Who needs a box?

Mike and I have a running dialogue in our house. It goes something like this:

Mike: Man, I want pancakes, but we're out of pancake mix.

OR

Mike: Hey, do we have any cake mix?

Me: I don't think so.

Mike: Darn, I really want cake.

Usually, in these situations, I remind him that you don't actually need a boxed mix to bake. As a matter of fact, for the most part baking from scratch is just as easy, and it's definitely healthier and more economical! So the other night when Mike said he wanted brownies, I was up for the challenge. And it was a significant challenge, because we were out of eggs.

After scouring the Internet for a recipe I thought would work, I found an Egg-Free Brownie Recipe at Allrecipes.com. Reading the reviews, I tweaked it a bit and here's what I came up with...

Egg-Free Brownies for Mikey

1/3 c flour

1 c water

1/2 c butter

2/3 c cocoa powder

1 c white sugar

1 c brown sugar (packed)

1 t vanilla

1 1/2 c flour

1 t baking powder

1/2 t salt

3/4 c semi-sweet chocolate chips

(if they were for me, I'd add 1/2 c chopped nuts :-)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9x13 inch pan. In a heavy saucepan combine the 1/3 cup of flour and water. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until thick. Set aside to cool.

In a small saucepan, melt the butter. When the butter has melted, add the cocoa and mix until smooth. Set aside to cool.

Beat the sugar and vanilla into the cooled flour mixture. Stir in the cocoa mixture until well blended. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt, stir into the batter until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips. Spread evenly in the pan and bake about 25 minutes. Cool and cut (and if you're Mikey, fish some Cool Whip out of the freezer to top with).

 

I'm not really a brownie person, but I did take a taste, and I thought they were pretty good! Mike didn't seem to have any problems digging right in, so I'd call them a success!