Chocolate with Francois - Chocolate Pets De Nonne

This month's recipe was Chocolate Pets De Nonne and it was chosen by Maggie of The Other Side of 50.  The name literally means "nun's fart". Not exactly a name that would make you want to rush out and make them. :) But, rush out and make them I did.

I decided to halve the recipe. I have been trying to not only cut back on expenses to help the budget, but I have been trying to cut back on the amount of dessert items in the house. My hubby and I are trying to re-lose the weight that tracked us down and found us, after we lost it last year. Darn weight! Anyway, I thought half of the recipe was okay. Figured I'd end up with about 10 of the "nun's farts" and that would be fine.

I am not sure where I went wrong. But, something went horribly wrong that day. The recipe came together easily. I ended up with a nice smooth dough. But, my dough was a bit more like batter. Not runny, but I would not have been able to pick it up and make balls out of it.

I heated my oil up in a pan, being sure to watch the temperature. When all was ready I used a small scoop I have to drop small balls of the dough into the oil. Things got really ugly at that point. The balls of dough that are supposed to fry up into beautiful doughnut hole shapes (see Maggie's pictures; her's are perfection!) spread out in the oil like those snakes you get around the fourth of July. You know the ones I mean. You light it and this black thing starts slithering out from nowhere onto the sidewalk. Well, picture one of those snakes in a pan of oil. Let me tell you, it wasn't pretty. Oh, but what was even less pretty? When I took those Pet De Nonne out of the pan. I am going to attach a picture just so you can understand my horror at what I created. No "nun's farts" here. I created "nun's poopies"! Excuse my mouth, but that is what I thought the things cooling on my paper towels looks like.I think I got one or two small round balls, then it all went to h*** in a hand basket.  Not good. Not pretty. Fail! :(

After looking at a couple of the other bakers finished products, I may try this again. It sounded so good...chocolate doughnut holes, fried and then dusted with powdered sugar. If you would like to see how the other bakers fared with this one, check out CWF! I sure hope I have better luck next month when it's my turn to host!!