brownies - a recipe

When we want a baked treat, we almost always choose brownies. We. Love. Brownies.

I am almost sure I got my original brownie recipe from Betty Crocker. However, the recipe calls for unsweetened baking chocolate, which I almost never have on hand and never remember to buy. I do always have cocoa. I use the 5 Tbsp of cocoa + 1 Tbsp oil per oz of baking chocolate conversion. This comes to 1 Tbsp short of 1 cup of cocoa. I round up to a full cup. Also, when adding that oil to the called for 2/3 cup of butter, it comes to 1 tsp short of a cup. Again, I round up. I also reduce the sugar because we are fans of less sweet chocolate, not for healthy reasons because it's still a lot of sugar and a full cup of butter! These are more fudgey brownies, not cakey at all. So here is my altered recipe. It is fab:

1 cup butter
1 cup cocoa
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
3 large eggs
1 cup flour
1 cup optional extras (i.e. chocolate chips, chopped nuts, candy pieces...)

Preheat oven to 350° F

Grease bottom and sides of pan - I use an 8"x12" jelly roll pan, but the original recipe calls for a 9" square.

Melt butter with cocoa over low heat, cool for 5 minutes. (Originally I thought this wasn't necessary, since I'm not using baking chocolate that needs to be melted, but it does make it mix much more smoothly, so I melt the butter with the cocoa now.)

Beat sugar, vanilla, eggs in medium bowl; beat in chocolate mixture; beat in flour until just blended. Add optional extras. Spread in pan.

Bake 30-40 minutes or just until pulling away from sides of pan.

For Rodgers' birthday, Nate wanted to do a bicycle cake, so I used chopped Snickers to make a bicycle and stick figure Rodgers on top of his brownies.

Looks silly, but Rodgers dubbed it The Best Brownies Ever Made.