Homemade Brownies!

So by the time I got around to taking a photo, this is all that was left of my brownies. But something is better then nothing right?

I've tried several homemade brownie recipes and most of them have been duds. Not very flavorful, too dry, too many ingredients... I pretty much stop reading after ingredient 10 and start to do my own thing. No really, I get wary of a recipe that has 60 ingredients that you spend $80 for and end up with like 15 bars. It's slightly ridiculous, hold the slightly.
These are nice and simple. I find recipes all the time online and write them down for later, so I'm not sure where I found this one. It was super easy though, took me maybe 15 minutes from start to oven, and they turned out super moist and awesome. Plus there's plenty of room for add ins! Because who eats plain brownies? No one.

Now in my case I'm too impatient to wait for butter to soften, so I throw it in the microwave until it's are melted in the middle and soft on the outsides. Whatever, I do what I want, and it all mixes in in the end. I also used semi sweet baking chocolate, but it would also be delicious with 2 oz milk chocolate and 2 oz unsweetened or semi sweet baking chocolate. You could totally try all milk chocolate but for me, it would be way too rich. Do whatever you want really. They are your brownies.

So without further explanation!

Basic Homemade Brownies

You'll need
2 sticks of butter, softened. 

4 oz of chocolate (semi sweet/unsweetened/milk whatever. Just in solid form)

1 1/2 cup sugar

1 cup flour

2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
whatever add ins you'd like to use. Some suggestions I'd like to throw out there are mini M&M's, walnuts, pecans, chocolate chips, caramel chunks/bits, pretzels.. whatever.

 

 

So you'll want to melt the chocolate first, I put mine in a bowl in the microwave and nuked it in ten second intervals until it was melty, stirring in between every stop. But you can totally use a double boiler for this as well, just make sure not to get any water in your chocolate or it'll turn grainy. Also be careful not to burn it. It's pretty easy to do, so a good rule is to melt it until just a couple chunks remain an then stir until smooth. Set this aside.

 

In a large bowl mix your remaining ingredients, minus your add ins. Stir until combined. Add your melted chocolate and stir until smooth.

 

Then add your add ins stir until it's well mixed.

 

Pour all this in to a foil lined, greased pan.

Throw it in the oven set at 350 degrees for 30 minutes

 

Now this is for a larger pan then I used, I used an 8 by 11, which you can totally use as well, but it took about an hour and a half to cook through. Whatever size pan you use, check it at the 25 minute mark and maybe every 20 after that. Insert a toothpick in to the center and if it comes out clean your brownies are done! If you put chocolate chips in yours, just make sure you have actual batter on your toothpick and not just chocolate chip chocolate.

 

And that's it! If you like to frost yours, by all means go for it, just wait until your brownies have cooled completely. I like to eat mine while they are still scalding hot so I never frost them.

 

Enjoy!