So I made an off-hand comment to my class about how I like to cook, and well, finally I got challenged to make some really good brownies. I do have a good way of making it, involving illegal amounts of sugar and butter per serving, but it would be fun to get some inspiration beyond sugar, butter, flour, eggs and cocoa.
I’m supposed to deliver come Friday. It needs to serve 20.
My favorite is the good old Joy of Cooking “Brownies Cockaigne” recipe–to which I add lethal amounts of extra chocolate chips (semi sweet, milk AND white!) and sometimes butterscotch or peanut butter chips. Sometimes a bit of coconut. This is a foolproof brownie, for sure.
Here’s my favourite recipie.
1.5cups plain flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarb
1/2 cup of chopped nuts (macadamias are best!)
125g butter
200g dark choc
1 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup sour cream
1/3 cup chopped nuts, extra
Choc cream topping
150g dark choc
1/2 cup sour cream
Preheat oven to 180C, line a 23cm square tin. Sift dry ingredients together, add nuts, make a well. Melt choc and butter together, add sugar, eggs and cream. Beat until smooth, add to dry ingredients. Bake 40 minutes, cool in tin, top with, uh, topping, then slice.
BROWNIES
14 oz. butter
7 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate
3-1/2 cups sugar
1-7/8 cups flour
8 eggs
1-1/8 cups chopped nuts
Cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs and beat, then add chocolate, which has been melted. Continue beating. Add flour and nuts and blend until well mixed. Grease 12x16 inch flat sheet pan and spread batter evenly. Bake about twenty minutes at 350 degrees Farenheit, or until done. Don’t over bake. Spread with chocolate frosting. Each pan yields up to 48 pieces, 2"x2".
The unsweetened baking chocolate can be replaced by 21 tablespoons of cocoa powder and 3-1/2 oz. more butter. Add the cocoa powder along with the sugar.
This brownie is fudgy and very good, IMNSHO.
My never-fail-world-famous Brownies
1 cup butter
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate (4 squares)
2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 ½ cups flour
½ tsp salt
1 ½ cups of nuts, or chocolate chips
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
- Butter and flour a 9 by 13 inch baking pan.
- Melt the butter and chocolate together in the microwave, takes about 2 minutes. Stir as the mixture cools.
- In a large bowl, combine the chocolate mixture and the sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Stir in the vanilla.
- Sift the flour and salt into the chocolate mixture and stir to blend. If using nuts or chocolate chips, add them at this point.
- Scrape into the baking pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the SIDE of the brownies comes out clean.
- Cool on a rack in the pan. Sift icing sugar over the top.
- Cut in bars while still warm, but leave in the pan.
Makes about 2 dozen brownies.
My white chocolate brownies, aka “blondies”. I’ve never had anything but rave reviews for this:
- 300g good white chocolate
- 200g butter
- 200g plain flour
- 150g caster sugar
- 3 eggs
- half a teaspoon vanilla essence
- pinch of salt
Grease and line a 18x28cm baking tin, and pre-heat oven to 180C
Melt the butter and half the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of barely
simmering water, whisking occasionally to keep it a smooth
consistency. When melted, remove from heat.
Chop the other half of the chocolate into small pieces.
Beat the eggs, caster sugar and vanilla essence together till pale.
Beat in the melted chocolate and butter mixture.
Fold in the flour and salt.
Mix in the chocolate pieces.
Pour into tin.
Bake in oven for 20 minutes, or until the top is firm, but the inside
still squishy.
1 lb 70% cocoa chocolate
1 cup flour
1/2 cup crushed pecans
1 egg
3 sticks butter
2 lbs quick-dry cement
2 cups something
Another egg
1 vanilla pod
A sugar
Preheat the oven to 725F. Mix half of the water with the other half of water and put the chocolate on it. Get a knife and cut the vanilla pod along its length. Scrape out the seeds and mix in a large bowl with a sugar. Put the butter. Add egg and flour generously. Mix it all together or something. Bake for four hours or until a toothpick, and bury in an unmarked grave. Throw egg at a neighbor.
I have been searching for the perfect brownie recipe for 30 years or so. I’ve tried 'em cakey (my great-great-Aunt Martha’s recipe is the best for cakey, much like araminty’s but with no sour cream), I’ve tried 'em fudgy, I’ve shaved my own chocolate off a $50 bar, I’ve tried applesauce in place of oil or butter during an ill-advised lowfat fad in the late '80s, and the *best *brownie recipe I’ve found is the brownie mix from Aldi. Seriously. If I’m feeling the need to be creative, I add a few drops of Almond Extract or (not and, OR) Peppermint Extract to the batter.
Totally, totally understandable, WhyNot. The best brownie mix I have made came from a Dollar Store. 
jjimm’s recipe made me laugh and coffee came out my nose.
Thanks, eh?