Super Brownies

My friends and I got together for a little Superbowl "party." This party consisted of a variety of chips and chip dips, talking during the first 7/8 of the game, and then, of course, we watched the final two minutes of the game because God forbid we didn't see who won. Oh, and the most important part of our entire night were my made-from-scratch deep dish brownies!!

Deep Dish Brownies

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 eggs
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

Well, first of all, I baked these brownies in the foreign kitchen that belonged to my friend, Andrea. I thought I had a pretty efficient oven/stove, but I was introduced to stainless steel heaven. I swear it had a button for everything you could think of, every baker's dream, no doubt! I typed in 350 degrees and the oven began to preheat. I neatly aligned all of the ingredients that I brought to make these brownies. On a side note, you think that shopping for a few common items at your local grocery store would be a breeze. I guess I encountered a wind storm because it took me 30 minutes to find THREE items I didn't have (cocoa powder, baking powder, and flour). Back to baking. I stared at the instructions for a good five minutes to make sure that I was going to do everything right, since this was the first thing I've ever baked. I had two bowls: one large bowl and one medium sized bowl. The directions instructed me to combine the melted butter, sugar, vanilla, and eggs in one bowl and the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt into another. So, as I stood there, I was certain that I should put the egg mixture into the larger bowl and the powder mixture into the medium sized bowl. I was so certain in fact, that I argued with Andrea about my correctness and made a fool of myself as it turned out I was wrong. Oops! So I carefully blended the egg mixture with the powder. I poured the mixture into a greased 8 inch pan and placed it into the oven.

Now is it just me, or is the best part of baking brownies licking the bowl and spoons clean? We all huddled around the bowl and seriously licked every last drop of chocolaty goodness. I was a little bit preoccupied with my baking brownies though. The instructions told me to bake for 45 minutes. I was up in the kitchen every two and a half minutes to make sure nothing was burning. After the 45 minutes, I used the old toothpick trick (stick a clean toothpick into your baked goods and if it comes out clean, then it's ready) and decided to take them out. By this time, there was the most intoxicating aroma in the house that we didn't even wait until the brownies cooled. Surprisingly, my brownies were delicious, a little gooey inside and crisp around the edges. I'll give myself an A+++