The Best Brownies Ever Made

Last Sunday was a banner day for the Seyler's. My mom made the best meatloaf, and my sister made the best brownies to ever come forth from an oven. She even messed up and put in half the chocolate, and they were still amazing. My family polished off the entire tray of brownies in one afternoon. My favorite moment was when I walked into the kitchen and caught my grandma sneaking up to snatch another brownie on the sly. She is a chocolate fiend. My mom made another batch the next day with the proper amount of chocolate, and (of course) they were twice as amazing. She doesn't even like chocolate. The brownies are dense and chocolatey with a thick, crispy top--the reason everyone loves brownies. Here's Emily showing off her masterpiece:

Fudge Brownie Supreme: taken from the All-American Cookie Book that my mom found at a thrift store 1 stick butter plus 2 tablespoons 5 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate 1 cup sugar 1/3 cup light brown sugar 3 eggs 2 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 2/3 cup flour 1 1/2 tablespoon cocoa 1/4 teaspoon salt Microwave and nearly melt butter and chocolate. Mix in sugars and eggs/vanilla. Mix in remaining dry ingredients. Pour into greased 8x8 pan. Bake 350 for 28 minutes. It has a great gooey center and an outer crust for texture.

Brownies to Replace Presence of Boyfriend on V-day

Another guest post from Maria over in Indiana. Do these brownies not look scrumptious? I've been waiting since August to make these brownies (well, to be honest, I've been waiting two years). As an undergrad, my lacrosse team (and Lainey's!) were going to do a bake sale. I asked my grandmother for some recipes. Unfortunately, they didn't arrive in the mail on time (she doesn't understand how email works). One of the recipes was for mint brownies. I lost the recipe and didn't find itagain until this August when I moved.

The recipe calls for either mint chocolate chips or peppermint extract. For some reason I thought she said mint extract. I was so confused; I couldn't find it in any grocery. I asked around and someone said it's usually available around the holidays. I searched and searched come November and December. Nada! I forgot about the recipe until my neighbor and good friend Melanie and I began baking together weekly. We were talking about our love of the mint and chocolate combination, and I mentioned the brownie recipe. Melanie suggested peppermint extract. I was hesitant, so I read the recipe again. Yep, sure enough, Grandma said peppermint extract. (By the way, there is such a thing as mint extract. I may have to order some online.)

Melanie and I made the brownies Thursday afternoon (our weekly baking time). We doubled the recipe so we could each have lots of minty, chocolatey goodness. They turned out to be amazing. These are quite possibly the best brownies I have ever tasted. For those of you who know me, you know my obsession with the boxed triple chunk brownie mix. These are even better. Note: Don't eat two brownies and drink a glass of milk before running for 40 minutes. You WILL feel sick to your stomach. Brownies are best consumed post-run.

Grandma's Chocolate Mint Brownies

1/2 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3 eggs
2/3 cups butter
1 2/3 cup mint chocolate chips or semi-sweet chips with 2 drops of peppermint extract
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, mix sugar, flour, cocoa, vanilla, baking powder and eggs. In a small saucepan, melt on low to medium-low heat (keep stirring) butter and 1 cup of chocolate chips. Add butter/chocolate mixture to the other ingredients and stir. Add 2/3 cups chips and chopped nuts. Grease a 13x9x2 pan (or a 9x9 for thicker brownies). Pour in brownie mix and bake for 30 minutes (you want the center to be just set).

For other recipes by Maria see: soup, squash, muffins, risotto and chicken.

Raspberry Cream Cheese Swirl Brownies (Gluten Free)

(Here is another guest post. This one is from my mom's Super Bowl Party.) Our super bowl party was unique in that the guests’ combined food allergies included nuts and wheat, plus then we have a few vegetarians thrown into the mix. Wishing to expand beyond popcorn and rice krispie treats, we adapted the following recipe to make it gluten free. How can you go wrong with chocolate, cream cheese, lemon and raspberries?

It looks as if everyone is pretty happy with the offerings of the night. My mom has mentioned before how tricky it is to prepare food for her church small group with such unique dietary, er, restrictions. For example, we've got the gluten-free folks who can't eat all variety of wheat items and the vegetarians who don't eat meat. That cuts out, oh, about half the food pyramid, maybe more. (Not that my mom has ever complained about it, but just think about it, that's a lot). It seems as if these sorts of diets are becoming easier to work with of late. It's pretty normal to have vegetarians around (at least for me if not my dad) and I see a lot of gluten-free stuff at the grocer (not all of which is good). My parents have discovered some trully wretched gluten-free crackers that they served once with cheese. Even I wouldn't eat them.

But as you can see in the above photo, those gluten-free brownies look killer. My mom replaced wheat flour in the recipe with rice flour. I'd think you could do this for a lot of baked goods. Maybe not homemade bread, but cookies for sure. Good thing everybody can handle chocolate. I have no other knowledge about cooking anything gluten-free. I hardly know what it is. But here's a blog that might have better insight.

You can see in the above photo where I get my messiness from. Note: my mom is way way way cleaner than I am. I'll learn someday I suppose.

Raspberry Cream Cheese Swirl Brownies:

3/4 stick butter 2 1/2 ounces of unsweetened chocolate coarsely chopped 1 1/2 ounces bittersweet chocolate or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped 3/4 cup flour ( we substituted rice flour) 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 1/4 cups sugar 2 teaspoons vanilla 2 eggs Cream cheese swirl: 8 ounces cream cheese slightly softened and cut into chunks 1/3 cup sugar 2 tablespoons butter, melted 1 egg 1/4 teaspoon grated lemon zest 1/3 teaspoon vanilla 1/3 cup seedless raspberry preserves Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a 9 inch square baking pan. In a medium bowl, microwave the butter and chocolates for 1 minute. Stir well. Continue microwaving at 50 percent power, stirring at 30 second intervals until nearly melted. Let the residual heat finish the job. Stir the sugar and vanilla into the chocolate mixture. Beat in the eggs and mix until the sugar dissolves. Stir in the flour and pour 2/3 of the mixture into baking pan, saving the remainder for the topping. Process or mix the cream cheese, sugar, butter, egg, lemon zest and vanilla until well blended and smooth. Drop the cream cheese mixture by tablespoons over the batter. Evenly drop the raspberry preserves by teaspoons over the cream cheese. Spoon the remaining chocolate batter into 4 or 5 pools over the top. Swirl with a knife. Bake for 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean. It was delicious and disappeared before halftime.