On-Hand Brownies

Cook Time: 1 hr
Cost: 10 bucks (if you buy everything, see below)

Ingredients:
2 sticks of butter, melted
1 1/2 c white sugar
1 c flour
1/2 c cocoa
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp powdered ginger
1/2 tsp baking powder
Mini-peanut butter cups, optional (or other chocolatey candy...or anything that sounds tasty for that matter)

So I had a bit of a Miranda moment.  Does anyone remember that episode of Sex and the City where Miranda almost spends $40 on a slice of cake and realizes she can just bake her own courtesy Duncan Hines for 1/10th the cost?

So I was wandering around my local Whole Foods, salivating over luscious baked goods that were a tad pricey.  I got to thinking, I bet I have the ingredients to make brownies on-hand in my pantry and lo-and behold, I did!  I did pick up some mini peanut butter cups because, well, I'm human.

So this was both a blessing and a curse because now I can be an unadulterated fat-ass whenever I want, without even having to leave home.

1. Preheat oven to 350.

In a fine sieve, combine flour and sugar.  Sift into a large bowl.







2.  Then, place the cocoa, ginger, salt and baking powder in the sieve and sift into the flour mixture.








Teacher tip: If you can, try and buy this nifty individual packets of baking powder.  Over time, baking powder loses its rising-power after being exposed to air BUT if you get these individual packets you don't have to worry about your cakes/brownies/pancakes going flat -- even if it's months between your baking ventures.

3.  Crack your four eggs in a bowl.  Here, I also added my vanilla extract.  I like using the vanilla bean paste with the yummy bean pieces.

Add to the cocoa/flour mixture.

4.  Melt the butter, and combine it to your wet/dry ingredients, stirring everything together until just combined.  Seriously, though, don't over-stir or it'll get all gluten-y and chewy and not as pleasant.

5.a. Pour half of the batter into a greased 9x9 pan (note -- if you want more fudge-y brownies use a 9x13 cake pan)

5.b. Scatter your candies (or nuts or whatever) on top of this layer.  I was real anal about trying to make sure the peanut butter cups were placed at regular intervals but it really doesn't matter.

5.c. Cover with the remaining half of the batter.  Bake at 350 -- in this 9x9 pan it took mine about 35 minutes.  If you're using a 9x13 it'll take less, probably 20 minutes or so.

Suck on that Whole Foods!