My Mom's Brownies.

My mother is the greatest mom of all time (Happy Mother's Day!). She is the epitome of what a mom should be in my opinion. Not only did she spend enormous amounts of time driving me to soccer practice, she packed my lunch every day for school, she's a nurse and therefore knew exactly how to take care of sick children, she almost always answers the phone when I call for the 742nd time that day, she throws a great wedding and she can bake. And I mean bake, like old school. Her idea of unwinding is baking chocolate chip cookies from scratch. She wouldn't even know where to find pre-made dough in the grocery store. Recently she had to purchase a new container just to keep her vast array of chocolate chips organized in the cabinet. It's a problem.

When I was a kid she always made her brownies from scratch. In the past few years she has become a bit of a traitor and switched over to a box mix...but that is all about to change. Why? Because I made her brownies and will now be instating a new law forbidding the use of brownie mix in her house.

You don't even understand. This recipe puts mixes to shame. The mixes should run and hide in a hole. If there was a leper village for brownies then that is where the mixes should go. Peace out, mixes!

The ingredients are pretty basic.

Bust out the ole mixer and start beating the daylights out of 5 eggs and 3 cups of sugar.

Mix on high for 10 minutes.

While the eggs are meeting their demise, melt 1 cup of butter and 8oz of unsweetened chocolate.

I used Baker's unsweetened so I chopped it up first to help with the melting process.

The concouction takes a minute or two to melt, but have patience. Let it cool after it melts while the eggs and sugar finish mixing.

Oh, and don't stick your finger in and expect it to taste remotely good. It doesn't.

If you've got some time to kill, this would be a good time to grease and flour the nearest 13x9 pan you can find. I just happened to come across a blue Emile Henry dish. Try not to be jealous.

Once the eggs and sugar are thoroughly beaten to a pulp and the chocolate and butter is cool, add the chocolate into the mixer. Mix it well.

Then dump in 1 teaspoon of vanilla.

And then add 1.5 cups of flour. Add slowly to avoid a blizzard. Then wash your hands.

Done. Wasn't that easy and basic?

Ladies and gentelman, may I please introduce our guest performer of the evening...Mint Chocolate!!! Wahhh!! Wooo!!! The crowd goes wild!

That's right. I went there. I added a cup of mint chocolate chips at the last minute. You don't have to. But it's how I roll.

With or without the mint, go ahead and pour the batter into your freshly greased pan. If you haven't preheated the oven to 350, now would be a good time to get that out of the way.

After 40 minutes or so, they should look like chocolate heaven. You'll know the brownies are done when it starts to pull away from the edge of the pan. 

You could bake these babies all day and they'll never be cake-y. They will forever be fudgy and gooey and delicious.

Now comes the fun part. The part that stands out when I think of the brownies my mom baked during my childhood. The powdered sugar. She was the only mom who made white brownies. It's her secret trick.

Let them cool for a bit, especially if you went rogue and added mint chips. You'll want the chips to re-solidify.

Enjoy!!!

Copy and Paste-able:

My Mom's Best Brownies

Ingredients: 

5 Eggs

3 c. Sugar

8oz. Unsweetened chocolate

1 c. butter

1 1/2 c. Flour

1 tsp. Vanilla

1 c. Mint chocolate chips, if you're feeling sassy

Preheat oven to 350F.

Grease and flour 9x13 pan.

Beat together eggs and sugar on high for 10 minutes.

Melt and cool chocolate and butter.

Add chocolate and butter to the eggs and sugar. Mix well.

Add vanilla.

Add flour. Mix well.

If adding mint, add chips and mix in with a spoon.

Bake for 40 minutes.

Sift powdered sugar over top and let cool.

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Workout: Cardio - 45 minutes, Weights: biceps, shoulders, abs