I love brownies made out of cake and muffin mixes. This is my favorite.
For the blondies:
1 box Betty Crocker chocolate chip muffin mix. The one I just consulted tells me that it’s precisely 14.75 oz. That’s the right size.
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 stick of butter (6 tbs.) Microwave this into a puddle and then let it cool off. You don’t want it to scald the rest of mix.
1 egg whisked into a frenzy in a small bowl
2 tsp. vanilla
For the chocolate sauce (and this comes from no less an authority than Thomas Keller, he of The French Laundry):
8 oz. high-end baker’s chocolate, chopped as small as you can
1 cup heavy cream, which you always have around, because you’re constantly making whipped cream
1/2 cup corn syrup, because Americans can never get enough corn syrup in their diets
Make the brownies first. I have the handy 8 X 8 silicone baking pan, but if you don’t you’ll need to grease/butter/spray your non-silicone one. If silicone, preheat oven to 325 degrees. If not, 350.
In a bowl, add the Betty Crocker goodness, all 14.75 ounces of it, and the brown sugar. I sometimes add a little more. Stir so it all gets mixed together.
Add the cool but still liquid butter, the frothy egg, and the vanilla. Stir all this together. I wouldn’t use a mixer for this, use your brute strength. You’ll have a fairly thick batter, but it should all be cohesive.
Put this into your 8 X 8 and make a smooth layer out of it. Put it in the oven for 30 minutes, keeping in mind: silicone/non-stick = 325 degrees, regular = 350 degrees. To see whether it’s done, do the toothpick test: put one in the middle and if it comes out without batter attached, you’re done. You can start checking at 25 minutes, if you’re anxious.
Let cool and cut into whatever sizes you want.
About 15 minutes before you want to devour/serve your brownies, make the chocolate sauce. Put your chopped up chocolate in a metal bowl. In a small saucepan add the cream and the corn syrup and bring to a simmer. Pour it into the metal bowl with the chocolate and let it sit there for 3—4 minutes. This will melt the chocolate. Stir this all together so it combines, let it cool for a little bit, and spoon over each of your brownies.
Oh, hell yes.
Jesus wept.
…and then He ate a blondie covered with chocolate sauce.
Just 1? Is Jesus watching his weight?
Have you ever seen a fat Jesus?
Good point!
…and then He wept again.
AHEM. This is not directed at you specifically, it’s meant to be a reply to everyone in this thread. If you are Catholic or familiar with the vast rituals that surround its practice, you will know that today is Epiphany. This is a strange coincidence of FYCE scheduling, because Epiphany celebrates the arrival of the Three Wise Men, the Magi, in Bethlehem, to take a look at Baby Jesus. Yeah, so? In a weird echo of January 6, 2020, it’s when the Magi kind of certified that Baby Jesus was, in fact…well, I won’t venture any further into the realm of blasphemy, but I hope Mike Pence and Mother, arch-Catholics that they supposedly are, are mindful of this.
This does not concern FYCE. What does is that to celebrate this you make a ring cake and put a symbol inside, usually a little baby figurine or a crown. You slice it up and the recipient who gets the slice with the symbol “wins.” There are lots of recipes for this kind of ring cake and it goes by many different names, but they’re all variants of “Cake of the Three [X]”. In retrospect I should have written a post about this and pestered that New Orleans friend of mine for her recipe, tried it myself, and reported back.
Oh God, Mattie, January 6, 2021. Try to keep up!
“1/2 cup corn syrup, because Americans can never get enough corn syrup in their diets” this is a true fact, Cousin M. That chocolate sauce is to die for…I bet it works very well on ice cream, too. You are providing a public service with this recipe, my friend!
DeadSplinter commenters are the very best commenters. I’m sitting here laughing so hard I think that I may be scaring the dogs.