Granny's Chocolate Cobbler

My parents' favorite dessert to enjoy on a Sunday afternoon is warm brownies served with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream. It's only been recently that I've finally learned to enjoy the warm/cold combination. For a while, I've been thinking of making a brownie pie, but then I saw this recipe in Gooseberry Patch's Sunday Dinner at Grandma's, copyright 2010, and thought it would be perfect for a warm dessert on a cold winter night.

Granny's Chocolate Cobbler

3/4 c. butter, melted
3 c. sugar, divided
1-1/2 c. self-rising flour
1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. plus 2 tbsp. baking cocoa, divided
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2-1/2 c. boiling water

Spread melted butter in a 13"x9" baking pan; set aside. In a large bowl, combine 1-1/2 cups sugar, flour, milk, 2 tbsp. cocoa and vanilla. Pour over melted butter in pan. In a small bowl, mix together remaining sugar and cocoa; sprinkle evenly over batter. Pour boiling water over batter; do not stir. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Serve warm. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

I got the smart idea that instead of melting the butter and pouring it into the baking dish, that I would just heat the baking dish in the oven and melt the butter in it. By the way, I used margarine instead because that's what I had in the refrigerator. So, this was a good plan in that it only took a few minutes for the margarine to melt in the oven. Not so great plan in that the melted margarine was sizzling and popping when I removed the dish from the oven. Probably won't do that again.

While the margarine was melting, I started the batter. Here's my sugar.

Followed by self-rising flour which I don't normally have. But, miracle of miracles, I had purchased some last week.

I decided to mix all of the dry ingredients together first so here's the cocoa powder.

I made a little well and added the milk and vanilla flavoring.

The batter will be very thick!!

Spread the batter into the sizzling hot melted margarine. Actually, the move I think about it, don't try the melting-in-the-oven method. You could get hurt.

Next, I put a pot of water on to boil and went to work on phase II - the sugar and cocoa mixture.

I sprinkled the sugar-cocoa mixture over the batter.

Then, I poured the boiling water on top of it all. I'll be honest with you. I'm just glad Kimmy didn't get hurt trying to get this thing back into the oven. But, I didn't and it turned out well after 30 minutes.

I even served it with a scoop of ice cream. My mother will be so proud! 

Enjoy!!!