Brownies

  In our house, we are brownie fans.
  Its one of the only desserts that everyone in our house (and our family) can agree on. Some prefer cookies, some ice cream, but everyone always agrees on brownies. Now we do have "brownies with nuts" fans and the "no nuts" fans. I generally like them both equally, though if I could only ever have 1 brownie for the rest of my life, I would choose the one with nuts.

    One thing is my dad would lick the spoon if it had brownie batter on it ,but will get upset if I eat a piece of cookie dough... it doesn't make much sense to me.

  I have another brownie recipe from scratch: brownie recipe with chocolate icing , but I needed a brownie recipe for our youth's brownie bake sale this Sunday and I didn't want to use a box mix. I decided not to use the recipe I already have because it is topped with icing, which is yummy, but can be messy-especially if you pre-cut and package them for sale. I found 1 recipe from saveur, but it made a 9x13 pan and I would have to 1/2 the recipe to make a test batch which I didn't feel like doing the day that I made these.  I actually have a good amount of brownie and blondie recipes that I wish to test out in the future.

  So I ended up using a recipe that I found on AllRecipes.I used semi-sweet chocolate chips inplace of nuts. Next time I might add both the nuts and chocolate chips. If you like a sweeter brownie- this recipe has almost equal parts unsweetened cocoa and sugar- you could add in milk chocolate chips or melt some with the butter and then make the batter.

Brownies

adapted from: allrecipes.com

yields: 1 9x9 pan

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted or vegetable oil
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts or chocolate chips (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x9 inch baking pan.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the melted butter, sugar, and vanilla. Beat in eggs. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt; gradually stir into the egg mixture until well blended. Stir in nuts or chocolate chips, if desired. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick is inserted and comes out clean. Let cool on a wire rack before cutting into squares.