Home Made Brownies vs Betty Crocker Brownie Mix

I wasn't sure I was going to share any of my “secret” recipes, but this recipe is a favorite of lots of friends of mine, especially Gareth and since he shared his recipe for lettuce wraps, I'll spill the beans....on this one... The secret to my brownie recipe is that I use 1 oz of unsweetened chocolate and 1 oz of semi-sweet chocolate, and also that I use butter. Butter is a must if you want the taste and texture of my brownie recipe which is kind of like a dense floury fudge rather than a cake or cupcake texture.

Brownies are a quick and tasty treat – they only take a few minutes to mix up and bake within 30 minutes.

Brownie Recipe

½ c butter
1 c sugar
2 eggs
1 1oz square semi-sweet baking chocolate
1 1oz square unsweetened (or bitter) baking chocolate
1 tsp vanilla
½ c flour
½ c chopped walnuts or pecans

Melt the chocolate squares in a microwaveable bowl (about 1 minute). Thoroughly cream butter and sugar, add eggs and beat well. Blend in melted chocolate, vanilla and flour. Add nuts to batter, pour into greased 8x8 pan. Bake for about 30 minutes at 320 degrees.

According to Betty Crocker, this recipe would make 16 servings.

Comparison:
Price for home made brownies: $3.05
Price for Betty Crocker Brownies: $3.95 for the mix, .16 cents for an egg, .05 cents for oil - $4.16 total

Ingredients in home made: Butter, sugar, eggs, chocolate, vanilla, flour walnuts

Ingredients in Betty Crocker: Sugar, flour, walnut pieces, cocoa processed with alkali, corn syrup, partially hydrogenated soybean and/or cottonseed oil, corn starch, salt, carob powder, artificial flavor, corn oil, BHT.

Time to prepare home made: About 5 minutes to mix and about 30 minutes to bake.
Time to prepare Betty Crocker: About 2 minutes to mix and 40 minutes to bake.

Okay, it's actually a few minutes quicker to make your own and you save $1.11 or if you add two eggs to the Betty Crocker mix instead of the one that it calls for, you save $1.27 and I think you'll agree the home made taste better. Also you're not consuming corn syrup, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, artificial flavors or BHT!

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