best brownies ever

A few years ago, when I lived in an apartment complex called Brookhollow, I decided I needed to seek out the world's best brownie recipe. I went to google, typed in "best brownie recipe" and started culling. I usually like recipes I find on blogs, it generally means the recipe has been tested, tried, and loved. I found a blog post titled "The Best Brownie Recipe That Really Schmecks". It contained very little ingredients, all of which I had around the kitchen, and called for cocoa powder instead of bakers chocolate, which is what I was looking for. I went in the kitchen and got to work. Turns out, these really were the best brownies I'd ever had!

Well, a few months later, I went back to my bookmarks to find the recipe, but alas, the blog was gone! Fortunately, I was able to search google with the title of the blog and found another blog that had copied the recipe down. I then printed the recipe as not to lose it and ended up making these brownies all the time. It became my go-to brownie recipe and I would not settle for anything else!

Well, two years and two homes later, I remembered this recipe and decided to look through my bookmarks to find it. Obviously I'd lost the print off I'd made since then. Nothing. Googled what I remembered "best brownies ever"?.. "world's best brownies"? What was it called?! I then searched my computer for any files containing the word "brownie" and I came across an email that I guess I had sent to myself with the recipe! Success!

Now, I'm writing it down in my blog where I will then pin the recipe, and save it to my bookmarks, plus I've also saved it as a word document on my computer. Never again will I lose this recipe. It's such a simple one, yet turns out the gooiest, richest brownies ever (and as the original blog stated, they really don't ever go stale!)

Without further ado, here's the recipe:

Preheat your oven to 350°F.

I recommend doubling (or tripling) this recipe if you want brownies for more than a few people.

Cream your butter and brown sugar together with a fork, wooden spoon, electric mixer, kitchen aid, whatever you have. I used cold butter but room temperature will probably work, too. I always use salted butter. Also, I can't help but eat the crap out of this stuff once it's mixed. Guilty pleasure. :) Add your egg and vanilla.
Then mix your dry ingredients together in a separate bowl.
Add the dry mixture slowly to the wet(ish) mixture because it WILL make a mess if you do it quickly; this dough is very dry.

Plop your dough into your pan. I believe mine was an 8x8 square pyrex dish. See, like I said, super thick. It should look like chocolate ice cream at this point.

Spread it around until it's even and pretty. Add nuts if you like, or none if you don't. I do half and half.
Bake at 350° for NO MORE than 20 minutes. Do not insert toothpick to test doneness. This does not work with these brownies.

Take out of the oven and try to take a picture of the beautiful treats and accidentally get your pregnant belly in the picture. Aren't you cute?

MUST READ: Now, here's the hard part. These brownies HAVE to cool completely. At least for an hour. If you do not wait until they're cool, you WILL be eating them with a spoon. Which, I guess isn't really a bad thing, but just not very brownie like. In order for them to be able to be picked up with your hand, they have to cool completely.
Also, these brownies are dainty. They need to be taken out of the pan with a spatula or some sort of flat utensil. Don't try to use a knife or fork, they'll crumble.

And now you're done! These brownies stay soft and delish for days and days, but it's really doubtful they'll last that long! Now invite some friends over (or don't) and have at 'em!

Happy Eating!


Click here to view/download the recipe!