So I think that my first mistake is along the lines of "Walk Before You Run"-style truisms. Its hard for me to come up with any baking success stories, both in terms of sweet things or breads. So instead of trying to follow a recipe, I thought I'd get creative. I decided to take a recipe for banana bread muffins and go crazy. Yeah.
The ingredients were straightforward to start with. Flour, baking soda, butter, an egg, sugar. A pinch of salt. I substituted a few cups of grated carrot for the mashed bananas that were called for. I added a bit of peanut butter because I felt like it and some pumpkin seeds for crunch.
After filling most of the mini-muffin pan I realized that I really wanted them to have chocolate chips in there too, so I added those for the remaining 10 or so. Put them in the oven and walk away.
They were maybe a C+ for the first 5 seconds of chewing (I'd give the ones with chocolate chips a B), and then for the next 5 seconds they became unpleasant while you hurried to swallow, and then your mouth tastes like shoe for 10 more. They were gross. I'm never baking again.
