Have you ever seen Lucas the Spider? Basically, the most adorable spider the Internet has ever seen. Oh, you haven't? Well here's a little intro. And if you have, I'm sure you'll want to see it again anyways.
Now that I've gotten you to love spiders, I can start talking about these spider web brownie treats and how spiders came to be associated with Halloween.
What is it that makes spiders spooky and mysterious? Is it their dark, hairy legs? Is it their creepily giant eyes in proportion to their body? Is it that they can fly by spitting out a web string into midair and gliding with the wind? It actually is traced back to the ancient times. Spiders were once depicted as magical creatures for the intricate webs they spun. Then when witchcraft and magic became hunted and despised, these little creatures got thrown in the mix. Which is quite sad because these little guys are so helpful to our ecosystem.
Whether seeing a spider makes you jump on tables and screaming frantically until someone comes to squash it for you or makes you hurriedly capture them to release them into the wild, there is something to be said for how elaborate and sophisticated their webs are. I'm nowhere near a decent artist (I see use potato spuds and paint to stamp designs). But I attempted my hand at replicating spider webs on these tiny brownie bites. Good luck to all you spider web spinners!
INGREDIENTS
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate
3/4 cup coconut oil
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tbsp instant espresso
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 package Ghirardelli White Chocolate Melting Wafers, melted
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat oven 350F.
Melt coconut oil and chocolate in microwave.
In electric mixing bowl cream coconut oil, chocolate, vanilla, and brown sugar together. Slowly combine eggs, instant espresso, salt, baking soda, and flour into the mixing bowl.
Pour mixture into a mini-muffin tin. Bake for 30 minutes or until set in the middle.
Transfer brownies onto a cooling rack, let cool for 10 minutes.
Transfer melted white chocolate into a piping bag or plastic bag with a snipped corner. Pipe out a large circle just inside the border of the brownie bite, then a smaller circle within the first circle. Lastly pipe a dot in the center of the brownie bite. From the center-outwards, drag a toothpick in a straight line until you have created 6-8 lines through the circle. Now you have a spider web. Enjoy!