Brownies From Scratch? I Know — I Don’t Usually Make Them That Way, Either.

I’ll be honest: I never make brownies from scratch.

I often dress up boxed brownie mixes with things like Reese’s cups (fancy, huh?), but I typically leave most of the work up to Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines. (They’re just so GOOD, why go to the trouble of starting from square one?)

Still, I trust the recommendations of Smitten Kitchen to no end, and so when she posted a brownie recipe she labeled as her favorite, I knew I had to give it a try.

Not surprising in the least, these brownies are pretty freaking amazing, and — even better — are super quick, too. They don’t take all that much longer than prepping the boxed mix, in fact.

Ingredients

• 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, roughly chopped (I used Ghirardelli’s 100% Cacao 4 ounce bar and only used six of the eight squares)
• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup flour
• Powdered sugar (optional)

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Line an 8″x8″ baking pan with parchment paper and spray the paper with non-stick cooking spray.
• In a heatproof bowl over simmering water, melt the chocolate and butter together until almost completely melted. Remove from heat and stir until smooth.
• Whisk in sugar, then eggs (one at a time).
• Add vanilla and salt.
• Using a spatula, stir in the flour, then spoon batter into prepared pan.
• Bake for 20-30 minutes (I like them on the chewier side, so 20 minutes was perfect for my batch), and sprinkle with powdered sugar when cool (if desired).

See? Told you they were easy! Go on — you know you want to make some…