Recipe: Fudgy Brownies {Day 3 and 4 of Teacher Appreciation Week}

Every morning this week, the kids have come downstairs and looked on the kitchen counter to see what was going to be sent in for their teachers and Teacher Appreciation Week.  I didn’t set out to send something in every day of this week, but it’s kind of worked out that way.  Once I got to Wednesday, I felt like I needed to do it the rest of the week, you know?

I had torn out a recipe from Woman’s Day magazine for chick pea burgers, and as I was going through the ingredient list to see if I had everything, I spied a small mention for Fudgy Brownies in the corner of the page.

If you’ve been a Sweetnicks reader for awhile, you know that we’re always on the look-out for a solid fudgy brownie recipe.  You know, the one that stops the search.  A quick scan of THAT ingredient list, and I actually had everything on hand.  In fact, I bet you might too.  Well, the bakers among you will.

Nick had a friend over and Madeline was busy “cleaning” her room.  Which basically means she finds a favorite toy or stuffed animal and takes a trip down memory lane.  And completely forgets that she was asked to find a path to her bed clean.  She usually surfaces an hour later, her room a bigger disaster than it was when she first started.  And that’s when we close the door and pretend it doesn’t exist.  At least until we see it again at bedtime.

When it comes to keeping her room neat, I’m having flashbacks to my teen self’s room.  It’s not pretty.  And my mom is saying something about I told you so.

So with three kids in the house, all magically entertaining themselves, and dinner already taken care of, I decided to make a quick batch of the brownies.

It took all of about 15 minutes before the batter was going into the oven.

The recipe said 18 minutes for baking.  And they were a bit off.  Well, at least by the O’Malley oven standards.  I think it ended up being an extra 10 or so minutes, so beware.

Even after that, they were still a bit too fudgy, but I didn’t want to bake them longer, for fear of overcooking them.  I ended up sticking them in the fridge for a bit, and that did the trick.

Later on.  Ok, before dinner.  I cut off a corner to give them a try.  You know, quality control and all that.  I can’t very well send a new recipe in to three teachers without having tried them myself first, right?

F-u-d-g-y to the nth degree.  Just the way we like them.

And hours later, they were bagged up and gone.

My biggest complaint about the recipe?  That it is for an 8×8 pan, so it doesn’t make a ton.

In a round-about way, that’s likely a good thing.

But Nick loves brownies, and he didn’t get to try these before they were gone, so we’ll be baking more up again tonight.  You know, to appease that healthy dose of Mom guilt I served myself.

If you need a quick sweet treat for your after-schoolers, or to finish up celebrating Teacher Appreciation Week, or if you just finished Day 10 of rain-wet-gloom-rinse-repeat with the rest of us, bake these.

When I had my first bite, it reminded me of Nick’s request last year for Hot Fudge Brownie Sundaes as part of his birthday dinner.  These are totally perfect for that.  And, of course, countless other non-birthday, just because moments.

You can thank me later.

And now for Day 4 of Teacher Appreciation Week.  I took a completely different route.

Inspired by a picture I saw Tammy Mitchell’s photography web site, we stopped at the grocery store yesterday to pick up the supplies to put this together.

Plastic rulers – 0.59/each

A box of “fruit by the foot” – $2.00/each (get it?  ruler?  fruit by the foot?)

Ribbon – scraps from home

Card – made at home

Tammy has printables for the card linked on her site, but they weren’t working at the time, so I took matters into my own hands.  Using a clip art ruler image I found online, I made little cards in Word, printed them out on card stock, cut them out, and affixed them to the top of the package.

Now to figure out what I’m doing for the last day…

Fast Fudgy Brownies
Recipes courtesy of Woman’s Day magazine

4 tablespoons butter
2 oz unsweetened chocolate
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup flour

In a medium saucepan, melt butter and chocolate over medium heat. Off heat, whisk sugar, then eggs, vanilla, and salt. Stir in flour. Scrape into parchment lined 8-inch square baking pan. Bake at 350 until springy in center, 18 minutes (mine needed more). Let cool, then cut into squares, Makes 9.

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