What To Do, What To Do...

Being in quarantine for so long, I've worked up a great many cravings for many delicacies, the sources of which have been closed down in our country. The solution many of us here in Trinidad and Tobago have taken up is to make the things that we couldn't live without any longer ourselves. I've been feeling for a nice brownie that I used to get from a local bakery chain but I felt a little lazy to make a whole batch myself and fire up a whole oven and clean up the subsequent messes and so on. Then I so happened to be scrolling on my favourite site the other day, you may have heard of it, called 9gag, and someone posted a recipe on how to make a single serving brownie in a mug! Of course! How could I have forgotten? This was something I always wanted to try but had no reason to. It was the perfect solution to my dilemma.

The Recipe

The best thing about the recipe that got me excited within the moment was that all the ingredients were available in my pantry at that time. Not having certain ingredients was one of the biggest hindrances to my dessert debacle! The recipe calls for:

3 tbsp all purpose flour
3 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp cocoa powder
3 tbsp oil
3 tbsp milk
1 pinch of salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

The Method

I started off with the sugar, the milk, vanilla extract and the salt in a nicely sized mug. This was in an effort to properly dissolve the sugar and salt before adding the flour and cocoa. It would be hell to try to dissolve the sugar and achieve perfect incorporation with the presence of the flour when you can easily dissolve it in the milk first. The oil was then added. I was told that one could substitute melted butter for an even richer brownie.

The flour and cocoa powder was then added and carefully mixed in. At this point, it is very easy to get flour and cocoa everywhere if you are a vigorous or impatient mixer. The appealing thing about this recipe is because of the highly reduced mess and clean up after all! I recommend being gentle at first, doing an almost whisking motion as if you were mixing in instant hot chocolate powder in milk. When all the dry ingredients had become incorporated, a more vigorous and thorough mixing was carried out. Be sure to mix everything thoroughly and remove any clumps and inconsistencies from the sides and bottom of the mug itself.

Once all the ingredients have been incorporated, the mug was then placed in the microwave for three and a half minutes on high. This time may vary based on the wattage of your microwave. Most people call this the one minute mug brownie so I recommend starting off with one minute, then check to see if its finished. If not keep increasing by one minute each time until it has been properly baked. You can usually tell when the brownie begins to rise within the mug and the surface no longer is shiny and wet.

Just What I Needed!

I cannot stress enough how much of an awesome thing finding this recipe was for me during this quarantine! My sweet tooth cravings have been satisfied wholly without even leaving my home! No eggs, no butter no baking soda or powder! Be sure not to over cook it as it dries out and you wont get that brilliant chocolatey fudgeyness/ gooey centre. Try it out and let me know how it goes and the modifications to the recipe you did if any! Thanks for reading, Cheers!