. I made 2 batches, one with wheat germ and one without, because I suspected my wheat germ might not be good. Neither batch was very good. I froze the leftovers and my two year old recoiled in terror this morning-NO CHOCOLATE WAFFLES!! NOT THE CHOCOLATE WAFFLES!
Crystal says
I don’t know whether to be encouraged or discouraged. Your two-year-old’s comment cracked me up, though! 🙂
Becky @ Our Peaceful Home says
I’m glad I’m not the only one that has terrible failed cooking experiments. 🙂
Amy f;) says
beeeeeen there;)
Laura says
Thanks so much for sharing you freezer friendly recipes. They have been time savers for me this summer. We have tried the recipes for baked oatmeal, breakfast burritos, protein bars, southwest roll-ups, ww choc. chip pancakes, ww choc. chip oatmeal cookies, and worlds easiest make ahead marinated chicken. I added a breakfast sandwiches, applesauce muffins and breakfast cookies to my freezer cooking list also. Everything was a hit with my husband and three very picky kids. My husband loves being able to go to the freezer and give the kids a homemade breakfast. No more poptarts in this house. Thanks again for sharing.
Laura says
I tried to do waffles with dried cherries in them one time. SO didn’t work well with the waffle maker. Sticky, chewy cherries smoking on the waffle iron so not appetizing. They did make good pancakes though. 🙂
Tara says
I couldn’t help but chuckle, lol. It’s ok. We’ve all been there. I can’t follow a recipe either… even my own. I had a flop just last week. Substituted wheat flour in puffy oven pancakes and peaches for apples… ewwww!!! It didn’t work.
Camille says
Coconut oil is tricky because it hardens when it hits 76 degrees or lower. If the milk was cold, it probably hardened up the oil. I’ve learned the hard way NOT to substitute coconut oil for melted butter in pancakes or waffles! I only do it if I’m heating the milk, too. 😉
But that shouldn’t have affected the taste. The baking mix ratios were probably off from the original recipe.
Amy says
The muffins you mentioned sounded so good that I literally got up from the computer to make them as soon as I read this post. I was not disappointed – they were a perfect mid-morning snack!
Thanks for sharing!
Crystal says
Glad you enjoyed them!
Jessica says
Just to say that I love the adaptation of the book title for this post! 🙂
Crystal says
😉
Sarah K. @ The Pajama Chef says
This is hilarious! I’ve had my share of failures with waffles (and more) too. I think bananas in waffles just don’t work…and I’m not sure why!
Andrea Q says
When money was really tight, I learned not to try new recipes. It wasn’t worth the risk of having to dump out food and stressing about the money to replace it. I rarely try a new recipe unless I’ve sampled the dish at a potluck or a family gathering.
Lisa M says
I’ve had recipes I’ve followed to a T – no experimenting at all – come out horribly disgusting! I understand how you must feel! And I really dislike wasting the ingredients! But all you can do is fix something else (in a hurry!) and keep trying! The successes I’ve had experimenting far outway the misses!
carrie atkinson says
My dad is a pastor also, and I am so jealous that you are able to attend his church- what a blessing for you and your children! We always treasure the few Sundays that we can make the trip over to where my parents live.
Tonya says
Thanks for the laugh! Its always a little scary when you have a preacher in the family…never know when you will be used as an illustration:) haha.
Ryan says
Banana in waffles has never seemed to work for me no matter what recipe I try to use. It always seems to stick on the outside and peels apart in the middle when I open the waffle maker. It is a real shame, because banana walnut waffles sounds like the best breakfast ever. I usually just make regular waffles and add sauteed banana and nuts afterwards.
Mrs. Mordecai says
So glad I’m not the only one! I’m constantly experimenting, and while the results are usually edible, every once in awhile I get a massive fail. The worst ever was when I grew turnips in my garden in the summer (they’re supposed to grow in cool weather). They were hot like radishes, totally disgusting, so I got a recipe out of a ’70s cookbook called Turnip Puff, thinking more ingredients would mask the flavor. Nope. It was awful!
