Quick, what are the ingredients in brownies? If “boxed mix” was the first ingredient to come to mind, you’re not alone. I was a boxed mix brownie maker for years. Even after I started making cakes from scratch, I held onto brownies from a box because brownie recipes seemed to be a bit of a crapshoot, generally landing in the overly cakey category.
Homemade chocolate brownies
Then I hit upon the key, look for recipes with very little flour. After years of tweaking, adjusting and experimenting I’ve settled on a recipe formula that delivers a rich, chocolaty, moist, dense, and slightly chewy brownie. Of all baked goods brownies are the easiest and quickest treat to make from scratch. No mixer required, and only one dirty pan. So ditch the box along with the long list of unpronounceable ingredients. You don’t need it. Chocolate, butter, sugar, eggs, flour, vanilla, salt, baking powder and one pan for mixing is all you need to make great brownies.
Homemade still only leaves you with one pan to wash, but the brownies taste far better than a boxed mix.
The best part about brownies is it’s easy to keep the ingredients on hand because the chocolate components are of the unsweetened variety so they don’t end up getting pilfered during late night snack raids. The other necessary items, butter, sugar, flour, eggs, vanilla extract, salt, and baking powder are standard staples, which makes brownies possible at a moment’s notice.
Brownie ingredients
There is absolutely nothing fussy about making brownies. With the exception of a little extra measuring and melting the butter and chocolate together, the steps are identical to the work required for making a boxed mix – mix everything in a bowl and pour it in a pan to bake.
Add sugar to the melted butter and chocolate
Melt unsweetened chocolate, cocoa powder, butter and oil together and stir in the sugar. Baker’s brand unsweetened chocolate is sold in every grocery store and is conveniently packaged in 1 ounce cubes, so don’t be thrown by the recipe calling for 2 ounces of unsweetened chocolate, just use two cubes.
Next, stir in the eggs
Just like most boxed mixes, you need to mix in two eggs. I like to pull the eggs from the fridge and place them in a small bowl of hot tap water while I gather the other ingredients and get the butter melting. This takes the chill off them so they incorporate into the melted chocolate easily.
Flavor your brownies any way you like
Flavorings are the fun part of cooking and a way to add your personal flair to the food you cook. Chocolate and chile is a supreme flavor combo, so I like to add a bit of ancho chile powder to my brownies. Cayenne is a great chile option too if you want more of a kick, but maybe use a bit less. Espresso powder is another excellent touch to add to anything chocolate. Interestingly a touch of coffee in chocolate makes chocolate taste chocolatier. The slightest hint of cinnamon rounds out the seasoning for my brownies. If you like nuts in your brownies, by all means add them. You’re the cook after all.
Stir in the flour and the batter is ready for the oven
The last item to stir to in is the flour which takes nothing more than a few turns of the whisk and the batter is ready for the pan.
Parchment paper is the key to easy removal and easy clean up
Boxed mix or not, if you haven’t discovered parchment paper you need to pick some up the next time you’re at the grocery store. Use it to line cookie sheets, bread pans, cake pans, or any time you want to prevent sticking and make cleanup easy. By leaving two sides long, the parchment acts as a sling, making it possible to simply lift the entire baked brownie out of the pan in one move. It’s also a lot easier to cut the brownie into portions once it’s been removed from the pan.
Homemade chocolate brownies
If you’re a boxed mix maker, I hope you’ll try this recipe. Once you have the unsweetened chocolate and cocoa powder on hand you’ll be able to whip up fabulous brownies in nothing flat. This is the perfect recipe to make when friends are dropping by, you’re heading to a pot luck, or want to bring a little hostess gift to a party. Who doesn’t love a rich, chocolaty homemade brownie?
Recipe Link
So Edible is a monthly feature with recipes and cooking tips to inspire eating fresh home-made food.
Tossing a few items in a sauté pan with a pinch of this and a squeeze of that is one of my favorite ways to cook dinner. It’s all about ease and simplicity with a touch of adventure based on whatever happens to be in the fridge or looks best at the market that day.
