BB: I Can't Bake and It's My Mother Fault: Brownie Pudding

Well, I am convinced that a persons up bringing affects their current existence and future endeavours in weird ways. Real profound right? Not so much, but I am trying to find the root cause as to why as a decently bright, educated individual I can't seem to achieve success when faced with a relatively straightforward recipes that involves sugar a mixer and a heat source.

I have determined that part of the problem is growing up in a Greek household that:

1.) Used non-standard measuring devices. I am still for the life of me trying to figure out the nomenclature of my mother's "tools".
2.) Owned every size pan but a 9x13 roasting pan (most household cookware came from restaurant supply stores or Theio Panagiotis restaurant, my mother still laughs at stores like Williams-Sonoma and Crate & Barrel).
3.) Had fruit for dessert.

Now item 1 I have overcome as I channel 7th grade home economics class. Items 2 and 3 however are a bit more difficult to tackle.

You see the 9x13 pan is significant as most "American" baking recipes use this dimension. Greek-Americans generally speaking don't cook in such a proportion. One makes a big pan of everything, there is no cooking for two people, it's cooking for a family and the neighbor who is working long hours and the friend at church that just loves that particular dish or the unexpected dinner guest. If you're going to invest the time for dishes like pastitso, youvetsi, baklava, yalatopita, karithopita, bougatsa or the pain staking task of rolling out phyllo you're going to make a large dose of that item. I love to entertain in this manner, I however never picked up the ability to downscale a recipe and have yet to acquire the coveted 9x13. I truly would have it no other way... expect of course when presented with an opportunity to make Chocolate Brownies that resemble lava cake. Somehow the Greek sensibility doesn't mix well when proportion really matters.

Now as for reason 3 as to why Kanella can't bake..... there were no brownies or cookies after supper during my formative years. One can try to assimilate to their adopted country but there are some things that people hold on to. Greeks generally eat fruit after a meal and consuming dessert is an event not associated with dinner. Mind you my parents were born during WWII during a very dark time in Greek history and they barely had bread (I am not exaggerating) so anything sweet that used sugar or honey was reserved for holidays. Thus I was only exposed to desserts for special, large occasions or when ladies visited the house and drank coffee and gossiped and the 9x13 certainly would not do the job for such events.

So the moral of the story I suck at baking and it's my Greek mother's fault.

This week's BB bonus recipes was selected by Tia of Southern Eh? I would have loved this dish if may be I had the right proportion of cookware (see above) and if had a bit more patience as i attempted to discard the water from the water bath while the brownie/pudding vessel was still in the water ending up with a runny mess. Now this called for a 9 x 12 x 2 pan and by the time I had even noted the required pan dimension the eggs were beating away. Regardless I gave it my all and will try this again as I am not quitter.