Francine's Bat Wing Brownies

Arthur the Aardvark is one of the most fun kid lit characters I can think of.  He's a little bit of a goody-two-shoes, but for a picture book character, he's a lot of fun, and definitely not boring.  And because the series of books was out for about two decades before the television series started, I think I can use these on the blog.  I will not, however, be doing anything with Dora the Explorer.

Anyhow.  Arthur's Halloween, written and illustrated by Marc Brown, is the story of Arthur, an aardvark who is afraid of Halloween.  He doesn't recognize anybody in his class - even the teacher has been replaced by a giant robot! - and nothing is the way it should be.  And why on Earth would anybody want to touch eyeballs, even if they are just peeled grapes?  Arthur doesn't even want to go trick-or-treating, because it's too scary. 

It all turns out okay in the end when Arthur and his sister meet a "witch" and find out that she's really just an older woman whose house is in disrepair because she can't take care of it easily.  He's such a nice aardvark, he even promised to come help her around the house on the weekend.  I love a happy ending.

Before all this, though, while they're at school, Arthur's friend Francine brings in a special treat, that Arthur is too nervous to enjoy - Bat Wing Brownies and Blood Punch!  The Blood Punch in this photo is just cherry Kool-Aid, but the brownies... now, those are special.

Francine's Bat Wing Brownies
1/2 cup of butter, melted
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350.  Grease an 8x8 or 9x9 pan.  If you want to make a larger pan of brownies, you will need to double the recipe; this isn't one of those where they say to use a small pan but it can fit in a big pan and be thinner, as they aren't that thick to begin with.
2. Mix together the melted butter and white sugar.  Add the eggs and beat well.  Add the rest of the ingredients, and mix that together.  Pour into the prepared baking pan.
3. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the edges are firm. 

To make them into bat wings, I contemplated a cookie cutter to get a real bat wing shape, but I figured that Francine's poor hard-working parents would have enough to do without cutting brownies into individual bat shapes, so I found another way.  I cut the brownies into rectangles and then bisected the rectangles to get two right triangles.  I then put a dot of decorator's gel on the inner points for spooky red bat eyes.  Serve with Blood Punch and you're all set!