Sasha's Kitchen: Miniature Chocolate Brownies

Instead of making regular chocolate brownies, I decided to make miniature chocolate brownies, using my new Wilton silicon mini brownie tray that was a gift from my mom.  Like I have said in some of my previous posts, miniature food is so cute and adorable and fun to eat.  I'm not sure there's any health benefit though to making the food smaller, since I ate at least four of the little chocolate brownies.  I'm always loved chocolate brownies and most recipes to make brownies from scratch are actually quite simple and always come out perfectly.  

When making miniature brownies, you only need about a teaspoon or so of batter for each brownie, so the total size of the mix can be decreased.  I made about half the amount of mix that I would have made to fill a normal 8x8 brownie pan.  Because i think miniature food is great for brunch, I think these would make a great brunch dessert.  However, they are also fabulous for snacking on any time you want a bit of chocolate fudge indulgence.  If you prefer to make full size brownies, you can double this recipe.

Miniature Chocolate Brownies  (Modified and Adapted from Martha Stewart's Chocolate Fudge Brownie Recipe in Her Baking Handbook)

4 T unsalted butter

5 oz bittersweet chocolate

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

pinch of salt

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup plus 1/8 cup flour

Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Melt the chocolate and the butter in a double boiler.  If you don't have a double boiler, you can simply make one by placing a small metal bowl with the chocolate and the butter over a pot of boiling water.  Then, mix in the sugar.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and add the vanilla.  Stir in the flour and pinch of salt.  Bake for about 30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean when you test the brownies.  It took me thirty minutes, which is less than it would take for full sized brownies.  These were delicious!

To make an entire miniature brunch, check out my recipes for mini key lime cheesecakes and mini frittatas.

Sasha's Kitchen: Miniature Chocolate Brownies

Sasha's Kitchen: Baby Frittatas: Miniature Brunch Part II

Today,  I am going to make suggestions for a miniature themed brunch party, because I think tiny food is just perfect for brunch.  I prepared a second recipe on the small scale using my silicon muffin tray - miniature vegetable frittatas.  They were simple to make and delicious.  For a miniature brunch party (brunch on the bite-sized scale), I propose the following menu, all recipes from this site:

Mini Vegetable Frittatas (recipe below)
Sasha's Caesar Salad
Margie's Strawberries Romanoff
Sasha's Mini Key Lime Cheesecakes (yesterday's recipe for Miniature Food Part I)
Shooters of brunch cocktails (i.e. mimosas, blood mary etc.) served in shot glasses

The frittatas were very simple - first use Pam or Crisco to spray the silicon muffin tray.  Then, mix the following ingredients (of choose other vegetables more to your liking)

8 eggs, scrambled
broccoli heads, chopped
2/3 of a red pepper, diced
1 shallot, diced
1/3 of a cup crumbled goat cheese
10 toothpicks
10 grape tomatoes

Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Combine the vegetables with the eggs, just like if you were making an omelet or frittata.  Leave the tomatoes out for now, as they come later.  Fill the silicon muffin tray cups with the egg-vegetable mixture and make for about 15 minutes (until the frittatas are done and fully cooked, but not burnt).

When you take them out, you can scoop them out of the trays using a serving spoon, doing so carefully so as to keep the frittatas in tact.  Then, top with a toothpick and a mini tomato (I used grape tomatoes, but yellow heirloom mini tomatoes would be lovely in the summer).

You now have a delicious entree for the perfect miniature themed brunch party.  These were adorable and delicious.  Much better than making a large omelet that always disappoints when I have trouble folding it up nicely in the end.  You could make these with pretty much any vegetable you like in an omelet or frittata, and can substitute egg whites for the full eggs.

Check out my miniature key lime cheesecakes, yesterday's recipe, here.  Click here for Margie's brunch entree, of crunchy french toast.

Frittata

Sasha's Kitchen: Baby Frittatas: Miniature Brunch Part II