If you still want to try chocolate waffles, by the way, I’ve tried this recipe and it’s very good:
http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/02/double-chocolate-waffles-with-berry-sauce/
And if you can’t get your waffle iron clean, this has worked for me before:
http://be-it-ever-so-humble.blogspot.com/2010/03/waffle-iron-cleaner.html
Autumn says
Lol Glad I’m not alone. I have improved quite a bit these days but it’s also meant a lot of the same ol meals in which I’m confident I can pull off. Crystal your the reason we have more meal variety around this place. I’m proud to say I have tried numerous recipes of yours that others have begged me for the recipe including your muffins recently. Be sure to tell your dad that. 🙂 Back in the day before my frugal ways and finding MSM I can recall being so proud to have a new recipe all ready to go and had no clue due to poor planning/budgeting etc after heading off to the store this “new” little recipe would end up costing me an arm and both legs. I didn’t know what a few of the ingredients were and again, so clueless that I was just feeling so defeated when the meal was just the most awful thing we ever tasted and mind you it made enough to last all week but had to be tossed out. Talk about a waste of money but it was indeed a lesson well learned. I still have to laugh at myself. Thanks for all your stories and lessons as they do inspire many of us.
Lis says
My favorite waffles are ones my Mom used to make — oatmeal waffles — that had a wonderful texture. This reminds me that I’ve been meaning to get the recipe from her!
Cassy says
What a funny story! I am not a creative cook at all, so I never improvise. I love to cook, but I am a recipe cook through and through. I can throw in extra seasonings, but as far as totally tweaking a recipe? No way!
Amanda says
Haha! You’re in good company I think. One night we had what had now been named “Nasty Mac”. We were trying to use what we had on hand, so we started with mac & cheese, added beans and peas, and I’m not sure what else we threw in there, but it was a huge pot. My husband was out of work at the time, so we couldn’t just go out & pick something up… so I think we ended up having cereal that night.
Emily says
Never had a waffle failure but let me tell why I hate nutmeg and even the slightest hint of it makes me feel sick. When I was 13 I was trying out an egg recipe which called for nutmeg. Well I accidentally dumped a whole lot of it into the egg mixture. I thought I was going to throw up the smell was so horrible. Since then I cannot tolerate any nutmeg!
I have of course had the run of the mill failures and of course new recipes that just don’t turn out as good they sound.
Leigh Anne says
Love that you are always “keeping it real” around here 🙂
Kelly says
I made the muffins the other day and they’re delicious! What tweaks did you make? I’m planning to make the waffles next week. I usually follow a new recipe exactly the 1st time so I know what the finished product is supposed to be and then start making my adjustments after that. I’m not as adventurous in the kitchen, lol! 🙂
Heather @ Family Friendly Frugality says
I had to laugh out loud at this one! I’ve totally been there. 😉
MamaHen says
We have all had our cooking failures!
Rachel says
I think every good cook has these moments. I have two found memories of epic failures from when I very first started cooking.
The first time I made a turkey for Thanksgiving, I forgot to thaw the turkey (yes, very naive then). My husband used pliers to get the insides out! Then, I didn’t know you should put oil or butter on the outside, so I kept checking the turkey and saying it wasn’t done because it hadn’t browned (and because of the thawing incident). Finally, after way too many hours, I took it out. It was so hard that my husband broke a knife trying to slice it. We laugh every year at Thanksgiving now because of this fond memory (though I couldn’t laugh about it until later).
My second fond memory was the first time I made mix muffins. I made them and then realized the mix was too old. They never rose. I took them out and sat them on the counter, not wanting to waste anything. My sister walks in and says, “oh, you made mini pot pies!” I about died from embarrassment. They looked funny, but everyone ate them to be nice.
Elizabeth says
Tweaking and changing things to fit our personal tastes and those of our families are what real cooks do…frankly, people who cannot do this are generally not quite as good cooks!!
I do some gluten free cooking and have found that while coconut oil and milk can be good additions in baking…I found them to be absolutely not workable for SOME combinations…trial and error is the only answer so far as I know.
Michelle Williams says
Why is it that waffles are so particular? It’s one thing I always have a hard time with because I too love to experiment! I have found that waffles are one of those things where I have to follow the recipe exactly or it’s a disaster! I did try the brownie banana waffle recipe you posted, and everyone LOVED it!
Mary Ann says
We all have failed attempts so don’t be too hard on yourself.:-) I’m thinking that a big part of the issue was all the substitutes. And I loved when you said, “And I’m guessing if we had a dog, he wouldn’t have eaten it either.” That made me laugh since dogs aren’t supposed to eat chocolate anyways! 🙂
I say, forget the waffles and just make a pan of brownies!
Susan (FrugaLouis) says
Ugh! Funny thing is, I made these exact same waffles after seeing the recipe on your site the other day. It was my daughter’s birthday, and I thought they’d make a good b’day breakfast…and they did! 🙂 Guess what? I followed the recipe! 😉 I thought about using my homemade baking mix, but decided against it…so glad now that I read your post! The banana brownie waffles aren’t very sweet, though, just fyi.
