Brownie Bites

Do you ever get asked to bring "a plate of cookies" to a church activity or a party?  Recently I've been making brownie bites when I need to come up with a treat fairly quickly.  You could make a pan of brownies and cut them up into small pieces (a firmer brownie would work better).  But, if you have mini-cupcake pans you can bake the brownies in there--they look great and you avoid most of the crumbling brownie mess.

I go the easy route and use a boxed brownie mix (Betty Crocker Fudge Brownies for a 9x13" pan are my favorite basic mix). 

Brownie Bites
1 box of brownie mix, mixed according to directions
1-2 cups chocolate frosting
chocolate kisses or small peanut butter cups (optional)

Spray each individual cup in a mini-cupcake pan with a shot of baking spray.  Carefully scoop (a small cookie scoop works great) a small amount of batter into each cup--filling them about half-way. 

Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 12 minutes.  Be careful to not bake them too long!  (They should cook for about as long as cookies take in your oven.)  Remove them from the oven and let cool for a short time before removing the brownies to cool on a rack.  I use a butter knife to gently go around the edge of each brownie if they need help to come out.

You can serve them plain, but they are wonderful with a dab of chocolate frosting on top (or mint flavored frosting! or any other great frosting!).  The frosting keeps them soft and chewy.  I also like to add an unwrapped chocolate kiss or small peanut butter cup on top--that makes a special treat. Just put a dab of frosting on with a knife and squish the candy on top--super easy.  {A handy tip is to buy these kinds of candies after a major holiday and store them in the freezer--then you can unwrap them and put them on the brownie bites and nobody has to know that they were from the last holiday's clearance section.}

I like my Wilton Mini Cupcake pans.  I have two of them and they each have a space for 24 brownie bites.  I've found that one box of brownie mix makes about 40 brownie bites. 

I finally also used these pans recently to make mini-cupcakes.  One box of mix made more than 48 mini-cupcakes.  For the cupcakes I did use the small cupcake papers--they worked great!