Family Chow Hall

Big Batches of Brownies

September 26th, 2006

The problem I have with making brownies is that I very rarely have baking chocolate on hand. Brownies are not something I plan ahead for… they are one of those spur-of-the-moment foods that I suddenly realize I MUST have and the sooner the better.

That’s why it’s necessary for me to have a brownie recipe that calls for cocoa instead of baking chocolate. I have cocoa on hand. Baking chocolate I will buy for a specific purpose, use it all, and never have extra in the cupboard.

Besides, cocoa is easier to work with. With baking chocolate or chocolate chips, you have to melt it down before adding to the batter. With cocoa, you just mix it in along with the other dry ingredients.

On Saturday I baked four batches of brownies because I had promised to bring three to a church BBQ. The fourth was for us, of course. You can never count on getting your own food at potlucks and BBQs. Well, I’d thought that I would do it the easy way, so I bought four boxes (on sale) of brownie mix for $1 each. What I realized when it was time to bake was that each box was only going to make a teeny-tiny 8×8 pan of brownies.

At our house, a 9 x 13 pan of brownies has a very short life expectancy and baking an 8 x 8 pan is just asking for trouble. So I ended up making up some of my own brownie batter and combining it with the purchased boxes. It worked out well, but I didn’t save myself any effort by buying those boxes after all!

Homemade Fudgy Brownies
makes one 9 x 13 pan

2 sticks butter (1 cup) OR 1 stick butter and 1/2 c. light oil
2 c. sugar
2 t. vanilla
4 eggs
6 T. cocoa powder
1 1/2 c. flour

Melt the butter in a large bowl in the microwave. Cream in the butter and then also stir in the vanilla and eggs. Then add the cocoa and flour and stir just enough to moisten everything.

Pour this into a greased 9 x 13 pan. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Entry Filed under: Desserts, Recipes, Supper