Aaargh! The squirrels ate my brownies! :-O

L

lisainla

Well-known member
I made two pans of brownies - one batch of Cyn's fudge-topped and another one with marshmellow and choco glaze.

Set the fudge-topped ones out on the patio table to cool, and got wrapped up with something else......(I should know better)

Went out about an hour later, and saw the little B^$&@#$s sitting at the base of the table.

Grr....

 
Now a question - why did my brownies get a thick, chewy layer all around

the places in direct contact with the pan? I'm not talking about the good kind of chewy you get at the edges and corners, but an almost crunchy layer that stuck to my well-greased foil and could be pulled away in a sheet from the interior of the brownie. I love brownie edges, but these were icky - luckily this was the "squirrel batch" that got thrown away. But what to do for next time?

The other batch baked at the same time were fine. The recipes had mostly common ingredients with a few minor differences:

Both:
1 c butter or margarine, melted
2 c granulated sugar
1 c all-purpose flour
2/3 c unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1-1/2 tsp tsp vanilla extract

In addition to the above, the batch that stuck had:
2 large eggs
1/2 c milk

The batch that is fine had:
4 large eggs

Both baked in a cooking sprayed foil-lined 9x13 pan in a 325º convection oven - the sticky one for 25 minutes, the other for 40 minutes.

Was it the convect? The cooking spray (I usually use butter)?

 
try brunswick stew.

My semi-ancient Gourmet Cookbook says:
“Wild squirrels abound everywhere, and their white flesh is tender and delicious. They can be cooked like rabbit or chicken (that oughtta open a few doors, Sarah), and only a very old squirrel (did your boss card ‘em first?) is tough enough to require marinating.”
The only recipe they give specifically is Thomas Jefferson’s favorite.

BRUNSWICK STEW

Cut 2 plump young squirrels (they oughtta be plump on a diet of brownies) into serving pieces. Dredge the pieces in well-seasoned flour and brown them in fat with 6 onions, thinly sliced. Transfer the meat and onions to an earthenware casserole and add 3 cups boiling water, 6 tomatoes, peeled and sliced, 3 red peppers chopped, and a generous pinch (I dunno; any pinch I give is generally pretty mean) of thyme. Cover the casserole and simmer the stew for I hour.
Add 2 pounds each of lima beans and okra (starting to sound like brick soup to me.... these poor rodents are gonna be lost amongst the competition), the kernels scraped from 6 ears of green corn (I think nobody’d complain if you substituted a cup of frozen shoepeg corn), and 1 tbs each of chopped parsley and Worcestershire sauce. Cover the casserole and simmer the mixture until the meat and vegetables are tender. Thicken the sauce with equal amounts of flour and butter kneaded together and serve in the casserole.

Or you could just find a nice chicken or rabbit recipe.
Ask Richard of Cincy what he thinks of the idea of Seven C’s squirrel.

 
How about squirrel acorn soup, teach them to eat your brownies:)

 
Maybe the convect. I was gonna suggest a lower temp, but it's already at just 325.

Not sure what else it could be.

 
My husband is in battle with the squirrels at our cabin. They shred the inside padding of our BBQ

grill. They must use it for their nests. We can see the grill right outside the patio door, and all of a sudden the whole cover starts quivering all over and we know that there is a crazed squirrel inside of it shredding away. My DH is crazy mad like Bill Murray in Caddy shack and thinks of ways to permanently get rid of the critter(I feed it nuts). In the meantime, the squirrel is teaching future generations the art of shredding. They also get into the shed and shred the padded patio chairs, rocking chairs no less.

 
The mystery of the disappearing brownies...I make Katherine Hepburn's brownies regularly, and ...

I put them on a plate on the kitchen counter. Every day, there are less of them on the plate, so I asked DH, "How did the little devils learn how to disappear like that?" He has no answer.

 
My mom loved squirrels... stew, fried, sauteed... those of you in the south know what I mean!

Once I got up the nerve to tell her I feed the little 'varmints' peanuts -- they would follow me into the kitchen, stand on their hind legs, and beg for peanuts (this is in Los Angeles mind you). My mom thought about it for a minute and said "I bet peanut-fed squirrels would taste real good". Yes - she was serious.

 
Lol Cheezz. My dad hunted and ate many a squirrel and rabbit when I was a child. My mom wouldn't

eat it, but she fried it up for him. I think her distaste affected me because as far as I know, I've not tasted either.

Once dad went on a coon hunt and his friends assured him that raccoons were good eatin' as the saying went. Mom baked a piece up and tried to foist it off on us by telling us it was beef. That was the nastiest smelling and looking meat we'd seen. Dark and greasy looking, if I remember correctly. We were all suspicious because it looked and smelled so bad to us which probably just meant different than what we were used to. Even my dad wouldn't eat it. That was the first and only time we saw raccon on our table. I'm not sure if there's a secret to it that Mom didn't know like soaking in milk or whatever. Did your mom ever cook raccoon?

 
Cook raccoon? I don't think so - I remember her saying something about the awful meat.

She DID, though, make coonskin caps for a couple of years. The hides were sent to her already cured. She complained endlessly about how awful they were to work with. I am SO glad I live in California smileys/smile.gif

 
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