#14 - Brownies with Chocolate Frosting

After dinner I wanted cookies, or cake, or chocolate, or something, anything, DESSERT!!  Luckily, with my fully stocked kitchen and my new friend allrecipes.com, I was able to make it happen.  I found a recipe for the best brownies (I think I might have searched for the "best brownies ever" to find this) that, like the soft ginger cookie recipe, had been reviewed thousands of times and saved tens of thousands of times, so I went for it.  Aesthetically speaking, they were kind of a disaster.  The brownies were slightly undercooked (I'm beginning to suspect I'm too afraid of burning my desserts to let them cook as long as they need to) and the consistency of the frosting was all wrong.  It was too thick and when I tried to put it on the warm brownies it collapsed into the middle of the pan and then when I tried to spread it out it just pulled the surface of the brownies off.  So yeah, they were sort of ugly, but other than that, they really were the best brownies ever.  Much closer to fudge than cake in texture, like a brownie should be.  Recipe #14 - perfection (despite appearances)

Brownies with Chocolate Frosting
Brownies:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Frosting:
3 tablespoons butter, softened
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup confectioners' sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour an 8 inch square pan.  In a large saucepan, melt butter.  Remove from heat and stir in sugar, eggs, and vanilla.  Beat in cocoa, flour, salt, and baking powder.  Spread into prepared dish.  Bake for 30 minutes.

To make frosting, combine ingredients and mix well until creamy.  (More butter and less confectioners' sugar might make for a better consistency... heating it just slightly might make it spread more easily on the brownies...)  Frost brownies while they are still warm.  Allow to cool before cutting.

Makes 1-8x8 pan of rich brownies.

New ingredients: nothing
New skills: I finally tried a dessert other than cookies!