Simple recipe

I’ve just completed a video on how to make delicious Chocolate Fudge Brownies from scratch. It is surprisingly uncomplicated and a great recipe to introduce someone to baking.

(Baking means to cook any food in an oven with dry heat – it is also used to generally refer to the art of making breads and cakes, as in baker and bakeries.)

In this post, I’ll use the same recipe to show how to present brownies in a different way, giving them a different visual appeal. The brownies are going to be made in a (12-count) muffin tin instead of using the square pan I used in the video.

Brownie cupcakes made in a muffin tin are great fun to serve at home, or bring to a party. You can buy “special occasion” muffin tins that will make shapes like hearts, flowers, pumpkins, ghosts, or Christmas trees, that can really make cupcakes the centerpiece of a celebration!

If you have never done any baking before, you will need to buy a few ingredients that may not be already standard in your food cupboard. For this recipe, that will include all purpose white flour, unsweetened cocoa powder, (not instant hot chocolate but real unsweetened cocoa powder!) and vanilla extract.

Check the video (and the recipe card above!) for step-by-step instructions on making the brownie batter.

(By the way, when making soups and stews, precise measuring is not essential. However, baked goods like cakes, breads, cookies and brownies do require precise measuring.)

To make brownie cupcakes, line the muffin tin with tinfoil or paper “cupcake liners” and then spray it with non-stick cooking spray.

Just for comparison sake, I decided to also try using a silicone muffin tray as well. You may have seen this colorful, flexible, non-stick bakeware for sale in kitchen shops. They have generally received mixed reviews. I did not line mine with the cupcake liners, but I did give it a spray with the non-stick cooking spray.

Ladle the batter into the muffin pans with a small ladle…

…or a spoon.

Try to make them all the same size. Wipe up any drips or spills on the flat part of the muffin tray. Since the (red) silicone muffin tray is flexible, it is really essential to put it on a baking sheet to bake. Otherwise, lifting it in and out of the oven will be very difficult.

Bake the muffins in a 350-degree preheated oven for approximately 20 minutes. Check to see if they are done by sticking a toothpick into the center of the brownies. When you pull it out, it should have some moist crumbs attached to it.

Be careful not to over bake your brownies!

Remove the brownies from the oven and let them cool on a wire rack.

Use a knife to gently nudge the brownies out of the silicone pan.

The brownies with the cupcake liners just lift right out of the pan.

You can server the brownies with the liner paper or not. It comes off very easily.

Many reviewers of silicone bakeware say that baked products do not brown as nicely as when you use traditional bakeware. For these brownies, there was virtually very little difference, if any, in how they turned out. If you want fun-shaped brownies, I would recommend using the silicone muffin pan, otherwise a traditional muffin tin is just fine!

The really good thing about Chocolate Brownie cupcakes is that no one fights over who has the bigger piece of brownie!

Enjoy!

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