Jenny’s Most Requested Brownie Recipe

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As the title indicates, this is my most requested brownie recipe.

If you always turn to a box mix to make brownies, that’s cool. I don’t judge. But if you’ve never tried making brownies from scratch because you think it is complicated or difficult, I want you to know that it’s not complicated at all, and uses almost the same number of ingredients from home that you are called to add to some box mixes. In this recipe you mix everything up by hand in a saucepan, so there’s not a lot of dishes and no need to get out the mixer.

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The two big categories of brownie texture are fudgey or cakey. Many people have preferences strongly on one side or the other. Since I do like fudge, and don’t love cake, when I eat a brownie I fall into the fudgey preference category. Most people around me prefer cakey brownies. However, no one has ever complained about about these brownies. No one has said “Oh, if only these were more cakey” because they are good and satisfying.

When making brownies from scratch you can melt down chocolate or use cocoa powder. This recipe uses cocoa powder. When picking your cocoa powder, flavor matters. I usually order dutch processed cocoa powder online through Amazon or King Arthur’s Flour (Callebaut Baking Cocoa Powder  is top ranked by Cook’s Illustrated and is what I generally order). But according to Cook’s Illustrated, Hershey’s Unsweetened Cocoa is a good flavor for baked goods.

I add chocolate chips to my brownies, both in the batter and sprinkled on top. I like to mix the kinds of chocolate in the chips and use a variety of darkness of chocolate (milk, semi-sweet, bittersweet, 60%). I stock up on Ghardelli chips when they go on sale nearby. The mini chips are best for mixing into batters (and sprinkling on pancakes!)

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I’ve used this recipe in 8×8 inch square glass and metal baking pans and also in round cake pans and in a round casserole dish. The end results were all similar, so feel free to use whatever you have on hand.

One of my favorite things to do with these brownies is to get them ready to go in the oven, then put them in the oven just before we sit down to Sunday dinner. The brownies cook while we are eating, get pulled out to cool ever so slightly while the table is cleared of dinner and the coffee made. Then they we can make brownie ice cream sundaes with the hot gooey brownie. If I plan to serve them cut up, then they’ll have to cool more first to set up enough to get them out of the dish. A few weeks ago I put them in the oven and had to run out to an appointment and left them for my husband and kids to decide when to take them out. I could tell by the smell when I walked in the door that the brownies cooked for a little longer than I might have cooked them. They were not overdone, just a little more solid. I generally make them a little gooey. I have often thought, “I could never use this recipe for a party or a bake sale because I couldn’t cut nicely edged squares,” so I was very happy that they showed me that if I leave them in for another however many minutes and I could and they still come out moist and receiving compliments.

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Anyhow, the point of the story is that making brownies from scratch is easy. Try it sometime. Here’s a recipe.

 

 Jenny’s Most Requested Brownie Recipe

Adapted from Recipezaar

Ingredients:

  • 11 tbsp. butter
  • 1 1/3 cups sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/4 – 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. Grease (and optionally flour) an 8×8 inch glass baking dish.
  3. Melt the 2/3 cup butter in a medium saucepan. Once the butter is melted, stir in the sugar (if you are using non-stick pans, do not use anything metal to stir!).
  4. Let this cool slightly – enough that your eggs won’t cook when you mix them in – about 5 minutes. Mix in the eggs and vanilla and stir until thoroughly combined.
  5. Add in the flour, cocoa powder and salt. Stir until uniform. Stir in 1 cup of chocolate chips.
  6. Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle remaining chocolate chips on top.
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  7. Bake for 30 minutes, cool in pan on wire rack.
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2 Comments

  1. Soooooooo good! Great recipe and easy too! Thx!

  2. Pingback: Kid Brownies | Two Clever Moms

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