Monday, July 20, 2009

Carol Brownies



These brownies are my all time favorites! My aunt, Carol (whom I'm named after), used to make them all of the time, and when I was young she taught me the recipe and her technique. I don't think I appreciated the simplicity of the recipe until much later down the road, but the fact that you only need one bowl, one measuring cup, and a few ingredients that I always have on hand!

These brownies only take about 5 minutes to put together...easy and fast!


Carol Brownies:
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. flour
2 eggs
1 1/2 squares Unsweetened baking chocolate
1 stick butter
1 tsp vanilla (2 tsp is better!)



Melt the butter and chocolate in the microwave (or stove, but microwave is easier) just until all of the butter is melted. With a spatula stir the chocolate butter mixture until the chocolate is completely dissolved in the butter. If you heat the mixture too long to try and melt all of the chocolate, the butter will burn. Just melt the butter and use the residual heat to melt the chocolate completely. When you finish the mixture will be a silky chocolate liquid! A great beginning to any dessert.


After the mixture is completely melted stir in the sugar, followed by the flour so you have a thick chocolate mixture in your bowl. Next follow by the addition of one egg at a time. Stir in completely. Stir in the vanilla until completely incorporated and pour into a 9x9 inch pan.

Bake the brownies at 325 for 20-30 min. On my oven, 22 minutes is perfect!

If you must...you can add pecans to these. I like nut-less brownies because I can focus on the chocolaty deliciousness more that way without interruption... but i completely understand if you feel the desire to add some nuts. However, the first time, I would try at least half the pan nut-free to give them a fair shot!

Once the batter is in the oven, lick the bowl clean using spoon, spatula, fingers, tongue... any means of getting every last drop!

I have been known to eat the entire bowl of batter with a spoon (regretting it later)... If you are going to take the spoon method, I would recommend baking and then, if desired, take the spoon to the warm brownies before they completely set. Most likely you wont eat the entire batch this way, and then once they cool a bit more you still have some great brownies to eat the next few days (if they last that long...)

I usually double the recipe if my family is around because a single batch wont last more than a day... a double batch usually lasts about two.



Note: Do not ruin these brownies by using an electric mixer... my mom tried that once and took away all possible fudgy, moist properties these brownies had...

2 comments:

  1. Lately, I've been adding DARK chocolate chocolate chips to the batter and they are delicious. B/C the brownies themselves are not horribly chocolatey the interspersed melted chocolate adds richness. AND it does work well to just put pecans in 1/2 for crunch:).
    Aunt Carol

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  2. Hi! Just saw your comment over at CookLikeYourGrandmother.com re his "Perfect Brownies." You mentioned this one as your own favorite recipe, and it sounded familiar, so I checked. And guess what? I not only have your recipe for "Carol's Brownies," but have made them as well and gave them an A rating!! So, my apologies for never commenting before now, but thank you so much for a great recipe! So simple, so inexpensive, so good!

    My current fave, however, when willing to take a little more time with it, is Malgieri's "Supernatural Brownies." If you follow the directions exactly and actually wait until the next day to eat them, they are indeed otherwordly...in a great way!! So many recipes, so little time, sigh ... LOL! Thanks again! :-D

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