Tom Scocca makes Mark Bittman’s brownies for his son’s preschool friends. I heartily recommend them — brownie mix brownies never live up to their appealing looks, and these are just as easy, unless you do not own things like flour. The Baked brownies are also very good and just a little bit less effortless.
These are great brownies. Always a hit at Superbowl and breaking the fast parties.
The Baked brownies are a teensy bit better, it’s true. The problem is, if I recall correctly, that the recipe calls for espresso powder, which usually isn’t something I have around. On the other hand, Bittman’s recipe is genius in its simplicity. Even if you use mediocre baking chocolate they still come out really well.
My mother was always horrified at the notion of cake mixes, brownie mixes, cookie mixes, etc., and so I am still wary of them, even though it really is easier to make certain things, like cupcakes, from a mix, and they almost always come out better. Even though my mom is anti-mix, one of her birthday cake specialties was a sort of horrifyingly un-homemade, yet delicious, creation she called “Yodel cake.” You sliced up a bunch of Yodels and lined a mixing bowl with them. Then you filled the inside of the bowl with ice cream—chocolate or vanilla, usually, or half and half. Then you covered it with Saran wrap and froze it for awhile, and then you took it out of the freezer, flipped it over, and voila! Yodel cake! It was sort of like making a Jello mold, but with Yodels.
This is not a recipe you will find in the Baked cookbook.
