Although they look like ordinary mini brownies, they are not, and they are bursting with vibrant flavors. Their secret is orange zest.
These brownies are relatively basic. They’re made with butter, sugar, chocolate, flour, eggs, and vanilla extract. Adding orange zest gives the recipe an excellent brightness. I used almost a whole orange zest, so the orange flavor was very pronounced. I think the zest is what makes these brownies stand out from just a regular brownie. Chocolate and orange go great together. My husband makes chocolate Cointreau souffle, which I remember from my childhood.
As a special treat for my husband’s seven-year-old son, I made these to take to the beach for a weekend vacation. I left out the white chocolate topping since he is pretty much the pickiest eater on the planet (primarily because he is continually fed junk and fast food when he is not with us). Since the orange zest was already a concern, I wanted to give him a chance to eat them. The good news, he liked them and didn’t complain about the orange flavor. I also decided to use semi-sweet and milk chocolate instead of bittersweet since these were for tiny taste buds.
I scanned the Q&A but didn’t find any mention of the weird thing that happened to my brownies. They had all collapsed into the silicone pan as I was removing them from it. The tops of the pillows were fluffy, but the bottoms had sunk, more like they had been sucked in from above. How did this happen? Does anyone know?