sweets for my sweet...

monkey has been a sick boy. no crazy symptoms…just mention of a bad headache on day one & a fever reaching over 100* solid the rest of the time. after playing nurse, comforter, & empathizing onlooker for 2 days, his fever finally broke this morning…hooray! so, this afternoon, it was time for me to play baker. because after all, to get my sidekick back to 100% he’s gonna need some yums, right?! i had remembered a brownie recipe that i had seen on parents.com & thought i might have all the ingredients on hand. check & check.

be-mine brownies

8 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped

¾ cup butter, sliced

3 large eggs

½ cup granulated sugar

½ tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

2/3 cup all-purpose flour

confectioner’s sugar

1. heat oven to 350*. grease (8) 6 oz ramekins & place on baking sheet. in a double boiler, combine chocolate & butter & stir over simmering water until melted. remove from heat &  let cool 5 minutes.

2. in a bowl, whisk eggs, granulated sugar, salt, & vanilla with an electric mixer until frothy (like 2 minutes). lightly whisk in chocolate mixture. fold in flour until combined. divide mixture among prepared ramekins. place baking sheet in the oven & bake 18 to 22 minutes, or until sides are firm & center is slightly soft. cool completely.



"frothy"

3. place a small heart-shaped stencil or paper cutout on top of each ramekin. sprinkle confectioner’s sugar; carefully remove stencil.

so i had 4 small pyrex dishes that i used instead. they worked great, perhaps more on the 8 oz side. & i had semisweet chips that i used (no chopping needed). & "yours" will most likely be done around 22 minutes, however if you accidently turn off the oven, like i did, then it will take you at least 45 minutes to realize just why they don’t seem to be baking correctly. (yes, i did…oh, my gracious!) also, i didn’t have any paper lying around to use, but an empty beer box ready to go outside caught my eye & voila…a stencil out of that fine cardboard (i’m such an improviser…ha!)

chocolate always seems to do the trick in these situations. i will never make “box” brownies again…not that i was ever that good at it to begin with (seriously).

& i stuck to this recipe. baking is like an exact science; not like cooking where you can kind of wing it. buuuut, i just keep on trying. enjoy!