Chocolate Brownies for Little Valentines - Valentine's Day - Cooking

Mini Chocolate Treats for Little Valentines

No Comments | Written on February 7, 2012 at 11:00 am, by Rebecca Coleman

courtesy of Rebecca Coleman

My littlest valentine is not even two and she’s already showing signs of chocoholism. She may be a chip off the old block, but I certainly don’t want to feed her addiction too much (or teach her bad eating habits).

I’ve noticed that downsizing desserts is a great trick to satiate the kids’ sweet tooth without having to say “no” all the time. Mini-muffin tins have become our go-to source for making tiny treats, and there is nothing the kids like making better than mini-brownies.

We use this Chewy Brownie recipe and add a cup of chocolate chips. The kids like to take turns stirring, and I give the tin a light touch of cooking spray and dust it with flour. This is a very important step; otherwise the brownies can be very difficult to remove. My six year old uses a small spoon to scoop the batter into the mini-muffin tin. We cook them for about 20 minutes and check for doneness by seeing if they’ve started pull away from the sides. When they do, they’re done. We let them sit for 10 minutes before carefully removing them from the tin. (These are the longest ten minutes of my kids’ lives.) The brownies come out chewy on the inside with a perfect crust all the way around the outside—it’s like every brownie is as good as the corner brownie in a regular 8″x 8″ pan. And that, brownie lovers, is as good as it gets.