How to Make The Best Brownies You’ll Ever Eat

Bake sales are oddly competitive places. Sure, you could just put down your pan of brownies or cupcakes and walk away. But who really does that? Every once in a while, you have to check in to see what is selling, and to make sure that your amazing wares have a place of prominence.

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You know what wins at the table? Things with sprinkles. It doesn’t have to be something that is straight off of a Pinterest page, it just has to have sprinkles. Sure, you could just make something from a box, throw on some icing and sprinkles and call it a day. But why do that when you can make delicious brownies just as easily, all in one pot? These take about 10 extra minutes than a box but the results are so much better. The brownies are just fudgy enough to be decadent but aren’t so rich that they will make your teeth hurt. This will ensure that people will come back for more than one serving and then you will be helping out your school/team/organization and your pride. (If this makes me shallow, so be it.)

I always make these one-pot brownies from my book Whining and Dining: Mealtime Survival for Picky Eaters and Families Who Love Them (co-written with Eshun Mott). Recently, I got sucked into a brownie bake-off when we were visiting friends and I am proud to say these won. And I am even happier to tell you that they take no time to throw together.

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If you really want to up the ante on these brownies then you should use the best chocolate that you can afford. If you cannot find anything else, regular baking semi-sweet chocolate will still taste good.

Once the brownies are out of the oven, let them cool in the pan and then ice with chocolate icing. For bake sales I often use a ready-made chocolate icing. For home I will (sometimes) make my own. Once the brownies are iced I put on more sprinkles than I would think is normal. Mini candy-coated chips are good, but a mix of all kinds of sprinkles is even better. Press the sprinkles down lightly with your hands, this works better when the icing is slightly warm. Cut the brownies, and once you put them into the pan for transportation and/or display, throw more sprinkles on top. If you really want to win the bake sale, put them on a raised cake plate (labelled with your name, of course) and present them to the bake sale with a giant flourish.

I cannot cut in a straight line which means when I make brownies in a pan the squares come out all misshapen and ridiculous looking and then they can’t be sold for a consistent price. So, if I’m skipping the icing step, I bake in silicone mini-muffin molds (for 20 minutes), they come out looking exactly like two-bite brownies.

Because of the low flour amount, these are very easy to turn into gluten-free brownies — I use a gluten flour mix that is a 1:1 substitute for all-purpose flour. Gluten-free people will be so happy because no one makes them anything yummy (kidding!). This can be easily doubled (in fact, I always double it).

Here's What You'll Need To Make One-Pot Brownies:

• ½ cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 2 oz  bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, chopped or choc. chips
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• ½ cup all-purpose flour or gluten-free flour mix (I use Molly B gluten-free muffin and cake blend)
• ¼ cup Dutch process cocoa, sifted (such as Fry’s)
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp vanilla
• ½ cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350℉

Grease an 8” square baking pan and and/or line the bottom and two sides of the pan with parchment paper for easy removal.

Melt butter and chocolate in a heavy pot over low heat. Chocolate burns easily so keep slowly stirring. Remove from heat.

Stir in sugar and eggs until combined. Add flour, cocoa powder and salt and stir until just incorporated. Add vanilla, and chocolate chips and stir to distribute evenly.

Spread batter into prepared pan and bake for 25 minutes or until brownies are set and a cake tester comes out with crumbs clinging to it. Do not overbake.