Julie's Brownies

These are from Sammie's Mom, Julie. She's a tweaker. She takes a recipe and tweaks and tweaks until she gets it just right. I'd say these are pretty much perfect!

Place 1 stick of butter in a mixing bowl and let it soften to room temperature. If you use a microwave, be very careful to not let the butter melt at all. Add 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of self-rising flour, 1/4 cup of cocoa. Gently stir this together with a fork until well-blended. It should look like sand. (This part takes a while. Call a friend or turn on the tv)

Beat 2 eggs thoroughly with a fork in a small bowl. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla. Gently add the eggs to the brownie mix and stir three or four more times. Don’t over mix this. Put this mixture, lumps and all, into a greased 6 x 8 or other small glass baking dish. If you use a stoneware dish, don’t grease it. Bake at 325 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Remove this from the oven and let it cool for about thirty more minutes. It’s really best when served at this time.

This recipe can be doubled, and was in fact the original recipe I was given.

3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 sticks butter
2 cups sugar
2 cups self-rising flour
½ cup cocoa

Bake 350 till done, about 35 minutes.

Julie's words of wisdom: Two secrets are to not over mix this once you add the eggs and to not over bake this. It will continue cooking in the pan, and you have to gauge your oven and your pan to determine how best to make this. Once we got this right, we decided it was well worth the effort, and no one minded experimenting.