My BEST Brownies

Brownies. True comfort food for me.  Over the past month, my daytimes have been  filled with meetings, even during lunchbreaks!  I get to check and respond to emails, make presentations and all that stuff, only in the evenings.

Feeling stressed,  and guilty as well (the kids just started summer holiday and I've been working mostly),  I decided to bake brownies. It could lighten my guilty conscience. 

Maybe the feelings of love and good intentions that were poured into it helped make those brownies truly terrific – moist, fudgy  and super chocolatey. Not far from the brownies I buy in Voelker or L'uisine (and friendlier to my wallet!).

My kids tell me they're "awesome" and "yummy".  Their actions speak louder than words - they've been devouring it.

What I used and did :
Berry Crocker’s Ready Mix Brownies - Dark Chocolate

-  mixed per pack directions (with ½ cup melted butter, ¼ cup water and 2 eggs)

Plus 3 tbsp of Van Houten unsweetened cocoa powder and 1 egg (for more fudgy, cake-like brownies)

I made 3 trays 

      1st tray - plain

      2nd tray - I added chopped Lindt dark-chocolate-mint

      3rd tray - I topped with chopped toasted cashew nuts

I baked the brownies at 170 degrees Centigrade. After 20 minutes, I turned off the oven.  (I actually forgot to take them out as I was checking emails. Felt so relieved the brownies still turned out great.)

The kids and I have been playing a game (similar to taboo) this morning,  munching on them continuously,  especially the younger boys.  Guilty conscience now officially relieved.

Mini-muffins for School Bake Sale

My daughter H had to bring baked goodies to school. She is a member of the student council, and they'd raise funds thru the bake sale. In the past, I've seen some parents send store-bought packaged cookies. I'm so tempted to do just that!

But H prefers to do it "honorably", the old-fashioned way -- bake the goodies ourselves. I admired her willingness to sacrifice time and effort to do this. I must admit I prefer to just laze at home this weekend. My better self argued this is another opportunity for some bonding time, and reinforce those positive values.

So, what do we have in stock? A pack of Betty Crocker dark chocolate cake mix. The rest of the ingredients are stuff we readily have in the pantry - water, eggs and vegetable oil. Great!

With her brother D helping out, we got the batter prepared in no time (following the box directions). I mixed in a few tablespoons of Van Houten pure soluble cocoa, and mini-chocolate chips for extra chocolate goodness. (I always think most kids are like me -- can't resist chocolates and almost everything else that has it). We will just make mini-muffins - quicker to bake, and no extra preparation needed to have smaller pieces ready for selling.

I helped her put the batter into the baking pans -- a test of patience for me because she was doing it soo slowly, trying to make it perfect, even stopping a couple of times to take phone calls from a friend.  Not easy to raise a teen,  but H is, in my biased view, a model teen :)

At 180 degrees C, the small muffins only took 10 minutes to bake. After cooling them, H packed the goodies and put them in the fridge. I reserved a few pieces for myself, of course.

see the mini choco-chips?