Warm individual brownies with ice cream

I don't watch a lot of TV in general but I do watch plenty of cooking shows.  I DVR my favorites (Giada deLaurentiis, Ina Garten, The Pioneer Woman, The Chew, The Cook's Illustrated shows on PBS...) but sometimes, I use the shows more as background noise while I'm thumbing through magazines or reading rather than something I'm watching earnestly.  It's not very often I'll watch a show that captures my undivided attention and makes me want to run into the kitchen to make a particular dish...

But it happened a couple of months ago when I was watching Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa.  The premise was cooking restaurant food at home and it caught my attention when she started talking about re-creating a fish dish she had at Spago and then making a visit to Rao's in New York (that restaurant that's virtually impossible to get a reservation into).  Man, the food on this show looked amazing!  I wanted to make the prosciutto wrapped bass and skillet brownies right away!

I couldn't stop thinking about that dessert...warm (practically hot) individual brownies made in cute little individual portion skillets, served right from the oven with vanilla ice cream!  That pretty much sums up my ideal dessert!  The only problem was I didn't/don't have 3 1/2 inch mini cast iron skillets!  I actually thought about buying some but I knew that wouldn't be a smart move, particularly without even trying the recipe first.  I figured I could use ramekins but those little skillets really do look adorable! 

So my lack of mini skillets kept me from making these warm individual brownies for a while.  I finally decided to use these disposable baking cups from Garnish, a site I discovered recently and just adore!  You could definitely bake these individual brownies in ramekins, disposable pie tins or a cast iron skillet of whatever size you have (to share, family-style).  You'll need to adjust the baking time depending on what size dish you use but it's relatively easy to tell when the brownies are ready - they will puff up slightly, crust and firm up on top, but should still have a little wiggle to them when lightly moved.  You don't want to over bake them. 

These are very much like molten chocolate cake, only with a bonus crusty top.  And we seriously loved the crust on these brownies that you can literally pick off with your fingers and eat.  Just crack into that sweet, crusty, chewy surface and spoon your way into the soft, warm, gooey center.  Topped with some homemade vanilla ice cream, it was a delicious after lunch dessert for us on a recent Sunday.  

I couldn't get this simple dessert out of my mind and I'm sure glad I tried it.  If I had any complaint, I'd say the brownies were just a tad sweeter than necessary but that's just me being picky.  And by the way, I made the prosciutto roasted bass featured on the same show less than a week after watching it and that was delicious too! (I skipped the roasted vegetables and just baked the fish and topped it with a simple squeeze of lemon.  The ham really kept the fish moist and added a great salty flavor.)

I've been doing a few brownie recipes lately but it's just the kind of simple yet utterly satisfying dessert I love to bake and eat!