Hello everybody,
Easy chocolate brownie recipe for kids. I hope you are all well. We are still stuck in lockdown, so what better way to spend the time than making yummy chocolate brownies. Brownies are a classic and must be your favourite because they certainly are mine. Brownies are super easy to make as all the ingredients are in your cupboard because they are every day ingredients. The big question is… how do you like your brownies? Cakey or fudgy? They are basically two kinds of brownies: cake-like and fudgy. Both typically call for different amounts of chocolate and consequently generate different final results. Today I have the help of my little girl and mummy just in case we need her..
Here are all the ingredients that you will need to make these chocolatey treats:
- 200 grams of semi-sweet dark chocolate
- 1/2 grams of unsalted butter
- 1 cup of granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup of brown sugar
- 3 medium size eggs
- 1/4 tsp of salt
- 1 tsp of vanilla essence
- 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup of cocoa powder
Now I have all my ingredients prepared. Let’s get baking!
The official instructions
- First, grease a 7×7 inch dark metal pan with melted butter and line with parchment paper, leaving some paper to overhang on all sides (it will make it easy later on!)
- Then, preheat your oven at 350℉ (180℃).
- Fill a saucepan with some water (less than half will do the trick) and bring it to a simmer.
- In the meantime, cut the chocolate into small pieces and place them in a heat resistant bowl.
- Place the bowl on top of the simmering water making sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the water.
- Then, add your butter to the bowl with the chocolate and whisk together until it is all melted into a sauce-like texture.
- After the chocolate completely melts and becomes smooth, take it off the heart and let it cool.
- In the meantime, in a separate bowl, pour in both sugars.
- Now add 1 egg at a time and mix properly using a hand whisk.
- When the mixture is a little creamy add the salt, the vanilla essence, and the cooled chocolate and butter mixture.
- Mix everything well. The batter will have a thicker consistency.
- Finally, sift the flour and the cocoa powder into the bowl and carefully fold them into the mixture using a spatula.
- Now pour the batter into the prepared baking pan then gently shake and tap the tin couple of times to spread the batter evenly.
- Bake it in preheated oven for about 40 minutes.
- When your brownie is baked take it out of the oven and let it cool for at least 15 minutes.
- Now slice them into 9 squares and enjoy your warm fudgy brownies.
How Daddy and his girl made brownies
Okay, we are going to show you how it is done. Let’s start ladies and gents.
Step one
To get the boring bits out the way, my daughter let me preheat the oven which I suggest all adults do first before starting anything else.
Then we have to melt the chocolate and butter together. I filled the pan half high with water and put the mixing bowl on top.
Then we broke the chocolate into squares to put in the bowl. Well… what was left of it after I kept sneaking chunks without my little princess noticing.
Then I cut the butter with a knife into small cubes as it is easier to melt and put them in with the chocolate.
Now, it is time to start mixing the ingredients until it is all melted together (or until we get bored because we want to taste it.) It is important that an adult does the stirring as the pot is balancing over very hot water, so we don’t want any spillages or accidents.
After what seemed to be a lifetime and three versions of the song ‘Let It Go’ from Frozen sung, the butter and chocolate was melted. It should be nice, runny and look like chocolate sauce or hot chocolate. Try your best not to dip your finger in to taste it.
While we wait for that to cool down, we got the baking tray ready. I highly recommend a square tin, but we had to make do with a round one as we did not have a square tin at hand. We cut over a piece of grease proof paper and put it at the bottom of the tin and then brushed some melted butter around the sides of the tin. This will stop the brownies sticking to the tin and then having Mummy complain about the washing up, so thank me later.
The next step was to find another mixing bowl which was much harder to do especially when Daddy becomes lazy tidying away and chucks all the cooking tools in one cupboard without any organisational skills. After around five minutes of digging deep we managed to find one.
We added the granulated sugar and brown sugar into the mixing bowl. When I say we I mean my daughter. She was super strict in telling me that she was doing that job, so Daddy just watched.
