A good brownie can stand alone and shouldn’t need icing, but I can’t say I’ve ever had a brownie where the icing made it worse! (Update: Actually, I have now but that’s another story. The trick is getting the brownie base and icing just right, which means going through a lot of different combinations and making multiple fudge brownies. This was my latest creation, which combines a few different recipes and utilizes semisweet chocolate chips.
These have a texture similar to packaged iced fudge brownies. They’re not too sweet, kind of dense, but definitely not dry (unless you make changes or use too much flour). The icing is super rich tasting and (again) not too sweet. Fuzz liked it a lot. I think I prefer a slightly sweeter icing, but this one was very good and easy to make.
- 2 cups (12 oz) semisweet chocolate chips or chunks, divided use
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 tablespoons whole milk
- 1 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted after measuring
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8 inch metal baking pan with foil and grease bottom only.
- Melt 1 cup (half) of the chocolate chips and butter together in a microwave safe mixing bowl using 50% power and stirring every 30 seconds.
- Stir in the salt and sugar, then add the eggs one by one, stirring just until they are blended in.
- Stir in flour until blended, then stir in the vanilla extract. Stir in the remaining 1 cup chocolate chips. Spread batter into the prepared baking pan and bake for 28 to 30 minutes or until they appear set. Let cool completely.
- To make the icing, melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan. Add the cocoa powder and stir until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in the confectioners’ sugar, milk and vanilla until smooth. Pour over the brownies and let cool at room temperature for 30 minutes. Garnish with pecans (if using). Chill for about an hour or until icing sets. It takes a while. Also, the brownies freeze well.
- Lift from the pan and cut into squares. For a neater cut, freeze the brownies and cut while frozen, then bring to room temperature before serving.
And now I’m going to have to find it in me to make these and the HAL brownies and let my family compare. They LOVE brownies.
Sue, I need (more like “want”) to bake a batch of those and do a side-by-side comparison.
Those look really good. The HAL-shaped Frosted Fudge Brownies from your book are a favorite here!
Those look so good! They look like a hugely improved version of the packaged fudge brownies with nuts!
They do look awesome, but so do the other brownies shown in your related posts. Life is just full of difficult, delicious choices.
Shucks, I don’t know, there’s something about an iced dense and gooey (i.e., not cakey) brownie that is so delicious. Those do look good.