Jan 19 / Erin

Best Brownies Ever

I know that most of you don’t know me very well. Or you don’t know me at all. But I need you to promise me something. Promise me that you will never make brownies from a mix. Ever. Again.

Hear me out on this one…

You see, making brownies from a mix is just plain crazy. Somewhere along the way a smart company came out with the best marketing ploy: make baking seem really hard and time consuming by selling everything in a mix. Well, I’m here to tell you that it is neither difficult or time consuming to make brownies from scratch. And they look this good:

All it takes is 13 minutes, 6 common ingredients and 1 saucepan to get them into the oven. I swear.

Plus, boxed brownie mix is bad for the environment. (Okay, maybe I made that one up, but it seems to work everywhere else these days!)

But seriously, try this recipe. If you swear it doesn’t contest with the brownies made from your mix of choice (and their vegetable oil after taste), then by all means, ignore me.

My mom made this recipe (slightly altered from The Joy of Cooking) throughout my childhood and it is has more than stood the test of time. The two pickiest men in the world (my husband and father-in-law) request this treat regularly. I think you’ll like these brownies, and how incredibly easy (and fast) they are to make.

Best Brownies Ever
(in my opinion)

INGREDIENTS:
1.5 sticks of butter (12 tablespoons)
3/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder (like Hershey’s)
2 cups of sugar
2 tsp of vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1 cup of flour

INSTRUCTIONS:
Over low heat, melt the butter in a medium saucepan; remove from heat. Then stir in cocoa powder.

This mixture will look delicious but it’s unsweetened, so resist tasting it!

Cool for a moment or two and stir in sugar and vanilla.

Add eggs and combine well.

Add flour and stir until just combined.

Place batter in a foil-lined, greased 9×13 pan (for easy clean-up).

Between finger licks, spread as evenly as possible and bake for 23-28 minutes at 350 degrees.

Test with a toothpick after 23 minutes and watch closely thereafter. Take the brownies out when the toothpick has gooey crumbs. A little underdone results in nice moist brownies, since cooking continues during the cooling process.

And to prove to you how quickly this can be done, I’ve documented my start and end times (from the beginning until the pan was ready to go in the oven). The 13 minutes included me taking all of the above pictures. And the clock changed from 3:16 to 3:17 as I was focusing the camera. For real. So, it’s truly more like 12 minutes.