Homemade Chocolate Brownies

I was in the kitchen most of the day.

 I made pancakes and bacon for breakfast (which is rare around here...we eat those for dinner more than for breakfast). The good news is I made a couple extra batches to freeze.

For lunch, I cooked hot dogs and threw together some watermelon slushes for the kids.

Next I got started on dinner: crockpot roast beef, roasted potatoes, homemade yeast rolls, and green beans.

Then I started thinking, "A dessert would be nice..."

 I really don't make them very often.

 Well, just about that time, a friend of mine sent me an e-mail with a brownie recipe that she had made that I had loved.

 Perfect.

 I looked at the ingredients. I had them all!

Perfect again.

 And they didn't take too terribly long to make.

Perfect again.

So brownies it was!

 Since I started cooking differently (more from scratch) for my food-sensitive kid, I have tried a couple of brownie recipes. None came close to what we wanted in a brownie. Until this one. This one worked.

 Oh, here is the link to the original recipe.

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, melted (I use unsalted for baking)

2 cups granulated sugar

2 tsp vanilla

4 eggs

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 cup all-purpose flour (I actually used 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose)

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)  I used pecans

You can also add semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips or caramel bits.  I added the semi-sweet, just a handful.

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 350.

Grease a 9 x 13 dish.

Stir the sugar and vanilla into the melted butter.

Beat in eggs, one at a time.

Add the cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.

Add flour, beating until mixed.

Add in nuts, caramel bits, and/or chocolate chips.  (I added both pecan pieces and semi-sweet chocolate chips)

Pour the batter into the greased pan.

Bake for 30-35 minutes (until a toothpick comes out "clean").

Cool and then enjoy!

We ate ours with a little side of ice cream. 

YUM. :)

Reba