It was this funky recipe by B. Dylan Hollis, a "pinto bean cake." (Watch the video, it's only like a minute and he's funny)
It went horribly, from the get-go. For one, I discovered that a magic bullet is no substitute for an actual food processor. My first attempt at grinding half a cup of peanuts into powder resulted in a concoction of half peanut butter half whole peanuts. My second attempt, doing it in smaller amounts in a pulsing pattern, resulted in mostly powderized peanuts but still with some whole peanuts in. I didn't press my luck, as I was now Out of peanuts.
I then discovered the honey I'd be using - "all-natrual" at my mother's insistence, was more honeycomb than honey, and it was a total pain in the ass to get into the mixing bowl.
Finally, I made the poor choice to choose Convection Bake on our oven instead of just Bake. Convection Bake seemed to decide that 352° with a fan on was just as good as 375° with no fan. So after checking on the cake at the allotted 45 minutes, I found a jiggly pile of unbaked goop with a crust on top.
After switching to regular bake, and leaving it in until the top started to burn, I had to give in and take it out even though it was still failing the toothpick test. It's cooling on the counter right now. I bought a brand new strainer and 9-inch springform cake pan for this. If this recipe fails tonight, you bet your goddamn ass I'm going up to the store again tomorrow to buy a Food Processor, more beans, more peanuts, plain ol' filtered honey, and I'm gonna try this again until I get it the fuck right, because I am nothing if not a stubborn motherfucker.
Will update later with pics.
To summarize: 3 attempts and over $100 in ingredients and new equipment later, all I have to show for it are some piles of hot foamy bean slop.
i'm done trying to get this stupid recipe right. B. Dylan Hollis got it right by accident or something, I don't care. I'm moving on to something else (after I get some more money since I spent it all on this stupid bean and peanut mousse)
