When my girl was still in preschool, her birthday was celebrated in school with a homemade cake and goodies gift bags for her friends. They have the luxury of time to celebrate and to enjoy the cake. Now that she is in primary school, celebrating birthday in school is not so feasible with the short recess break. I tried that last year and regretted! The children had only 30 minutes to gather, sing a birthday song, gobble down the cake, grab a goodie bag just before the bell rings! There is only one word to describe the scene - CHAOS. I was so sad to see my painstakingly-created little house cake being "torn-apart" within minutes! Having learnt my lesson, this year I make it much... much easier :)
A simple, easy to bake chocolate brownie for the goodie bags. These chocolate brownies are really easy to handle and they taste really good - moist and gooey!! Since they are for little children, I thought the brownies look a little plain on its own, so I spread a thin layer of chocolate ganache on the brownies, before topping it with colourful mini marshmallows. Gosh .... I thought this marshmallow brownie looks like Candy Crush too!
Ingredients:
(makes 25 squares, approximately 4cm x 4cm each)
200g dark chocolate
150g butter
4 medium-sized eggs (55g each) + a pinch of salt
150g fine sugar
100g plain flour + 40g cocoa powder (sift together)
2 to 3 cups of mini marshmallows
Chocolate gananche*
*I did not measure the specific amount. Just need to stir some dark chocolate with a little hot cream till you have a thick spreading chocolatey consistency.
Method:
1) First, combine the dark chocolate and butter in a bowl. Place the bowl over a pot of hot simmering water. Stir the chocolate mixture till all the chocolate and butter have melted. Leave the mixture to cool as you prepare the other steps.
2) Lightly grease and line a square pan (I used a 25cm x 25 cm pan).
3) Whisk the eggs, salt and sugar together till creamy and pale (about double its original volume). Fold in the cool chocolate mixture to combine the eggs and the chocolate together. Next, gently fold the combined sifted flour into the batter.
4) Pour half the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle half the mini marshmallows (the other half reserved as toppings) over the batter. Pour the remaining batter to cover the marshmallows. You may need to use a spatula to spread the brownie batter to ensure even thickness.
5) Bake the brownie in a preheated oven of 180C for about 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from oven and cool the brownie in the baking pan (do not remove immediately from pan or the brownie will break or crack). Remove the brownie by lifting it up together with the lined baking paper.
6) Spread the chocolate ganache on the brownie and sprinkle with the reserved mini marshmallows. Lightly press the marshmallow onto the ganache and leave it to set for another hour at room temperature.
7) Cut the brownies into 16 or 25 square pieces.
[Recipe adapted from BBC Good Food]
Within a short while, we have these delicious marshmallow and chocolate treats wrapped up in small goodie bags.
