Brownies!

My theory with brownies is the more stuff you put in them, the better. The batch pictured below started with a basic box brownie mix. I personally feel that plain basic box brownies are boring and not the most delicious in the world. It is sooooooo easy to spice them up! I added semi-sweet chocolate chips and chopped up reeses peanut butter cups to these ones. And oh my gooodness, they were tasty! Listed below are some ideas and tips I find helpful and fun when making box brownies.

• Box brownies often tend to turn out too gooey and sticky to manage after they cook for me (maybe because I live in a very dry high elevation climate?) So I find it helpful to add 1/4 cup or so of flour when I prepare them.
• Some of my favorite things to add to them are: nuts, toffee bits, chopped up candy bar pieces, cinnamon, crushed candy cane, chocolate chips, mint chips, white chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, cut up caramel cubes (the kind in the little plastic wrappers), mint extract, peanut butter (swirled into the batter after you put it into the pan), and coconut. With all these options, why would you ever have plain old brownies again?
• One of my favorite kitchen products is parchment paper. It is NOT the same as waxed paper. It doesn't have the wax coating or anything on it like waxed paper does. When you line your cookie sheets or 9x13 pans with it when you bake, your stuff NEVER sticks to it. It makes it so you don't have to grease and flour your sheets and pans all the time. It makes life SOOOOOOO much easier. If you have never tried using it, give it a try. You'll be glad you did I promise. (and don't worry, as long as you don't use it in an oven hotter than 425 ferinheit it wont burn)
• Cutting brownies can be challenging, especially if they haven't cooled all the way. One way to make this easier is to use a plastic knife to cut them. Well, I make the cutting process even easier by using a cookie cutter. This only works on thinner sheetcake style brownies unless you have a super tall cookie cutter. It is fun to have the brownies in shapes, and you get to eat all the extra bits left over after cutting them all out. I save the bits in a baggie and freeze them. They are great later on top of icecream and stuff :)

I hope you find some of this helpful in your own brownie making adventures :) Now go make some Brownies and try something new.