Bake 52: Lunchbox Brownies

Brownies.  What's not to love?  Chocolate.  Dense.  Rich.  Fudgy.  Chocolate.  Oh, I said that already.  Can't really go wrong there.  

In all my years of making brownies from scratch, I have yet to find a recipe that I REALLY love.  Either they're too caky (I prefer them more dense and fudgy), or they're not chocolatey enough.  But this was a really great recipe.  

I went a little rogue this on this recipe, stepped out on my own a bit.  It's just that After reading through the recipe, I kept thinking about a killer brownie-esque dessert recipe that I've made repeatedly.  It's made in ramekins, and then a few chocolate chips are placed on top before cooking.  When ice cream is placed on top after cooling slightly, that cold ice cream turns those melted chocolate chips into hard little disks.  Ooo, it's good.  Can't truly imagine it until you've tried it.  Anyway, on to this week's recipe...

Start by melting the butter and chocolate together in the microwave.  Allow to cool slightly.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt.

Combine sugar, eggs, and vanilla.  (There's something about eggs.  That yellow color is so pretty.)

Here's where the deviation started.  Pint sized jars.

There's the batter, just a-waitin' to be cooked.

Close-up of the batter.  Mmmm.

There it is, right from the oven.  I forgot to put the chocolate chips in before baking, so I threw them in right after.  I think it had the same delicious effect.

 Look, plenty to go around.  Come on over.  I'll share.

Had to be done.  Top with vanilla ice cream.  Nothing wrong with that.

I thought about doing them in ramekins, but then thought about how fun these would be to give as a gift.  (Before the ice cream, of course.  That would just be too messy.)  Maybe to a friend for a birthday?  How fun to get one of these.  Just for you.  All yours.  Your own little birthday brownie.  You don't have to share with anyone.  The way it should be, at least one day a year.

Up close and personal.  Check out all that fudgy goodness.

And ready to be gifted.

Great pick Liz!  Head over to here, her blog, for the full recipe.