Easy, frugal homemade brownies

05Aug08

NOTE: I have moved my blog to my own server. I’m now blogging at www.thefrugalgirl.com. All the old posts have been moved there, and so the brownice recipe is there too.

I always am hesitant to make a chocolate recipe that calls for bars of unsweetened chocolate(and many brownie recipes do). While not exorbitantly expensive, unsweetened chocolate is more pricey than cocoa powder and so I prefer not to bake with it. So, here is a unsweetened chocolate-free brownie recipe. Not only does this recipe use cocoa powder, is is also very, very easy and it yields dense, chocolatey, moist brownies(bonus: it was from a low-fat cookbook. These aren’t exactly health food, but they’re not quite as sinful as most other brownies).

I don’t know exactly how these compare price-wise to brownies from a box, but I can tell you that they taste better. One day when I get really organized, I’ll do an Amy Dacyzyn style price breakdown, but for now, you’ll just have to be motivated by the picture of delicious chocolate-ness.

Frugal Brownies

5 tablespoons butter
1 1/4 cups sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder dissolved in 1 teaspoon hot water(I hate coffee, so I just throw in a teaspoon of water)

Preheat oven to 350. Melt butter in a saucepan. While the butter is melting, mix the dry ingredients(except the sugar! That will get mixed with the melted butter later) together.

When the butter is melted, take the saucepan off the heat and stir in the sugar. The mixture will be a sandy texture.

Stir in the eggs and vanilla(the original recipe says about 40 strokes…I don’t usually count!).

Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir(the recipe says to use a wooden spoon, which I dutifully do. A metal spoon probably won’t ruin your brownies, though!) for 40 strokes(again, I don’t really count). Does this not look delicious?? At this point, I am always sorely tempted to take out a spoon and start eating.

Pour/scrape the batter into a greased 8×8 inch baking pan and bake for 20-25 minutes. When a toothpick is inserted, it should still be a little wet and gooey. This one:

is actually a little on the dry side. Err on the side of wet. Cool on a wire rack and cut into squares.

Filed under: Desserts, Frugal Food, Recipes   |  8 Comments