MAKE IT CUTE

Skip the box of chocolates this Valentine’s Day. Feel all warm 'n' fuzzy inside when you bake up these delish fudge brownies. Spice up these treats by adding pink frosting and heart-shaped sprinkles! The perf combo of chocolate goodness and Cupid's Day cheer!

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter or margarine
4 ounces unsweetened bakers chocolate (4 squares)
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/3 brown sugar, packed
1  1/2 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup unbleached white flour

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil a 9-inch-square pan. In a medium saucepan, melt butter and chocolate over low heat. In a large bowl, beat eggs and sugar with a mixer until fluffy. Slowly mix in melted chocolate and vanilla. Add the flour and beat on low just until mixed. Pour into the baking pan and put in the oven. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, just until a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out almost clean.

2. Cool for one hour before cutting into squares. Lightly dust the brownies with powdered sugar just before you give them away. (They must be completely cooked first.) Place them in a container lined with plastic wrap. Freeze or give to friends. These brownies taste fudgier the next day!

3. Instead of powdered sugar, try pink frosting! Make your brownies fab by topping them with heart-shaped sprinkles, or spell out love messages using red edible squeeze-gel, which you can find at any grocery store in the baking isle.

 -Elizabeth Vassal

1/29/2010 8:00:00 AM