Every kid (and big person) loves brownies and there is not much easier on a busy day than a brownie mix. But brownies can be messy with crumbs on the floor and sticky fingers too. So why not put them in a paper cup like with a muffin? No more mess, easy to pack, and you can decorate them too.
Stick them in a school lunch, use them as an after school snack, or just anytime. Neat idea.
But baking brownies in paper liners is different that baking cupcakes in paper liners. Baking times and temperatures may be different, maybe more.
So we picked up brownie mixes from the grocery store and several from our store and went to work. They all worked just fine. Here’s what we found.
Place the paper liners in a muffin pan and fill the paper cups two-thirds full. Brownies from most packages will rise just enough to fill the paper cups when filled this full.
From most store packages, we could get 12 to 14 brownies made the size of muffins.
Consistently, the ideal baking time in our ovens were 20 minutes at 350 degrees.
Mix the brownies according to package instructions, fill the paper liners two-thirds full, and bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. That’s all.
Now about those decorations . . .
Jennifer Merrill is our operations manager and a cake decorator. She decorated these brownies for us.
The tops of brownies are frosted. The props—the book, the pencil, the apple, and more—were made with Starburst® and Tootsie Roll® candies. She simply pressed them between her thumb and forefinger a few times to soften them
and molded them to the shapes she wanted. She made letters with tiny bits of soften candies. Taffy works too.
So when you want to do this at home, let the kids help with the decorations.
