DH talked me into impulse-buying a gigantic bag of chocolate chips at Costco last weekend, and DS talked me into making the brownies described on the back of the bag (https://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/28489/easy-double-chocolate-chip-brownies/). I’d never made brownies from scratch before and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was. However, the brownies themselves were a little disappointing. They were a bit too flat (in a 9x13 pan), and not quite the right texture. Does anyone out there have a better recipe they’d like to share? We have enough chocolate chips for about 6-7 more attempts…
My favorite brownie recipe is the one from the Ghirardelli canister. It calls for Ghirardelli sweet cocoa. I tweaked to include a bit less sugar and more chocolate. See if this points you in a good direction. It’s my Mounds variation, but you don’t need to include the coconut part (though it is a bigtime favorite 'round heah):
P.S. I found this handy conversion note elsewhere:
“Unsweetened Cocoa Substitution: For each 1/2 c unsweetened cocoa, use 1 cup of sweet ground cocoa and decrease the amount of sugar the recipe calls for by 1/2 c.” Hope this helps. These really are my favorite brownies. I don’t bother with other recipes anymore as they never surpass this one.
Nick Malgieri’s Supernatural Brownies. The best ever, bar none. Use a good quality chocolate, though. It makes all the difference. Supernatural Brownies
I like those too. I use 72% chocolate for them. If truman’s Costco chips are sweeter, s/he may want to either reduce the sugar or add a little unsweetened cocoa powder.
Heat oven to 350 (325 for glass baking dish). Melt chocolate and butter; stir until completely melted. Stir sugar into chocolate mixture until well blended. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour and walnuts until well blended. Spread in greased 13x9-inch baking pan. Bake 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out with fudgy crumbs.
I have a binder with many of my favorite baking recipes and this one is so popular the binder automatically opens to this chocolate covered page (yes, I gathered these recipes not only in the pre-smart phone days, but in the infancy of computer days).
A few notes:
-I find cocoa easier to store than baking chocolate. A “square” of baking chocolate = 1 ounce. To make one ounce of unsweetened chocolate, use 3 tbsp of cocoa + 1 tbsp of vegetable oil. I prefer Penzey’s high fat cocoa or Wilbur’s cocoa.
-I generally skip the walnuts.
-A twist proposed by a coworker. Buy a pack of Andes Mints and unwrap them all. When you take the brownies out of the oven, poke several rows of holes into the brownies with a toothpick. Lay the mints on top of the brownies . . . Once they start to melt use an offset spatula to “ice” the brownies. The minty chocolate both permeates and ices the brownies.
I’m a little reluctant to admit this, but after years of messing with scratch recipes, double boilers, special chocolates, etc., I believe that the best ratio of result to time-and-effort is to simply add chocolate chips to a box mix. I slightly favor Betty Crocker, make it in an 8x8 aluminum pan according to the fudgy instructions ( 2 eggs not 3) and add a cup to a cup and a half of chocolate chips (usually Ghiradelli 60% since I buy those in bulk). If I’m really goin’ crazy I use butter instead of oil. All done in less than an hour and always get raves in any workplace I’ve brought them to.
The Ghirardelli recipe is easy as all-get-out and can be pulled off in the same timeframe quite deliciously. ETA: If you don’t like to sift, you can even shake the ingredients in an empty canister!
You can also use those chips in pancakes, Congo bars, magic bars, cookies, trail mix, and as an ice cream mix-in.
My favorite brownies are the Ghirardelli mix (dark chocolate variety - there are 4 kinds) made with melted virgin coconut oil as the oil, adding a half cup chopped walnuts, I use a mini-muffin tin for 14 minutes at 325F.
I, too, prefer brownie mix to making brownies from scratch. It’s the only boxed mix that ever crosses my doorstep, but it’s not about the ease, but rather, the taste. I just have never found a brownie recipe I like as much as Duncan Hines.
