The Twisted Housewife: November 2011

I was talking on Facebook a few weeks ago about how I made Homemade brownies that day for my Husband and I got a lot of responses such as "What, brownies don't just come in a box?"..."Really, homemade brownies, they must be VERY difficult to make". My response to these concerns is NO! They are easy to make and OH. SO. TASTY. I really doubt you will EVER go back to buying the box mix. No, really, I don't think you will. I am not saying that I NEVER make brownies from a box because on occassion I do. I AM a brownie snob though and prefer the Ghiradelli brownie mix if I do partake in a box mix. The best thing about homemade brownies is that I typically can find all the ingredients in my pantry and freezer at any given time. Now, I don't know where the recipe I got today came from (as I do usually write it in my cookbook) but it looked easy and I had all the supplies and I decided to give it a go as my Birthday boy, Ike, who is 2 today said that he wanted brownies. It must be great to be my child ;) When I bake, unfortunately, I don't always think "gee, I should take a picture of this and put it up on the good ole blog" but today, I was able to snap a few quick shots of the supplies and brownies both before and after baking them. I hope you enjoy this recipe and feel free to make it your own. I added Ghiradelli chocolate chips to my batter (which was NOT called for in my recipe, but I know my hubs likes them like that) today. I know, I know, such a rebel, right? Now for the good stuff. First, you will need to gather your supplies:

I TOLD you it was easy! this is literally ALL you need and I added the chocolate chips which you technically DON'T even need to use!

Ingredients you will need to gather:

*Preheat your oven to 350*

4 oz. chocolate (like found in the baking aisle, each square is usually 1oz)

1c. butter (this is 2 sticks people)

4 eggs (room temp works best)

2 c. sugar

1 c. flour

1 tsp. vanilla

Optional: Chocolate Chips (I like semi sweet and I add about 1/2 to 2/3 of a cup to my batter)

Next, you will need to find either a 9x9" baking pan for thick gooey brownies OR a 9x13" pan if you like them thinner and crispier, more well done. Choose your pan and spray it with some cooking spray (I had baker's joy so that is what I used, but I am typically NOT particular about this). I used the 9x9" pan and this is what it looked like after I put my batter in the pan

Don't worry about that white stuff in the corners, that's just some of the cooking spray, it will cook down into the brownies so NO worries. I also added a few extra chocolate chips to the top. Now, it's time to put them into that 350 degree pre-heated oven. Bake them for approximately 30 minutes. My oven runs hot, so I usually check after about 25 minutes. Remember, brownies are BEST when underbaked a bit to maintain that gooey texture.

Now, this is what the finished product looks like. Lookin good, right? Bet you wish you were here to smell them and maybe even taste them. Mmmmmm, chocolate. Delish, rich, ooey and gooey!