Boxes of Brownies

Many will argue the superiority of homemade baked goods versus the perfection that comes from years and years of trials and tests only large companies can provide (boxed baked goods). This post isn't about either. Some things I think are ONLY to be done by hand and others, well, lets just say that certain companies have my hats off to them, because their products are AMAZING. (Come on now, have you ever made your own fingernail file? Trust me, it just can't compare to the store-bought, $.99 things you can get just about anywhere.)

But I'm digressing. One of my issues being here in South Africa has been the learning curve of making my own stuff. I even tried my hand at making my own tomato soup, from scratch with tomatoes grown in our garden. First, I loath tomatoes. We only grew them for things like spaghetti sauce. Second, I'm a texture person, both in eating food and handling food. All that added up to a lot of grossed-out, near gagging from me and not enough tomato soup to make any of it "worth it" in my humble opinion. Other things, however, I've absolutely loved making from scratch. The one thing that has totally eluded me, to much frustration and anger, has been the brownie.

I'm a brownie/cookie kinda girl. I love me some good desserts and if it has a warm yumminess with a good dash of chewing to it, you can count me in! All the brownies I made though weren't chewy... they weren't chocolately... and well, they weren't. I must have tried 20 different recipes, but when you're dealing with a baker (not a cook, but sweet stuff is my area) who does texture (can't substitute the super fineness of brown sugar for unrefined light brown stuff, feels grainy on the tongue, trust me, I know) these things matter. It even got to the point that I asked Todd to bring me back a box or two when he went to the States. Each article in his suit cases were painstakingly weighed for priority, need, want, and well you get the picture. That means that brownies from a box were ranking pretty high on the list. That is, of course, until I found the best brownie recipe in the WORLD (it's actually a cookie recipe, but don't tell). For my birthday I was given a package of Reese's Peanut Butter Chips, which I was saving for the right time. While Todd was gone, I found my "right time" and made them. Then, I noticed the texture and the small variation for 'pan cookies' on the recipe. I made them and I must say, I will never again waste space and weight on useless boxes of brownie mix because there is NO NEED TO! (Can I get a big "whahoo!!!" please?)

For the record, these were pulled out of the oven less than 4 hours before this shot. Four. And they had to cool. And it was just Todd and me eating them. Just. (I added some peppermint extract because I absolutely LOVE chocolate and peppermint together. Didn't use enough though, so had to break into my stash of peppermint candy canes from Grams... maybe I'll be lucky enough to stumble into some of those wonderful Christmas white-chocolate-peppermint-chips next year... hum... here's to hoping!)