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I've moved to another two blogs, one on writing, and one on general stuff like this one. Please come visit! MY NEW BLOGS:

http://amydeardon1.blogspot.com

http://thestorytemplate.blogspot.com


Friday, May 22, 2009

Brownies

Hi Everyone. I'm still tired from all the activity even though it's been almost a week since my daughter and I returned. Have to get back to blogging, but am going to punt today.

Here is my easy brownie recipe that everyone seems to go gaga for. The secret is using Dutch-processed cocoa. Hershey's makes a Special Dark blend of cocoa with a gold label that is a mix of regular and alkali-processed cocoas; this is what I often use since the honest-to-goodness Dutch-processed stuff is a pain to find. Trust me, everything chocolate is so much better made with the alkali-processed (also known as Dutch-processed). If you want to convert to save yourself all that saturated chocolate fat, one ounce (one square) of unsweetened baking chocolate is worth 3 tablespoons cocoa plus a tablespoon of oil. Also, since I avoid adding saturated fat whenever I can, I also substitute safflower or canola oil for the butter/margarine in these brownies; no one has yet noticed a difference.

Here 'tis:

Brownies

1 cup butter or margarine
2 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
3/4 cup (12 tablespoons) cocoa
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
chocolate chips

Melt butter or margarine. Mix in sugar and vanilla, then eggs one at a time. (Note: make sure butter has cooled a bit after melting or it will cook eggs :-) Sift and add cocoa, flour, baking powder, and salt and mix until smooth. Add chocolate chips.

Pour batter into greased 13 x 9 x 2 pan (or line pan with foil --> but when removing baked brownies be careful foil doesn't shred; if it does make sure there are no little foil pieces stuck to the bottoms of the brownies!) Bake at 350F for 30 to 35 minutes. For best results to avoid crumbling brownies let these babies cool for an hour or so before cutting and removing from pan.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

OH MAN! Chocolate. Now, I just had mouth surgery a few days ago, and I'm still on liquid food/soft food diet....but maybe brownies could be considered "soft" right???

MMMMM

Krista Phillips said...

*raises eyebrows*

I put THE GREATEST brownie recipe in my book. I mean, yours is good but...

*evil grin*

I'd share it but it would SO ruin one of my favorite funny parts in my book! LOL

Seriously, yours does look SCRUMPTIOUS. My mouth is drooling and seriously...the grocery story isn't far away....

Amy Deardon said...

Lynn, I hope you feel better soon!

Oh Krista, I'll have to check out your book! This recipe is an all-purpose one -- I'm the ultimate pragmatic cook. Do yours have fudge in them or something? Now I'm really curious! If you want to be kind and post the recipe...