EASTER BROWNIE POPS

Corn dogs, fudgsicles, lollipops, candy apples, shish kebabs and the like have a good thing going. Who can resist food when you impale it?

It's fun. Kids love it. You can't be grumpy or sad holding stick food.

One of the few difficult words my 2 year old can say is "lollipop". Well, actually she calls them "yawyeeepops". She doesn't really get them very often at all but for some reason, she knows the word.

On a recent excursion to Michaels with my 40% coupon, I discovered Wilton Brownie Pop molds. The tray makes 8 pops and is made of silicone. I think that when another coupon comes along I'll have to get another tray because one tray isn't sufficient to bake a full brownie recipe. I had to wait until one tray baked and cooled to make the second batch. A full brownie recipe makes 16 big brownie pops. I suppose you could make more pops...you just make them smaller. Mine were pretty big though.

I used Alice Medrich's Best Cocoa Brownie recipe and since there was no leavening agent, there wasn't a problem with leaving the batter to sit on the counter waiting for the first tray to be done. The brownies held up well and didn't fall off the sticks...and they even dipped well for me: no crumbs in my white candy melts!

I used the Wilton melted white candy melts to make bunny ears. On parchment paper, I used a small rubber spatula to smear ear shapes...and allowed them to cool. I used a sharp pointed knife to make "ear-holes" at the top of the brownie pop so that I could insert the dried ears in carefully. They're delicate but it worked!

I even used the candy melts to help anchor the right-side up brownie pops onto a disc of unmelted white candy; creating a little pedestal. This kind of looks like a basket but I was too lazy to pipe basket handles from royal icing. Instead, I dipped the top of the basket in more melted white candy and sprinkled it with green sanding sugar to look like "grass"; then I plopped some candy-coated chocolate eggs on top. They kind of look like baskets. I know that green-tinted dessicated coconut would have made for better grass but I hate the texture of dessicated coconut in my food.

But I digress.