Hope they turn out better for you next time, Crystal!
Simone says
I really enjoy coming to your site you not only help us with our deals but we leave filling just a little bit uplifted. ( at least I do) Whether it is from your helpful tips on how to or and story of your everyday life. Thank you and keep letting God use you. I can see that your not letting your gift go for not.
Becky says
Where do you get chocolate chips for your recipes? Although I’m not adventurous as you are, I love to bake and just cringe at buying chocolate chips. They’re so expensive!
Crystal says
Aldi or Target typically have the best prices.
Sarah @ Cooking the Deals says
My dad’s not a cook AT ALL, but he can grill. One morning when we were kids, he had to feed us breakfast, since mom was gone. It must have been during the summer, because he was going to make frozen french toast sticks and didn’t want to heat up the house. So he thought it would be a grand idea to make them on the grill (he’s more familiar with it anyway…). They were AWFUL! Completely hard all the way through and tasted of burgers or whatever we had on the grill last. YUK! From then on, if dad was in charge of breakfast, we had cold cereal… pretty hard to mess that one up! 🙂
Brenda says
Reminds me of the time I substituted corn syrup for corn oil. That one didn’t turn out too well, either!
Helene says
I think I mentioned it before…over 30 years ago I had my cousin and her family over for dinner. I made Betty Crocker’s recipe for cinnamon rolls and neglected to read the part about dividing the dough in half. Needless to say it took forever for them to bake and they still didn’t turn out good. Then I made something with bacon. She informed me she didn’t eat bacon (I was raised Jewish-duh) even though her husband probably had all his life. I don’t even remember the main meal but they left hungry. Another time many years ago my mom had a gas grill outside. I got the bright idea to cook a chicken. The grease caught fire and a huge flame scared me (I thought the gas grill would blow up) so I closed the lid and turned it off. When it had cooled some time later I opened it and found I had cremated a chicken-it turned to ash when I tried to pick it up. My oldest son is still a good sport-he will try to salvage the messes I STILL manage to make when I try some things. Though my mom was a fantastic cook (except it was not til I was married that I found out mashed potatoes didn’t come from a box) and Donna Reed. I somehow missed out on the hospitality gene and cooking is just not my thing. I’m so bad, the guy at McD’s knows if they’ve screwed up my order as he hands it to me. Sad when they know you better than you know your kitchen 🙂 I’m smiling at your dad’s comment-tell him it could be worse! 🙂
Angelina Reese says
This is definitely the future of saving money! Couldn’t come at a better time either.
Good post. Thanks for sharing. I like this post.
Heather @ REOlisticRenovation says
LOVE IT! 🙂 My Hubs is a baker and LOVES to follow rules and directions and I am the total opposite like you. I say cooking should be FUN so most of the time throwing in this and that makes it way more fun than being a stickler for the rules.
Angela R says
Oh…this is just hysterical!
Love your sense of humor, Crystal. Thanks for keepin’ it real!!
Janine A says
Coconut oil is great. For me I have made lots of great waffles and great meals with it. My children love it. OK, recipe has to be good, but then it works fine I think.
Jennifer says
I have tried to make brownie waffles before, and mine would only come out in a million pieces too! They did taste good, but I gave up on that method after that.
Bethany says
You’re cute. Just say, “Oh well!”
Sarah L says
I cook and bake with coconut oil, too. I have had it chunk up before when I added *cold* wet ingredients into the batter.
Melissa says
This sounds like how my everyday cooking turns out. 🙂 I always enjoy your posts. Thanks so much for your blog. 🙂
jamie says
my coconut oil was hardening up in my protein bars too! your recipe…i did go ahead and microwave the whole mix before proceeding with pressing into pan because ya don’t bake those. and chunks of oil would have been nasty. so yes, i microwaved the protein bar mix. but it worked out ok…better than the waffles, ha, ha. but i mean that in the nicest way because i LOVE your protein bar recipe!
Toni says
Lol! Oh Crystal, I have been there before. No doubt, I’ll be there again too. My first big flop in marriage came when I tried to make dh his favorite meal, his mom’s “brown beans” recipe (pinto beans). Really, how difficult can it be to make some soupy pinto beans, right? Right???
In the trash. The whole pot of beans. It was AWFUL! I’m happy to say I can make a mean brown beans and cornbread these days. But oh, the laughs we have over my first attempt. LOVED the photo of your flop, btw.
