Good Old-Fashioned Brownies

Sometimes you just need brownies. Nothing fancy, nothing crazy…just brownies that taste really good (because, honestly, nothing you get from the grocery store tastes anywhere near as good as homemade brownies). These are pretty awesome. They’re not the simplest recipe, but you’ll be super happy with the results.

One of the fun things about brownies are that they can be an accessory delivery system. What I mean by that is, if you like chocolate chips, you can throw them in. Walnuts? Sure! Mini-marshmallows? Yup! Dried cranberries? Ew, but it works. Basically, anything that you happen to like in brownies, you can throw in once you have made the batter – as long as it’s not a liquid ingredient it shouldn’t affect the baking one bit, just throw in a cup or so. For my batch, I threw in semi-sweet chocolate chips, Heath Bar bits and butterscotch chips. Because I like them, I wanted to and I was cooking it so I can do what I want.

But, so can you.

Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

· 1 ¾ cups flour

· 4 T sweetened cocoa powder

· 1 t salt

· 1 t baking powder

· 16 T (two sticks!) butter

· 2 ½ cups dark brown sugar

· 1 cup water

· 6 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped (so that it melts faster)

· 5 eggs

· 3 t vanilla

· Semisweet chocolate chips*

· Heath Bar toffee bits*

· Butterscotch chips*

Optional. The brownies actually don’t need anything in them, but if you’re, say, a walnut fan feel free to throw in a couple handfuls. No actual measurements here – this you sort of just have to play by ear and throw in what feels right – like a small handful or so of each.

Directions

We’re going to start with the pan prep, which you’ve probably seen before. Take a 9” x 12” pan (or something similar in size) and line it completely with aluminum foil, so that the foil hangs over the edges. This is going to make it easy for you to get the brownies out of the pan, and significantly simplify cleanup. Spray the foil with cooking spray and put aside.

Now, we’re going to mix together the dry ingredients. In a bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder and set that aside.

Okay, we’re gonna melt stuff! Throw the butter, brown sugar and water into a medium size saucepan – this is going to be where you ultimately mix everything, so don’t pick something too small. Over a low heat, whisk the three ingredients until the butter is totally melted and everything is pretty well mixed together.

This is the melted butter, water and sugar before putting in the chocolate

Next, lower the heat to the lowest simmer and add in the unsweetened chocolate. Continue to mix that until the chocolate is melted. Turn off the heat, add in all the eggs and the vanilla and whisk that vigorously until everything is mixed together.

And this is what it looks like after the chocolate and eggs have been added – MUCH richer

Finally, add in the flour mixture and whisk that well.

This is your base batter. From here, you can add whatever additional dry ingredients that you want. I choose semi-sweet chocolate chips, Heath Bar toffee bits and some butterscotch chips. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes, keeping an eye on it.