Alright, so if you're like me, your coworker Pam gave you her weekly markout because it was the last of the kitty coffee, in exchange for homemade brownies. So here I am, writing an article about how to make brownies for Pam.
Note: I am using an eggless recipe, because when I went to buy the cocoa powder, I forgot to buy eggs as well. Whoops.
To make these brownies, you will need:
1/3 cup of flour
1 cup of water
1/2 cup of whatever butter you use
2/3 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder of your chosen brand.
2 cups of white sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 more cups of flour
2.5 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
The first thing you'll want to do is set your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and let it preheat. After that, grease your chosen pan. I used lard and flour, but there are several other things you can use, such as butter and sugar.
Then, combine the 1/3 cup of flour and 1 cup of water in a pan, and stir it constantly over low heat. This will get thick in a pinch, so keep an eye on it. Once it starts to get thick, dump it into a mixing bowl, and let it cool a bit.
After that, either rinse out that pan, or use a separate one to melt the 1/2 cup of butter in. Once the butter is melted, mix in the cocoa powder, and stir until it is combined. At this point, I was wondering if I messed something up, because the recipe said to "mix until smooth," but I kind of brushed that feeling off and pressed on. Set this aside to cool as well.
Once you kind of regret making something this complicated, mix in the 2 cups of white sugar and the teaspoon of vanilla extract into the gloopy flour/water thing you made like 15 minutes ago. I suggest adding the sugar in a little at a time, to make a more even mixture.
Then, dump in the chocolate and butter chunks, and mash/stir all that together until it is smoother than something that is really smooth.
Add the baking powder and salt first, and THEN add the last 2 cups of slower SLOWLY. I made the mistake of adding the baking powder and salt, but then I dumped over half of the flour into the mixture, and it was extremely difficult to mix. I then added the remainder of the 2 cups, and had to bring out my good ol' manual hand mixer, but it didn't have enough torque to push through the extremely thick mixture. I ended up having to use a spoon. I really suggest adding a bit less than the 2 cups, and go with like 1.5 cups of flour instead at this stage.
After mixing everything, dump it into your greased pan, and throw it in the oven for a while. The cooking time depends on how thick it is, mine has been in oven for about an hour now, and just finished. Ram a toothpick into the middle, to gauge how done your brownies are, and once the toothpick comes out clean, you're good to take them out.
Mine got pretty puffy, and is fairly dense. A perfect gift for your local Pam.
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