Victoria Neely

We made quite a few things in our Introduction to Baking class: Apple pie, Challah bread, blueberry muffins, pizza, cinnamon rolls, cookies, cakes, tarts, custards, etc. But I have to say, basic brownies are still my favorite thing to make. They’re delicious and easy to make.

I found my favorite brownie recipe about four years ago on Allrecipes.com, Best Brownies. I made a couple of tweaks to the recipe, but it’s my all-time favorite for a quick and decadent chocolate fix.

Ingredients-

Brownies:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Frosting:
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1-2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an flour an 8-inch baking pan.

2. Melt 1 stick of butter in a sauce pan over low heat. Remove from heat; mix in vanilla extract, sugar, white sugar, and eggs until well blended.

3. Sift together cocoa powder, flour, salt, and baking powder. Gradually add to batter until blended. Add chocolate chips.

4. Spread batter into prepared baking pan and bake at 350 for 20 to 25 minutes.

5. To prepare frosting: Melt 3 tablespoons butter in a sauce pan. Add vanilla extract, cocoa powder, and powdered sugar. Slowly add milk and stir until the mixture is smooth and spreadable.

6. Spread frosting on brownies while they are still warm. Enjoy!

Other tips:

1. When greasing and flouring your baking pan, try using cocoa powder in place of flour. It keeps the baked edges from having a white layer.

2. Don’t cheap out and use generic cocoa powder. I tried that once, and while the brownies themselves were edible, the frosting was nasty. Stick with the good stuff! My personal favorite is Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa, but regular Hershey’s Cocoa is good too.

3. There’s no exact science when you’re mixing the chocolate frosting. Just add milk a little at a time until the frosting is silky-smooth and easy to spread, but not runny. If you accidentally add too much milk, you can thicken it up again by adding more powdered sugar.

4. If you’re out of powdered sugar (like I was the last time I made this recipe), you can make a substitute by processing one cup of white sugar and 1 teaspoon of cornstarch in a blender. The frosting may end up slightly grainy, but you won’t be able to tell once it’s spread on the warm brownies.

5. The original recipe recommends baking the brownies for 25 to 30 minutes. I never bake them for more than 20 minutes, otherwise the brownies come out much too dry and cake-y for my taste. Not all ovens are the same, so you may want to experiment and see what works for you.