Top this box mix

TOFFEE AND PRETZELS ON A BROWNIE FROM A BOX 

I was missing my oven – wonky as it is – and needed to use it. I didn't want to bake anything with a lot of ingredients or with too much prep work, so to the pantry I went and came out with:

• A box of Ghirardelli Chocolate Supreme brownie mix;
• A packet of Werther's Original toffee; and
• A bag of mini salty pretzels I had brought back from the US (it had been in my checked-in baggage and didn't get crushed!).

    I know it's not difficult to make brownies from scratch and this is sort of cheating, but I like Ghirardelli brownie mixes, and am not ashamed to say I use them. Their brownies don't have the synthetic after-taste of many other box mixes. The similarity is that you add egg, oil and water.
    I had read about brownies with a topping of salty pretzels and toffee and when I typed "pretzel and toffee brownies" into Google, I got 419,000 results in 0.15 seconds. And so I thought I might make the 419,001st brownie with a topping of pretzels and toffee.

The components

    I assembled the components, chopped up the toffee, mixed up the brownie batter, filled 13 cupcake cases (a 12-cup muffin pan and an extra mould) with it and topped each portion with toffee pieces and one mini pretzel, which was broken up roughly. I baked the cupcakes as directed and out came something I could get used to. They were a little sweet but a glass of cold milk was the perfect counter to that.

Salty and sweet with crunch and chewiness – all in a bite

    In hindsight, I probably should have used a little more pretzel bits, maybe from 1½ pretzels. Adjustments shall be made next time.