Mid-week Bake Break

Hello, all!

Last week, J and KK had a long mid-week break. Thanks to QC Day, Ninoy Aquino Day and the PTC day scheduled in between, my little ones had a nice long hiatus at home.

As expected, by Day 2, big brother J was bored already and asked me to bake with him. Nothing too complicated, one of our usual baking mix concoctions, but it's always a fun time for J. For KK? Well, the fun is in the finished product.

We usually make banana bread, but we were all out of bananas. The only box mix left in our pantry was a Maya Kitchen brownie mix, which is a new one for J, so he was really excited to try that out.

What I love about using a baking mix is that it's pretty simple. Just a few extra ingredients and you're good to go. Plus, there are simple, graphic instructions in the back, which J can decipher for himself, and makes for a great lesson in counting and following procedures.

My handsome assistant, holding the extra ingredients we need.

The first step in the instructions called for using creamed butter, not melted, so if you're hankering for some brownies, make sure to leave the butter out before you start baking to soften it a bit. In our tropical climate? Ten to fifteen minutes should be enough to get your butter all gooey.

Busy greasing the pan, while Mommy was mixing the batter.

Greasing the pan is one of J's usual tasks, because he likes to pretend that he's painting. I, on the other hand, was so busy talking to him that I forgot to take a picture of the batter. Anyway, it ends up a lot more viscous than the banana bread mix, so it gets a bit heavy after a while. Here's a picture of the batter all spread out in the pan. The instruction called for a smaller baking dish, but this was all I had, so our brownies turned out a lot thinner than expected.

Gooey, chocolatey goodness!

We loosely covered the dish with foil and popped it into the oven, but silly mommy forgot to make sure the dish could fit in the oven before pouring the batter into it. Of course, it was too big for our oven, so we had to bake it for twice as long because the oven door was left open. It still turned out pretty well though.

The finished product, as it cooled down on the kitchen table.

Sadly, I wasn't able to get pictures of it all sliced up, but it was good enough for my picky little eaters, who had it for their snack. Because we used a slightly larger baking dish, our brownies ended up a bit crispy on the outside, but still soft and gooey on the inside, which for me, is the perfect combo.

Best part is, aside from the baking dish, this is all we had to wash after we were done.

Clean up was a breeze!

I have to say, so far, Maya Kitchen mixes have yet to fail me, so they're a staple in our pantry. Pick one up on your next grocery run, so when the sweet tooth craving hits, you'll be ready.

That's all for now!