Brownie in a mug

Have you ever watched the Barefoot Contessa on the Food Network?  The host, Ina Garten, always makes a point of saying "good" olive oil, "good" vanilla extract, etc. when she's going through her ingredients. Even though the internet sometimes makes fun of Ina for her insistent (and some might say snobby) ways, I believe she has a point (she's also one of my lifestyle idols, so to me, she's fabulous). Using high-quality ingredients is never a bad thing. You can feel good about cooking with them because "high-quality" often (though not always) means they're the real thing - so you're dealing with less chemicals and human tampering that often weaken food products. But most importantly, they just taste better.

Which brings me to this week's simple recipe: brownie in a mug. It's not haute cuisine, it's not an Ina Garten recipe, it's not even small-batch twee. Truth be told, it's a little ghetto. But sometimes you just need a brownie, and if you use good vanilla extract and good cocoa powder, then you'll end up with a delicious dessert in a pinch.

The recipe:

2 Tbs butter, melted
2 Tbs water
1/4 tsp good vanilla extract (I, like Ina, use Nielsen-Massey)
1 dash salt
2 Tbs good cocoa powder (I use Scharffen Berger)
3 Tbs sugar
2 Tbs flour

With a fork, mix the butter, water, vanilla and salt in a mug. Add cocoa powder, mix until combined. Do the same for the sugar, then the flour. Batter should resemble "real" brownie batter.

Cook on high in your microwave anywhere from 45-90 seconds. It took a few times in our super-powerful microwave to get it exactly right. The center should be a bit molten. And do follow the cardinal rule of brownie baking: don't overcook!

I imagine this would be great with a scoop of (good!) ice cream, but honestly if I had the ice cream, I probably wouldn't have attempted this in the first place.

Enjoy!