Blessings,
Toni
Jess says
would you please share the recipe?
Toni says
Jess,
It’s the easiest (and oh-so frugal) recipe, I’m really not sure how I messed it up, lol.
1 large bag (or two small bags) dry pinto beans.
1 large onion, chopped
Enough broth to cover the beans (I use water and add boullion, preferring Edwards & Sons from the health food section. You can used canned broth.)
My MIL used to add a ham bone. I used to add bacon (raw, letting it heat and cook with the beans). We’re vegetarian these days, so I leave the meat out and there is still plenty of flavor from the slow cooking onion and broth.
***Place dry beans in a large pot of water, cover with plenty of water (at least twice as high as the beans in the pot). Let soak overnight. Dump into a strainer and rinse in the morning, then transfer soaked beans to your crockpot. Add the chopped onion and enough broth to just cover. This will thicken as cooking time nears an end. You would also add your ham bone at this time. Allow beans to cook on low for a minimum of 4 hours. Check for tenderness and cook longer as needed. You might need to add a bit of water (maybe ½ cup) toward the end, as you do want them to be somewhat soupy.
I can’t get over how much flavor there is to such a simple meal, but there is. Serve with cornbread and greens. You can also top a serving with a bit of thick salsa if preferred.
Stephanie says
And yes, I’m distracting myself from finishing the organic deals…
Stephanie says
I’m laughing at you (with you?), only because I was there with a big waffle mishap myself just the other week. 🙂
(And I don’t like to follow recipes either– every time I make something really good, my husband asks me insistently “did you write down the exact, precise recipe so you can actually make this again?”)
Kathryn Mills says
Within the first few months of being married, I thought I would be the perfect wife and make my husband breakfast in bed. The muffins that I worked so hard on turned out hard as a rock and tasted repulsive. We tried to feed them to the dog and even he turned them down (and I’ve seen that dog eat some pretty disgusting stuff!!).
It was probably frustrating at the time, but maybe you’ll get a good laugh down the road! 🙂
Kim S. says
Some of our most memorable meals have included a recipe “on the fly”.
My mom is the creative one in our family, and we have played the part of guinea pigs many times in her experiments. We still have a laugh over
sauerkraut cake. To say it was remarkable is an understatement.
Rachel @ Surviving The Stores says
I was looking forward to reading this when I saw the picture on Facebook yesterday!
Yeah, waffle experiments never go real well for me either. Although I did do a pizza waffle experiment that turned out awesome!!
My major food experiment fail this past year was granola. I decided I didn’t need to follow a recipe and just made one up. It was TERRIBLE! Definitely not making that mistake again!!!
Crystal L says
Wow, gotta love these times. Some call them “epic fails”, I like to refer to them as “Epic Learning Experiences”. I have had my fair share of these as well. My last one happened when I was taking on The Sneaky Chef persona and thought I’d be smart and add orange puree to pancake mix. I was a bit too liberal with the healthful add ins and it turned out like pudding in the center and wouldn’t get fluffy or “done” in the middle. Fortunately I only have experimented on my husband and kids so the rest of my family thinks I am a great cook.. lol.
Thank you for sharing, its nice to know I am not the only one 🙂
Koree says
It’s the worst for frugal people! I hate feeling like I’m throwing money away with a bad recipe : ( Poor Crystal.
Charity says
Well said. I tried a new blueberry pancake recipe last week and was nearly in tears because it was a total flop. I told my husband that I might as well have thrown money in the trash can, not to menion the time I’d spent! 🙁
Koree says
Yes, I made ranch dressing that got “rave” reviews on allrecipes.com. Needless to say it didn’t flop per se but i did not like it as much as the bottled kind. I will stick to making homemade french dressin’ : )
JoAnna T says
I am another person who almost always cooks without a recipe or tweaks the one I do use! I taste things as much as I can as I go along, which has saved me from not having more spectacular failures than I do! I don’t think anyone in the family will forget my sourdough bread that was more like “sourdough bricks” though! 🙂
Jessica says
There’s always gotta be one fail among the many successes! 🙂 My family thoroughly enjoys your tweaked oatmeal chocolate chip pancake recipe. Our stockpile in the freezer is quickly dwindling!
June says
I tried out your chocolate chip banana bread on my family and they all loved it. Tomorrow night for dessert I’m planning on trying a batch of your “Healthy” Ice cream. I’m really excited about it. Thank for sharing your recipes. I love your blog 🙂
Allyson @ A Heart for Home says
My husband and I just tried the banana “ice cream” last night and loved it!