Spring Pea and Leek Fettuccini
So Edible is a monthly feature with recipes and cooking tips to inspire eating fresh home-made food.
When wintry weather hits a cup or three of hot chai is a perfect way to warm-up on the inside while snow falls outside. Creamy, sweet, spiced hot tea will take the chill off any day in a most delicious way.
Steaming hot cup of chai
Milk with a touch of sugar balances the tannic tones of strong black tea. Swirling with intriguing flavors like cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, clove, and black pepper, chai is soothing, fragrant and soul satisfyingly good.
So Edible is a monthly feature with recipes and cooking tips to inspire eating fresh home-made food.
‘Tis the season to bake cookies; from classic cut-out sugar cookies and gingerbread men to obscure family recipes past down for generations. Cookies are an integral part of holiday celebrations and make a perfect gift.
You can’t miss by giving someone a batch of homemade cookies packaged in a pretty tin and tied with a colorful ribbon. Send them to a far-away friend or present them to the hostess of the next party you attend. A platter of freshly baked and still warm cookies served to visitors is guaranteed to spark smiles and spread merriment.
Traditional Swedish Rye Wafers
So Edible is a monthly feature with recipes and cooking tips to inspire eating fresh home-made food.
My favorite holiday of the year seems to have surprised me once again. The colder weather and shorter days are an obvious clue, but I still find it hard to get my head around the fact that Thanksgiving will be here next week. If you’re feeling a little caught off-guard too, I have a couple of dishes to share that capture the festive harvest-season flavors, but don’t require extensive prep or complicated lengthy cooking processes.
Roasted Winter Squash with Garam Masala
So Edible is a monthly feature with recipes and cooking tips to inspire eating fresh home-made food.
I watched the webcast of the James Beard Foundation’s Food Conference last week on how money and media influence the way America Eats. One point that came up a number of times during the presentations, panel discussions and breakout sessions really resonated with me. Cooking skills matter.
Cooking classes are fun and social
As one participant pointed out, it’s really difficult to eat a healthy diet on a budget if you don’t know how to cook. I contend that it’s difficult to eat a healthy diet regardless of budget if you don’t know how to cook. Cooking and knowing how to feed one’s self is a core life skill that is all too often overlooked. Restaurants and convenience foods make it possible to survive without ever actually cooking anything. The drawback is it’s difficult to eat a healthy diet this way and it can be very expensive.
So Edible is a monthly feature with recipes and cooking tips to inspire eating fresh home-made foo
As summer leaves us, now is the time to revel in the last of the glorious flavors of warm sunny days. That means stuffing yourself with as many locally grown heirloom tomatoes as time will allow.
Heirloom tomatoes
Fresh-from-the-garden tomatoes define simplicity by requiring nothing more than to be sliced and consumed. They deliver a juicy joyful flavor that will haunt you until the next harvest. Gild the experience with a drizzle of exquisite olive oil and a sprinkle of fine artisan salt. The taste will likely be a memory so powerful it can be called upon during the dark chilly abyss of our Northwest winter like a magical incantation to conjure a restorative moment of summer. Read more
So Edible is a monthly feature with recipes and cooking tips to inspire eating fresh home-made food.
I fiddled and tweaked a granola bar recipe for some time until I got it just right; not too sweet, nicely spiced and a texture that was crunchy but still held together. Now, if I could just find that little scrap of paper with my genius list of ingredients and measurements.
Apricot, Almond, Coconut Bars
So Edible is a monthly feature with recipes and cooking tips to inspire eating fresh home-made food.
We are in the high season of fresh delectable edibles and no place showcases the bounty of the Northwest better than our local farmers Markets. It’s also a wonderful showcase of local business which seems particularly fitting for us Girl Power Hour gals.
Let Us Farm selling lettuce and other veg at University Farmer's Market
So Edible is a monthly feature with recipes and cooking tips to inspire eating fresh home-made food.
When the first glimpse of summery weather hit I was caught off-guard and found myself staring in my refrigerator looking for cool and refreshing beverages craving something more taste-tantalizing than the run-of-the-mill offerings I keep on hand.
Lemon Mint Iced Tea
