Heat your oven to 350°F and grab a standard muffin tin with 24 cups. Line each cup with a paper liner or grease them really well with cooking spray so the brownie bites don't stick.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat, which takes about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the cocoa powder, sugar, eggs, milk, and vanilla extract until the mixture comes together smoothly.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet mixture using a spatula—don't overmix or you'll end up with tough brownie bites. This is where I always pause and fold slowly, taking maybe 10 folds max.

Stir in the chocolate chips and vegetable oil, then distribute the batter evenly among the 24 muffin cups. I use a small ice cream scoop to make sure each patriotic brownie bites family treat gets the same amount, which also prevents one from baking faster than the others.

Bake for exactly 12 to 14 minutes—don't panic if they look a little underbaked in the center because they'll keep cooking slightly after you pull them out. I learned this the hard way by overbaking a batch once and they turned out dry and crumbly instead of fudgy.

Let the brownie bites cool in the tin for about 5 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. This cooling step prevents them from breaking apart when you grab them, which was my whole mistake when I first tried pulling them out too early.