Five Minute Brownie

Yesterday I made a brownie. No, not brownies. One brownie. Better yet, I made it in under five minutes.
How does one make a brownie that fast? One way is to buy Betty Crocker Warm Delights: http://www.bettycrocker.com/Products/Warm-Delights/ But what if I'm home at 9pm and craving dessert? I don't want to go out and buy something. If I have the raw ingredients, I don't want to spend an hour making and baking a pan of brownies. The solution is the very simple five minute brownie - made in a mug.
This recipe from Instructables.com (via the Chicago Tribune) can be mixed in a few minutes and then is microwaved for 1 - 1.5 minutes. That's it! It's not as good as a great brownie mix which is often more dense and intense. But the reward to effort ratio is enormous. I found that the portion was pretty large and I only needed to eat half of it in one sitting (I at the other half later that night) so it could serve two, but I wouldn't bother cutting it in half. I also found that the cooled off brownie that I ate later was actually more dense so I think some of the liquid had evaporated. If you can hold off from immediately digging in, it might be worth letting the brownie cool. But then five minute brownies aren't made for holding off.

Microwave chocolate mug brownie

4 Tbsp flour
4 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp cocoa
Dash of salt
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 Tbsp water
1/4 tsp vanilla

Whisk together dry ingredients in a large coffee mug. Add oil, water and vanilla and mix thoroughly, making sure there are no clumps of flour left at the bottom of the mug.
Microwave on high for 1 to 1.5 minutes. It should not be quite set in the center. Cool a couple of minutes and eat right out of the mug.

See http://www.instructables.com/id/Mug_Brownie/ for comments and suggestions for alterations to the recipe. People have added peanut butter, baking powder, powdered sugar, peppermint candy, etc.