Cooking For Engineers

[szechjeff]

As a non-baker I should definitely eschew the oven.

Well, we were invited to bring a dessert to a Memorial Day gathering. I found a pecan pie cookie bar recipe ... and being the clever non-baker, I decided to "improvise" ... to "improve" the end product.

In lieu of flour for the crust, I thought that I would substitute shortbread crumbs. I used a food processor to reduce the shortbread cookies to a fine powder. I measured the 3 cups of crumbed shortbreads into the brown sugar and my partner in crime added the butter.

Actually, keeping in mind the old adage about "two too many" cooks in the kitchen, my partner read the second part of the recipe, the section dealing with the "filling," and used "melted butter" instead of the called for bits of butter for the crumb crust.

Not being a baker, I remarked upon how "liquidy" the crumb mixture appeared. My partner suggested that we cool the butter in the freezer. I did so and then pressed the chilled mixture into the bottom of a 9 X 14 inch pyrex pan. Next, I popped it into the pre-heated 400 degree F. oven for the stated baking time of 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes I had some crust on the edges but a soupy buttery mixture that was pooled in the center. I was not impressed but decided to proceed with my experiment and added the pecan pie filling.

Baked it for another 10 minutes at 400 degrees F. Reduced the temperature to 325 degrees F. and baked for another 20 minutes.

The result smelled heavenly but was not "set" and resembled a flowing pecan cobbler-esque topping supebly suited for spooning over vanilla ice cream.

Is there anyway to salvage this "creation" or should I just stick to being a non-baker?

Your suggestions, comments, and well-deserved chastisements are humbly solicited.