TT: Can you bake brownies in a toaster oven?

This week, we are officially renovating the kitchen. I won’t go into much details on the renovation, as I’ll have a blog post on that soon. Since we removed the main appliances (stove and oven), I am left with using the countertop toaster oven and I really wanted to bake brownies… so this is how we got to the point of asking “Can you bake brownies in a toaster oven?”.

I’m going to save you time, and not make you read the whole thing just to find the answer. But yes – you can bake brownies in the toaster oven… but make sure you have the right baking pan that will fit.

I’m a huge fan of Ghirardelli’s brownie mix. I love how there are different varieties: you can get the plain brownies, brownies with nuts, dark chocolate, triple chocolate, etc. I have the Caramel Turtle mix. which has walnut and caramel. YUM! I literally always have a few boxes of brownie mix in the pantry. Super simple to make and you most likely have the rest of the ingredients on hand. It calls for 1/4 cup of water, 1/3 cup of vegetable oil, and one egg. Easy! Let’s get started!

In a mixing bowl, I mixed the wet ingredients (water, oil, and egg) and then mixed in the dry ingredients which was all in this pre-made brownie mix bag.

The tricky part? I usually bake brownies in an 8×11 pan. I haven’t gotten around to purchase a standard brownie pan (8×8 or 9×9); I never had any problem using the 8×11 pan, and I’m not one to fix what’s not broken. Unfortunately, all my square/rectangular baking pans are either too big or too small. BUT, I do have a cake pan (9×3) that is the “perfect” size. Unfortunately, that means I have to give up the best part of brownies (crispy corner pieces).

I sprayed the pan with my trusty PAM baking spray, so the brownie can come out easy.

**PRO TIP: If you’re new to baking or don’t know about this technique: use a baking spray or butter your pan before you add the ingredients. After it’s done baking, your dish would easily come out of the baking pan. Less hassle and mess!

After adding the brownie mix, I almost forgot to add the caramel! Don’t do what I did, but I accidentally cut the opening too big so I have chunks of caramel coming out. I recommend you cutting just a corner and slowly squeeze out a thin line. Here’s a short <10 seconds video on how to make beautiful swirls on your dish. This can be applied on anything: cheesecake, cake, brownies, etc.!

Into the toaster oven it goes! I had the oven pre-heating while I was prepping the dish. I baked it at the temperature and time that the instruction recommended (with the 9×3 baking pan, I followed the 8×8 instructions) and to my surprise – it was still accurate! I wasn’t sure if it would bake faster since it’s a much smaller than a standard oven.

I’m not going to lie – I thought this would turn out to be a disaster, but she came out beautiful. I decided to cut it into “pizza” slices (I know.. go ahead and judge me), and she is delicious. P thinks it is tasty and would happily continue eating it. Doesn’t hit the spot as a corner piece will do, but for a toaster oven brownie – it did it’s job!

I actually enjoyed baking it in the toaster oven. The pre-heating took a short amount of time, and because the toaster oven is much smaller than a standard oven – I felt like I saved some electricity/gas! I know, I’m being ridiculous. Bottom line – yes, yes you can bake brownies in a toaster oven.

Please let me know down in the comments below if there’s anything you want me to try. I’m still on the fence with this “Thursday Tries”, as everything I have posted on TT has been food. I am debating should I name this Foodie Friday since it’s mostly, if not all, about food. Of course if I did that, I’ll upload on Fridays. TBD. As always, thank you for joining me today and hope to see you next time!