The Ultimate Brownie from Scratch

Yesterday my kids came home from school, and the first thing my older son wanted to do was bake this recipe. (He had that recipe open on my laptop since yesterday.) I was busy putting away Christmas decors and gave him my permission.

After eating stir-fried beef for supper, we tasted what he baked. Hubby quipped it was just like the brownies he used to have as a kid -- baked from scratch and tasted same.

Me: "So you like this?"

Hubby: "Oh yeah! It's good!"

Me: "Oh, and I have often avoided baking brownies from scratch because I felt that you preferred the boxed brownie mixes because that was what you were used to."

Hubby: "I got to use the mixes after I was out of my parents' house. When we were kids, they never bought boxed mixes because they could not afford them."

Me: "So, is this a keeper?"

Hubby: "Definitely!"

So I told my older son, "You are now the official brownie baker in this household."

Recipe from about.com --

Ingredients:

8- 1 ounce squares of unsweetened chocolate
1 cup butter
5 eggs
3 cups sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1-1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2-1/2 cups chopped pecans or walnuts, toasted (He actually used white chocolate chips)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 9 x 13 pan.
Melt chocolate and butter in a saucepan over low heat; set aside. In a mixer, beat eggs, sugar and vanilla at high speed for 10 minutes**. Blend in chocolate mixture, flour and salt until just mixed. Stir in the nuts. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake for 35-40 minutes. (Don't overbake.) Cool and frost if desired, but that is not necessary.

Black & White Brownie Cupcakes

I had a box of Ghirardelli brownie mix in the pantry for quite sometime now.

From Black & White Brownie Cupcakes

I bought it because it was on sale. I was thinking last night of what to have for dessert to accompany a New England Boiled Dinner in which I used a pork shoulder for meat. So I was looking at the instructions for this mix and the photo of a variation caught my attention. I thought I'd follow that instead, and I added red wine just 'cause I had two opened red wine bottles that I must consume as fast as I can. My husband got excited and had to lick the dough even as I was placing it in muffin cups. As supper was served, I had a plate of this ready on the table and everyone was looking longingly for them. Nobody was disappointed. It was soooo good!

From Black & White Brownie Cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 box Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Brownie Mix
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
(optional) 1 tbsp cabernet sauvignon (red wine)
2 eggs
1 cup (8-oz) cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 deg F. In a medium bowl, stir together brownie mix, water, oil and 1 egg until moistened (about 40 strokes). Line muffin tin with paper cups and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray. Spoon batter into muffin cups, filling 2/3 full. Using electric mixer, mix cream cheese, sugar, 1 egg and vanilla on medium speed for 1 minutes or until smooth. For each cupcake, place rounded tablespoon of cream cheese mixture on top of batter. Bake 28-32 minutes. Makes 16 cupcakes.

Chocolate Frosted Brownies

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Chewy Brownies (A Mix-In-A-Jar Recipe)

Last December my younger son came home with a note about the class' celebration of Thanksgiving and a request for sending in a bread mix for the occasion. They would bake the mixes there. I looked for recipes of mixes at VeryBestBaking.com but I had no canned pumpkin to make a mix for the traditional pumpkin pie or bread. What I had was, as usual, the Nestle Toll House Choc Morsels. So I opted to prepare the mix for Chewy Brownies and instructed my young son to give it to his teacher when he gets to school.



He came back home that day still with the mix. Apparently he forgot (again) to give it to his teacher for their celebration.



I ended up baking it. It was my first time to bake brownies without Betty Crocker's help (that's one of my husband's favorite mixes). It was greeted with warm acceptance and eager mouths.



Here's a cut and paste of the recipe from the website.

Ingredients:

• 1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup NESTLÉ TOLL HOUSE Baking Cocoa
• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup NESTLÉ TOLL HOUSE Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels

Directions:

LAYER ingredients in order listed above in 1-quart jar, pressing firmly after adding each ingredient.



NOTE: After adding cocoa, wipe out inside of jar with paper towel. Seal with lid and decorate with fabric and ribbon.



RECIPE TO ATTACH:

PREHEAT oven to 350° F. Grease 13 x 9-inch baking pan. Pour brownie mix into large mixer bowl; stir. Add 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) melted butter or margarine, 2 large eggs, 2 tablespoons water and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract; stir well. Spread into prepared baking pan. Bake for 18 to 25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out slightly sticky. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Dust with powdered sugar. Makes 2 dozen brownies.



You, together with your kids, may want to make this as gifts for relatives next Christmas (Chewy Brownie Mix in a Jar). Here's a free printable gift tag to go along with it. You will just need quart jars and some ribbons. For an idea of how it looks like, click on the recipe link I provided above.