Brownies

So today I attempted to make homemade brownies from scratch that didn't taste horrible compared to the box mix. I don't know what it is about box mix brownies, but they are always miles beyond from scratch mixes. What I made came out to be pretty good, but I'm not really sure it compares.

Makes: Roughly 16-20

Ingredients

Brownies:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chunks
• 1 Tablespoon chocolate syrup

Frosting:

• 4 Tablespoons butter, softened
• 3 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 Tablespoon honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 Tablespoon milk

Directions

Brownies:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8 inch square pan.
2. In a medium sized bowl, sift together the cocoa, flour, salt, and baking powder.
3. In a large bowl, add the sugar, eggs, and vanilla but do not mix.
4. In a small saucepan, melt the butter. 
5. Remove from heat, and by hand, stir in with the ingredients in the large bowl until combined.
6. Add in the sifted ingredients and mix by hand, being careful not to over mix.
7. Add the chocolate chunks and chocolate syrup and mix in.
8. Spread batter into prepared pan.
9. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Do not overcook. 

Frosting:

1. In a small saucepan, melt the butter
2. Once melted, add in the cocoa, honey, vanilla, milk, and confectioners' sugar. 
3. Frosting should be liquidy.
4. Frost brownies while they are still warm.

Thoughts:
Overall the brownies came out much better than I imagined. I only frosted half of the brownies to see if I would like the frosting. The frosting is bitter, which helps counter the sweetness of the brownies, overall, I would do another 50/50 round, but would probably halve the frosting ingredients to not be wasteful. But in the end, I'm not really sure they stand up to the bag mix.

It is really important to hand mix the brownies, otherwise you put in too much air into the eggs and they become cake like.

If you are going to double the recipe and do a 9x13 cakepan, only use 3 eggs instead of 4.

Next Time:

• Halve frosting ingredients but keep the honey where it is to add more sweetness.
• Try milk chocolate chips, instead of semi-sweet
• Add another 1/2 Tspn of chocolate syrup.
• Double the recipe.