Here’s my first warning – these are not in any way, shape,
or form diet brownies, healthy brownies, or “your doctor recommended you have
one a day” brownies. These are fudgy, yummy, gooey, stick-straight-to your-thighs brownies – and I don’t think there is really any other type worth
eating.
Bit of advice before you start this recipe – don’t think
about substituting healthier ingredients if you want the same gooey
result…these are truly an indulgent brownie…aren’t you excited?!?
Fudgy Brownies Recipe
¼ c shortening (Crisco is great, and by great, I mean awful
– which for this purpose makes it great)
¾ c margarine
¾ c unsweetened cocoa
2 c sugar (raw sugar is actually better – in the US, I would
actually encourage you to even mix 1 c white sugar with 1 c brown sugar, since
most brown sugar in the US is fairly refined)
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 ½ c flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 c chopped nuts (optional, and I would recommend walnuts)
Preheat your oven to 375F.
In a small pot, melt the shortening and margarine. In a
separate bowl, combine the cocoa, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Add the melted
margarine & shortening – it will be a bit difficult to mix due to the
viscosity of the egg mixture and the greasiness (yes, greasiness) of the
margarine/shortening mixture. Continue with gentle persistence (you could apply
that phrase to various situations in life, actually….I’ll leave application up
to you).
Once the shortening/margarine is combined with the sugar
mixture, add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Now, many (ok almost all)
baking recipes recommend that you combine the flour, salt, baking whatever in a
separate bowl THEN add it to your wet ingredients. This is purely so you don’t
get globs of salt or baking soda in your finished product. I don’t like to do
dishes (unless I have someone fun to do them with, and my children aren’t
pulling on my legs the whole time) so I add the flour to the wet ingredients,
DON’T MIX, then put the baking whatever and salt on top of the flour & do a
little ‘top mix’, if you know what I mean. After the salt & baking
soda/powder is mixed in with the flour, I mix together the wet and dry
ingredients. So….do that for this recipe.
Once your batter is mixed up, you can add walnuts if you
like, and then…eat a bit of it. Go ahead,
it’s ok, you won’t get sick. Here’s the ish on salmonella: (disclaimer – please
do your own research, as I hold no responsibility for anyone getting sick from
eating raw batter.) Salmonella is an intestinal disease, and is transmitted via
the fecal-oral routine (I did not come up with that name, by the way, and feel
a bit uncomfortable writing it here…we’re all adults, though, you get the
point). Salmonella is found on the outside
of eggs, on the shell, not inside (unless of course the shell has been compromised
prior to use , in which case you shouldn’t use that egg anyway). If your eggs
are clean prior to use, there shouldn’t be any salmonella transmitted to your
batter (I wash mine in light bleach water for 10 minutes when I first buy
them…I also live in Kenya, so the eggs come a bit more dirty than they do in
the US). So, go for it, eat some batter…but again, do your own
research/recognize I’m not a salmonella specialist, but have just done some
independent research because I LOVE eating batter…
Another note about eggs – if they have never been
refrigerated, they don’t have to be. Most eggs in the US are sold from a
refrigerator, so you need to keep them in your fridge. BUT, if you can find
them unrefrigerated, you can keep them unrefrigerated for several weeks. In
Kenya, the eggs are sold on the shelf in the grocery store, and are stored in
my pantry (after being washed of course).
Okay, sorry for the egg tangent. Back to the brownies. Pour
your brownie batter into a greased 9x13 pan and place in the oven. Let them bake for
approximately 30 min. I say approximately because I encourage you to bake your
brownies to your own gooey preference. Keep in mind the brownies will continue
to cook after you take them out of the oven, and will firm up more as they cool.
I find the best brownies are ones that are almost impossible to scoop out of
the pan when they first come out of the oven, due to being so soft.
You can eat immediately, but you’ll probably need a fork and
a napkin or you can let cool for a bit until the brownies have firmed up a bit.
A couple warnings:
If you use too much flour, this recipe ends up being quite
cakey, and not nearly as good. I actually recommend, especially in the US,
using about ¼ c LESS flour. Also, if you
use butter and oil, all oil, orange juice, or some other healthier substitute
for the fatty ingredients, your brownies will not turn out like the original recipe. Feel free to
experiment, and let me know if you come up with a deliciously healthy
substitute. I’m all for healthy eating, but do believe some food items have no
hope of being healthy and should just be enjoyed as a moment of indulgence.
Enjoy!!!
