MY BROWNIES FROM SCRATCH - Americke "Brownies"

I've never eaten brownies in Czechoslovakia, when I used to live there. (Now the country is split into two countries - Czech republic and Slovakia). So, to make my American husband happy, I had to find a recipe for this dessert. Then I fine tuned it and written it down. You know, my family has a sweet tooth. Actually they must have several "sweet teeth" to be correct. So anytime I bake something, it disappears fast. They swarm over my baked goods not only that it has sugar in it, but also because I bake them from scratch, in other words I do not buy pre-made mixes in boxes. When I see people in the store buying any "brownie mix", I feel like telling them: "You know, you could bake your brownies without chemical additives just as fast - brownies need only few simple ingredients. It may take you only about one or two minutes longer than if you use a mix. And they taste better."

How hard it is to measure and combine together cocoa powder, flour, salt (if you use unsalted butter) and baking powder instead of mix? You still have to use vanilla, butter and eggs even if you use mix. So here is my version of brownies, that my family is crazy about.

Brownies:

1 stick (= 1/2 cup) of softened butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
some honey (I just squeeze into a bowl a good amount = about 2-3 TBSP)

Beat all the above mentioned ingredients with an electric whisk for couple of minutes on high speed in a big bowl.

Then add:

3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt (NO SALT if you use salted butter)
1/4 tsp. baking powder

Beat all these ingredients for couple more minutes, until well blended.

If I want to make brownies even more special, I add either handful of chopped up walnuts, or chocolate chips, or even raisins soaked in rum....

Pour the batter into buttered and floured 8"x8" (or similar size) baking dish, put it into 350F preheated oven and bake for 30-40 minutes. (I usually bake it for 40 minutes, although the original recipe called  for 25-30 minutes).

My family loves brownies with an ice cream, and yesterday we had them with pumpkin ice cream from Whole Foods store. I had to hold myself not to get seconds for how yummy this combination was for my taste buds.

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Brownies se neda ani nejak prelozit. Je to proste hutnejsi kolac z mouky a kakaa, tudiz cokoladovy kolac. Neni obtizne jej upect, a ma-li k vam prijit navsteva na kavicku, tento kolac muzete mit behem hodinky upeceny.

Nejdrive uslehejte dohromady tyto prisady:

100 g rozpusteneho masla
1 cajovy hrnek cukru
2-3 lzice medu
2 vajicka
a vanilku (ja davam asi 1 lzicku tekute)

Potom pridejte k uslehanym prisadam:

3/4 cajoveho hrnicku hladke mouky
1/3 cajoveho hrnicku kakaa
trosku soli (jestli pouzivate solene maslo, tak zadnou sul)
1/4 cajove lzicky prasku do peciva

Velmi dobre vareckou zamichejte (neslehat!) a "vylejte" testo (testo je hutnejsi, neda se nejak moc lit) do dobre vymazane a moukou vysypane formy - asi 8x8 inchu, anebo priblizne velke pecici nadoby. Ja pecu tento americky cokoladovy kolac pri teplote 350F (175 C) asi 40 minut. Sice recepty obycejne "rikaji" asi 30 minut, ale me se to zda v me troube nedopecene.

Servirujte tento jednoduchy kolac se slehackou nebo zmrzlinkou a vase navsteva se bude jen olizovat, jako ja.