I have found the best recipe to make from scratch!

For a few years I’ve baked for crowds (40+ sometimes) and have blended my share of box mixes. I’ve made an habit of replacing the water with milk, the oil for melted butter, and adding our special vanilla. This from-scratch recipe–which was as simple as a box mix to blend–includes these three unique ingredients to heighten the chocolate flavors:

Olive oil

Powdered sugar

Sea salt

Just don’t be like me and forget to spray the foil which is meant to make clean-up easier… Thankfully when it fully cooled the brownie did separate from the unsprayed foil. But no one needs that kind of stress when baking brownies, right?

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

• 2/3 cup cocoa powder, sifted if lumpy (I didn’t but probably would next time)

• 1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted if lumpy (same)

• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (I had milk chocolate on hand)

• 3/4 teaspoons sea salt

• 2 large eggs

• 1/2 cup canola oil or extra-virgin olive oil (used the olive oil. First time!)

• 2 tablespoons water (replaced with milk here)

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla (for the record, I never measure my vanilla. We use the good stuff from the Dominican Republic which we purchase in Haiti.)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Lightly spray an 8×8 baking dish (don’t forget like I did!) with cooking spray and line it with parchment paper. Spray the parchment paper. (I used foil cuz I ran out. Found out last week that exposed wax paper smokes in the oven. So that is not an equal substitute. In case you were wondering.)

Combine the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, powdered sugar, chocolate chips, and salt.

Whisk together the eggs, olive oil, water, and vanilla.

Sprinkle the dry mix over the wet mix and stir until just combined. (Okay, my dry mix bowl was bigger so I reversed this but made sure to blend well.)

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. It’ll be very thick so use a spatula to smooth the top. Bake for 40 to 48 minutes (in my 9×9 pan 40 minutes was all I needed). Cool completely before slicing–if you can wait.

So there you have it! The best brownie recipe ever! And toddler approved!! (see below)

The recipe advised against using a 9×9 pan but that’s all I had… I considered using a loaf pan but that might’ve been weird.

What other pans have you used?

https://www.loveandlemons.com/brownies-recipe/