Brownies

For a long time, I have been looking for the perfect brownie recipe.  My mom always made great brownies, but try as I might, I could never replicate them.  As basic a bar cookie as  you can find, for whatever reason  I could not make a tasty brownie.  I had finally given up and decided to make my brownies from a box. 

Then, oddly enough, my grandma gave me an old issue of Cooks Illustrated.  Lo and behold, these was a whole discussion on brownies.  I had never read Cooks Illustrated before and I was so pleased with the discussion regarding the pitfalls of making brownies. 

I decided to try their recipe with fantastic results and just a tiny bit of modification.  This brownie is the perfect union of fudgy and cakey.  The cake flour makes the brownie not too dense (lower protein content in cake flour), yet the melted chocolate gives it a ton of flavor.  The best part?  The fact that this recipe makes a 9×13 pan of these beauties, lots of deliciousness to go around.

To Frost or Not To Frost?

I am generally a brownie purist. No frosting needed for me. Maybe a light dusting of powdered sugar but I’m generally happy with just the plain bar.

However, I know a lot of people love a good frosted brownie. If you’re one of those people, you might want to try my peanut butter buttercream (even better with some chopped peanut butter cups on top). Or, if you want revel in chocolaty goodness, maybe try my plain chocolate buttercream.

For some other chocolate bar cookie deliciousness, you should try these magic cookie bars or these caramel nut bars. Both are major crowd pleasers and take little effort to prepare.

Happy Baking!