Chewy Cocoa Brownies

Submitted by Kelleigh

"taken from http://www.verybestbaking.com/"

 

• Ready In: 45mins
• Ingredients: 11
• Serves: 48

ingredients

• 1 2⁄3 cups granulated sugar
• 3⁄4 cup butter or 3/4 cup margarine, melted
• 2 tablespoons water
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1⁄3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3⁄4 cup Nestle Toll House Baking Cocoa
• 1⁄2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
• 3⁄4 cup chopped nuts (optional)
• powdered sugar

directions

1. PREHEAT oven to 350° F.
2. Grease 13 x 9-inch baking pan.
3. COMBINE sugar, butter and water in large bowl.
4. Stir in eggs and vanilla extract.
5. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt in medium bowl; stir into sugar mixture.
6. Stir in nuts.
7. Spread into prepared baking pan.
8. BAKE for 18 to 25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out slightly sticky.
9. Cool completely in pan on wire rack.
10. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.
11. Cut into bars.

Reviews

[Debbwl]

Very Flexible and tasty brownie with a nice soft yet light texture. I cut the recipe in half and baked in a 9x9 pan, also used a really good quality dark cocoa powder instead of the suggested baking cocoa. I then cut these into harts and placed atop of Recipe #33624 and layered with Recipe #209847 for a very special valentines treat. Thanks so much for the post.

 

[bmcnichol]

These had great flavor but were really dry. I followed the recipe exactly as written (I even went back and double checked as I thought I had done something wrong). I did not add the optional nuts nor did I top the brownies with sugar. I only cooked for 15 minutes so I didn't overbake so not sure what went wrong.

 

[lizedel]

This is a great recipe! I did make a couple of changes that put it over the top! I substituted special dark cocoa for the regular cocoa, and used Nestle espresso chips instead of using nuts. So good!!

 

[Chalko]

This is my favorite brownie recipe but it can go horribly wrong. I have found that under baking it’s a gooey mess, and over baking turns it into a brittle crumbly mess. So you have to pull them out of the oven at just the right time...just the exact moment they *barely* stop wiggling and a toothpick *mostly* comes clean. If you can find the sweet spot, these have a wonderful fudgey texture and a super chocolatey taste.

 

[jadeblackhawk]

When I couldn't find the book with my usual brownie recipe, I decided to try this on I have had saved on my to-try list for a while. Big mistake. The dough is hard and thick, almost impossible to spread. I originally was going to make brownie bites, but I could not get the dough off the spoon and into the paper liner, without the liner coming back out with the spoon. Generally, it was a royal PITA. So I revised my plans and decided to make regular brownies. I couldn't grease the glass pan, because then it would not spread, it just slid around and stuck to me, the spoon, the bowl, etc. So I finally put it into an ungreased glass pan. After baking at 350 for 35 minutes, it was still uncooked on the inside, hard and dry on the edges, and didn't look like brownies should.<br/><br/>I have made a lot of different brownie recipes. This is the hands down absolute worst recipe I can ever remember.