Mug Brownie : Recipe

There are many different recipes for mug brownies floating around on the web, and I have tried quite a few of them myself.  Most of them didn't use vanilla, over cooked them till they were too dry, and none of them ever used butter.  They used olive or vegetable oil instead.  How sad is that?

I have taken away, added, changed up, and mixed up all my findings from these recipes, until I have finally come to the point where I have my own mug brownie recipe, one that is chocolatey, moist, and uses real butter.

Because really, isn't everything better with butter?

Ingredients

• 1/4 white chocolate chips ( optional )
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 3 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• a pinch of salt

You'll need your favorite mug, of course, just make sure that it is microwave safe, and preferably not stoneware.  While you can microwave most stoneware, those suckers take a long time to cool down, let me tell you.

So here we go, I guess.  

( Note: this really should not explode inside the microwave on you.  Pinky promise. )

Start out by mixing all of your dry ingredients together.  Dump your flour, sugar, cocoa powder, and salt into your mug.  Stir till evenly combined.

Next, add your wet ingredients.  This is the part where you have to melt your butter.  Now, I don't want you to get too emotional over this part.  I know that your two tablespoons of butter might be sitting in their bowl chilling and chatting with each other . . .

. . . and that they might be a bit upset when they find out they're going to be melted . . .

. . . but we're making brownies here, my peeps.  And sacrifices must be made.

I recommend zapping your butter for about 10 seconds at a time to avoid it popping all over the inside of your microwave ( it might be out for revenge, you see ).  It should really only take two 10 second runs to get it all melted.  Once most of it is melted, you can usually stir it around to get the rest of it to melt so that you don't over do it in the microwave.  The second it starts to sound like WWIII in there, you know you've gone too far.

Once melted, dump directly into your mug, along with your water and vanilla.  Stir till all the lumps are gone and you're super sure that there are no stubborn dry ingredients clinging to the bottom edges of your mug, because it's kind of gross to get to the bottom of your brownie and find a pocket of flour that didn't get stirred in.  Just a warning.

If you want to up your brownie game to royalty status, you can take those white chocolate chips and put them on top of your brownie after you are done stirring.  It might sound tempting to stir them into your brownie, but don't.  They will hold onto their heat stuck in the middle like that and they will burn.

It's not fun people.  It's not fun.

So keep them on the top, like a crown of white diamonds fit for the ruler of the world ( which I am, but you guys can pretend ).

Microwave for 1:30, then let stand in the microwave for 2 minuets.  This is the hardest part, because you can smell it, and it's right there in front of you, just waiting to be eaten, but don't give in.  Letting it stand for a few while it's still hot will complete the baking process without drying it out, and it will give it time to start cooling down, so that unless you used a stoneware mug, it should be ready to eat if you blow on your bites after those long, hard two minuets of waiting.

Look at that glorious mug brownie.  Just look at it.

Mmm, yes.  It's time now to get a book and curl up under a blanket to enjoy life to it's fullest.  So let me just go grab my book, grab my blanket, sit down and -

Oh, wait.  What's this?  Did I eat my brownie already?

Well then . . . I'll just have to make another one.

Em