I had to jump ahead of the random number generator because I was waiting on some ingredients, so I skipped the next one and made the Cocoa Brownies from the Betty Crocker’s Best Cookies section of the cookbook on p. 142. These were slightly sweet, chocolate-y brownies.

I know I’ve made blondies from scratch, but I can’t remember if I’ve ever made brownies. Don’t think less of me, but I really, really like brownies from the box! So, this was an adventure. ?

These started by creaming the sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla. The eggs were added.

The other dry ingredients were mixed separately, and then added in to the butter mixture until just mixed. Finally, the walnuts were added, and that’s it.

Finally, the batter is spread out in a greased pan (I just lined mine with parchment paper, which worked really well). And that’s baked.

These were so simple — much like how easy most cake recipes are compared to boxed one. However, I’m not sure they were THAT much better than a boxed brownie that I’ll give up on those. These came out more like the “cakey” brownies that are an option on some boxed brownie recipes. They weren’t as gooey as I’d like brownies to be, but they did taste good and went fairly quickly.

Bottom line: These were slightly sweet but not very gooey brownies with a nice crunch from the walnuts. They tasted good, but aren’t enough to put me off of baking brownies out of a box.