Then we started to add the eggs one at a time and started mixing. I suggest adding one egg then mixing it into the other ingredients before adding another. It just means that all the eggs have been incorporated evenly without ruining the mixture. Plus, it gives Daddy time to dig out any egg shells that may have be left in the mixture.
Fun fact: the more eggs you use the more fudgier your brownies are going to be.
Once all the ingredients are mixed together, it is time to add the vanilla essence and the salt. However, we were having too much fun mixing and forgot about this stage, so please do remember to add them at this point. I also advise that you don’t taste this mixture as it has raw egg in it. Raw eggs are not very good for the tummy and can make you ill very quickly.
The next step is putting the mixture into the melted chocolate. This may need the help from an adult as the bowl can be quite heavy and you certainly don’t want to drop it as this stage as you are so close to getting delicious brownies.
You should be left with flour and cocoa powder. Next, we sift the flour and cocoa powder into the mixture. You can do them one at a time if you prefer, but it is okay if your wee one can’t wait and puts them both into the sieve. It is all part of the fun.
Imogen then mixed it all together until it was lovely and smooth. It certainly gave her the lockdown exercise that I didn’t need. She clearly had better muscles than me after the stirring. This step should only take between 2 – 5 minutes depending on how quickly your child can do it. Once all the ingredients are incorporated, it is important not to overmix your batter. Overmixing your batter can cause you to let in too much air into the brownies, which can lead to a change in texture.
With help from Mummy we pulled the mixture into the baking tin. Make sure to spread the mixture evenly across the tin.
Did you know there is a reason why recipes call for certain types of pans. Even a couple of inches makes a huge difference. For example, thinner brownies in a longer, flatter pan cook faster than thicker brownies in a smaller, taller pan, so be sure to monitor the cooking time and adjust accordingly. No one wants overcooked or crispy brownies.
Now comes the most important bit of the whole activity…. Can you take a guess? It’s time to lick the bowl, why does it taste so good at this point.
Imogen really had a good go, but as Daddy is the adult he has to take over. Certainly as he did most of the hard work of watching her pour in the ingredients and mix them all together. Who is with me?
Daddy then put it into the oven to bake. Remember to always let the adult put the tray in the oven. At this point it is best to check it every 10 minutes, but try not to open the oven door frequently as it lets out all the heat.
After around 40 minutes it was ready to take out the oven. As always let the adult take the pan out of the oven as it will be extremely hot.
We took it out the tin to cool down. Diving into the delicious warmly baked pan of brownies sounds great, but it’s important to let them cool first. Here are a few tips that I suggest if you are like me and don’t want to wait:
Create an ice bath with a shallow roasting pan. As soon as the brownie pan emerges from the oven, place it into the cold tin. This will essentially shock the brownies causing them to immediately stop cooking.
Doing this could shorten the time it takes to cool, so you can dive into them and enjoy your creation quicker. However, we decided to wait naturally as my daughter wanted to play dolls with me.
After an hour of cooling down it was time to cut the brownie up into pieces. If you have cracks on the top of the brownie don’t worry because it happens. It is part of the texture which you can enjoy later on. As you can see in the photos we weren’t that bothered about cutting them into even squares because we wanted to eat them as soon as possible. As brownies are hard to photograph because they are just one colour.
These brownies are so yummy and easy to make. It is our family’s go to classic homemade recipe. These brownies are fudgy, chewy and have lots of chocolate flavour which is what makes them so perfect. Plus, you can customise them to suit any occasion, for example for Christmas add in some peppermint or nuts and for Easter add in some caramel.
I am going to say what these pictures can’t ever express. These brownies, they melt in your mouth. They are gooey and moist and incredibly rich (so small portions for children and massive portions for adults are recommended.) And they are outrageously ADDICTING. I have to hide these whenever I make them because I will and can eat the whole pan in one sitting.
I hope you enjoyed the recipe and find it useful. Please comment below to tell me how you got on as I would love to see all the pictures. I am off now to make something else with my daughter, but you will have to wait to find out.
Gavin Smith,
If you enjoyed our easy chocolate brownie recipe for kids, Please check out our other yummy creations here.