Ok, it's official. The children are addicted to natural food. The heck with preservatives. They look at labels and say things like "Why do I need propylene glycol monoesters in my brownies? What EXACTLY does that DO???" or "If I can't pronounce it, should I really be eating it???"
So now I make brownies from scratch. Much like sewing or knitting, you don't bake things from scratch to save money. In fact, with the cost of eggs and butter, it ends up costing more to make things from whole, natural ingredients than tossing a box of mix in the KitchenAid with 2 eggs and 1/2 a cup of oil. But holy cow, the results are AMAZING. It usually takes me about 4 times to get a recipe where I like it, adjusting the amount of butter, or cooking time, or finding just the right pan.
But here are "Jack's Brownies".
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 cup milk
nuts if you like them (ICK)
1. Preheat over to 350. (325 if you have the snazzy Pampered Chef pan that I am in <3 with)
2. Whip softened butter in your KitchenAid, add sugar and cocoa until blended. Be CAREFUL when you add the cocoa. If your mixer is on anything other than STIR, it will send a cloud of cocoa across the kitchen, the likes of which have not been seen since Hiroshima.
3. Add eggs and vanilla, mix until blended. Add baking soda and baking powder. Some recipes tell you to mix this in a separate bowl. I say why get more things dirty than necessary???
4. Add flour and milk alternately a little at a time. Add all the milk at once= sloppy mess. Restrain yourself.
5. Pour batter into a greased * AWESOME PAMPERED CHEF BROWNIE PAN*. No, I don't sell PC. I should. I love their really expensive stuff. I suppose you can just pour it into a 15 x 10 x 1 inch pan as well. It just won't be as pretty and symmetrical. Bake for 18 minutes (at 350) or 24 minutes (at 325).
At this point, make yourself a cup of coffee, catch up on email, facebook. Maybe even fold a load of laundry. Do something productive so that when these come out of the oven, you feel deserving of the delicious morsel you are about to eat.
You may want to get fancy. You can even frost these if you want, get crazy with sprinkles and whipped cream...hey, whatever your feeling, go with it. Unfortunately in our house, there is a line forming when these come out of the oven. The timer on the oven is more of a "countdown to caloric chocolate chaos". Nate usually "offers" to help take them out of the pan when they're still hot , and the kids fight over who gets which one. After Nate and the kids and their friends all get one there is only one thing left for me.
DISHES.
