Kitchen Lab: Mug Shots

Whilst messaging with my sister (and having my nephew’s oddness transcribed for me) on Tuesday night, she mentioned this whole “brownie-in-a-mug” thing I keep seeing around Ye Olde Intarwebs.

“I’m cold,” she said. “time to make hot chocolate and dream about a mug brownie.”

This, after another sister (shush, I have three) had been extolling the virtues of the mug brownie just two days earlier, commenting “oh my damn, YUM. i can’t even.”

Well, it was Chiberia Round Two outside, I’d been working from home, and sheesh why not. Mug brownie it is!

Here’s all it takes to make your very own (original recipe found here):
2 Tbsp. butter, melted
2 Tbsp. water
1/4 tsp. vanilla
1 dash salt
4 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
4 Tbsp. flour

SWEETNESS, I HAVE ALL THESE THINGS IN MY HOUSE RIGHT NOW.

I got a really big mug, because that seemed like a lot of tablespoons and I didn’t know how much the brownie would expand in the microwave. I melted the butter IN the mug, because why not. Assuming your pipes aren’t frozen, add the water. Also add the vanilla and salt, then stir. (I just kinda swirled it around a bit.)

Add sugar, stir. Add cocoa, stir.

Here’s where things went Not As I’d Expected.

This is supposed to be a ridiculously easy recipe, for lazy people (or simply for folks who don’t want a whole damn pan of brownies), right? So why can’t I seem to get this stuff to mix together? The cocoa seemed determined to stick together in dry little clumps.

 OMG this cocoa isn’t mixing in! I thought. What am I doing wrong? *stirstirstir* It’s still not working! *stirstirstir* And the butter is cooling… *stirstirstir* …getting thicker, I don’t think I want that to happen, do I? *stirstirstir* My first attempt at one of the stupidest recipes in the universe, and I’m fscking it up!

Yes, I was standing in my kitchen with a rather large Dr. Seuss mug full of goop, worrying that I’d messed up my lazy brownie somehow by following directions.

Sister #2 had already gone to put the kids to bed, and  #4 (shush, we’re numbered by birth order) was not online, so rather than worrying enough to turn to a foolish Googling I just kept stirring in the hope that More Is Better. I did consider busting out my tiny, whisk, but I think part of the whole brownie-in-a-mug thing is that you don’t need to wash a bunch of stuff afterward. And eventually I just called it good enough and added the flour. *stirstirstir*

Well, that looks a lot more like brownie batter!

Put it in the microwave for 60-90 seconds. Remove the spoon first. Lick the spoon, because that’s what you’re SUPPOSED to do with brownie batter!

And TADA! Brownie in a mug!

AFTERWORD: I posted my gleeful conquest and acquisition of a mug brownie to Facebook, because that’s what you do. Sister #4 immediately recommended adding ice cream to the mix. Holy foo, thought I, that sounds fantastic!

Off I trot (all three feet) to the freezer and pull out the vanilla ice cream I know is in there. Open it up, and some jerk has started a crystal farm in there. Freezer burn that looked like some particularly fancy seaweed had sprouted all over my delicious French Vanilla.** NOOOOOOOOO! *shakes fist to the sky*

But wait! What’s this tiny cup still in my freezer? Why, it’s a leftover boozy pudding from my NYE/birthday party, courtesy of Jamie! I don’t know what all she puts in these things other than chocolate pudding and so much booze that they need to be kept in the freezer so they don’t dissolve into their component parts, but sweet baby jeebus they made the mug brownie even more fantastic than I’d ever imagined.

So yes, chocolate pudding also makes brownies delicious. And booze.

** I also posted a photo of my tragically freezer-burned ice cream, to which a friend replied that it reminded her of a recurring childhood dream in which a tiny wizard and freezer-burned ice cream played significant roles. “The tiny wizard looked gentle…all silver-star-spangled blue coat and pointy hat…but I knew he was evil. He was the cause of the freezer burn in the ice cream (or perhaps ice milk) that I found in Mr. Rogers’ freezer.”

So then, uh, this happened:

…I am not proud. But I have Photoshop!

(all photos by me. Tiny wizard from Mochimochi Land. Yay!)