350* oven. Prep muffin tin with liners or a spray for baking.
Set Chocolate Chips and Cocoa Powder in a large bowl. Pour boiling water over the items and, using a whisk, stir until the chips are COMPLETELY melted. It will become smooth and lump-free.
Whisk in Sugar, Oil, Eggs, and the Vanilla Extract until the mixture is combined. You don't need to beat the heck out of it.
Now, add in the Flour and the Salt. Whisk to combine and, once you see a few streaks of flour, tread carefully. You want to incorporate the ingredients without overmixing. Stop as soon as the streaks are gone!
Grab your 1/4 cup measuring cup (the one made for dry ingredients) to dole out the batter among the muffin cups. Go back and refill the cups equally with any remaining batter.
Bake for 35-45 minutes or until a toothpick in the center comes out with a couple of dampened crumbs (NOT mushy or gloppy).
Cool on wire rack in the tin for 15 minutes. DO NOT REMOVE FROM THE TIN. Grab your 1 1/4" diameter shot glass (or other object of similar size), and give it a quick spray with your baking spray. With the cupcakes STILL IN THE TIN, while holding onto the top of the shot glass, press gently into the middle of the cupcake, about 1" deep. If you need to reapply the spray at any point, do so.
After creating indentations in all 12 of the brownie cupcakes, remove them from the tin and leave them on the wire rack to finish cooling. This will take roughly one hour.