Great Cookbooks for Families: Cook It In a Cup

Reviewed by Katy Killilea

Cupcakes and muffins are one thing, but rice? Fish? It turns out there are lots of things longing to be muffin-size. This little kit will set you and your kids up to make twenty-nine yummy foods, from lasagna to classic crumb cakes. They will all be cupcake shaped, and just the right size for a small tummy.

The spiral-bound cookbook is also just the right size for little hands, and the recipes are simple and fully illustrated with photos. The book comes in a box with six silicone muffin cups, each a different bright color. After you start cooking from this book, you begin to look at the world with new eyes. Just as hungry characters in Looney Toons see members of their cohort turn into roasted chickens, everywhere you look, you will see foodstuffs become muffin-shaped.

My cooking partner chose our first project, so we made the brownies and they were delicious. You can make these in any silicone muffin cup, or even in a regular muffin pan fitted with paper liners. We halved the recipe to make just six brownies, since that’s how many cups we had; the ingredients listed here are for six muffin shape brownies.

Brownies from Cook It In a Cup

Ingredients:
1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, chopped
one-half stick of butter
1 egg
cup sugar
teaspoon vanilla extract
cup flour
pinch of salt
cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Melt the butter and unsweetened chocolate together.
3. In another bowl, beat the egg. Add the sugar and mix well.
4. Add the chocolate-butter mixture and mix thoroughly.
5. Add the vanilla, flour, and salt. Stir until combined.
6. Stir in the chocolate chips.
7. Divide the batter evenly among the cups. They will be filled almost to the top.
8. Bake for 30 minutes or until the tops crack. Insert a toothpick to see if the brownies are done in the center.

Note from Katy: The recipe calls for you to remove the brownies from the cups after 15 minutes, but we forgot. No harm done, and we had fun choosing our favorite color cup at dessert time.

The details:
Cook It In a Cup
By Julia Myall
Chronicle Books
$16.99