I love you. Know how I know? I know because I’m about to share a recipe that I’ve been making ONLY for my family for the past 16 years – with YOU! Yep – I mean, we’re like family by now, right? This is a recipe that is so insanely delicious AND it is CRAZY EASY to make. We’re talking…wait for it… ONE BOWL for mixing. Yep – no bothering with sifting the dry separately from the wet ingredients – just ONE BOWL. I love that. I’m all about easy, and these are. The other thing I love is that you can have fun experimenting with the basic brownie base and make a bunch of fun variations! I’m sharing a holiday-ish version called the “marshmallow mint” brownie, which you’ll see in a second. Let’s get to making the basic brownie, first – shall we?

Ooey-Gooey Best Ever Brownies (Base)

Let’s gather us some brownie ingredients!

(Ingredients)

1 cup butter, melted

2 cups sugar

2 tsp vanilla (or extract of choice – I used mint for this recipe)

4 eggs

2/3 cups cocoa powder

1 cup flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Now that you have all of the lovely ingredients gathered together and they have had a chance to get acquainted, let’s get this brownie party started!!

1. Pre-heat oven to 350° F. We want to turn up the heat in here! Trust me, these brownies come together so fast, you want to get that oven heating up, first thing!

2. Add the sugar to your MELTED butter. Yeah, I fooled you and photographed the butter while it was still room – temperature. Psych! Pop that butter in a micorwave safe bowl (one that holds around 8-10 cups) and melt that butter! Then, add in your sugar and cream melted butter and sugar together until light.

3. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and then add the vanilla. Mix well. Tip: If you’re smart, you’ll crack the eggs, one at a time, into a measuring cup FIRST, then add to the sugar mixture. That way, if a sneakly piece of eggshell tries to join the party – you can catch it before it ends up in the large bowl. Not that I’m speaking from experience or anything…ahem.

4. Add in the cocoa to the butter mixture and beat until well combined.

5. Add in the flour, baking powder, and salt and stir until mixed well. Yep – you read that right, no need to PRE sift the dry ingredients – just add right into the same bowl as the liquid mixture. ONE BOWL BROWNIES, PEOPLE!!! YAY!!

6. Pour into a greased 9X13 pan (or pan lined with parchment paper – for easy clean up)

7. Bake for 27-30 minutes or until the middle doesn’t jiggle when moved, or a toothpick comes out fairly clean. These are fudgy brownies, so the toothpick trick won’t work as well as it would with a cake. I like the jiggly method better – besides, “jiggly” is a fun word to say. Jiggly.

Marshmallow Mint Variation:

Substitute the vanilla for peppermint extract while mixing the batter. When the brownies come out of the oven, immediately sprinkle 3 cups of mini marshmallows and allow to soften. Spread with a spatula until smooth over the brownies. Add some chocolate icing and some crushed candy canes for a peppermint “twist”!

I just used a piping bag to pipe a (sloppy) zig zag design over the melted marshmallow layer with the chocolate icing, then topped the whole thing with ground up candy canes (which I ground up in my food processor.)

And there you have it! Once cool, lift the entire pan of brownies out of the pan using the parchment paper, slice into squares, and be prepared to have your socks knocked off.

These are insanely delicious and can be altered in SO MANY WAYS! Add pecans, chocolate chips, or coconut to the batter. Use a cream cheese icing or dust with icing sugar. These brownies are amazing to experiment with and DO NOT DISAPPOINT!! Pinky promise.

Enjoy, and watch out for drool on your chin. It happens 🙂