This Sunday, I volunteered to provide some after-service treats at church. I needed something portable, easy to eat, and most of all, a lot of it. A giant batch of bars fit the bill, so in search of inspiration I turned to a collection of recipe cards that my Aunt Ruth (of Salmon Spread fame) compiled for me as a wedding gift. Thanks to a large family and a former career as a home daycare provider, Aunt Ruth is adept at whipping things up in large quantities. Over Christmas, I learned that her chocolate chip cookie recipe contains a whopping 9 cups of flour. Her "Best-ever Brownie" recipe is of similarly gargantuan proportions: baked in a 12 inch by 18 inch pan, you need half a dozen eggs and three sticks of margarine. The large quantity of brownies you end up with taste amazing--dense, rich, and studded with chocolate chips. I may need to volunteer to bring treats more often.
Yield: 48 approximately 2 inch square brownies
Ingredients:
- 3 cups granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) margarine, softened
- 6 eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup cocoa
- 1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Combine sugar, margarine, eggs, and vanilla in a large bowl. Mix by hand to break up margarine, and then mix with a hand or stand mixer at low speed until mixture is smooth and creamy. Gently stir in the flour, salt, and cocoa and mix by hand until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips and mix until evenly incorporated.
Pour the batter into a greased 12 x 18 inch pan. Smooth batter with a spatula to an even thickness.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until edges of brownies have slightly pulled away from the sides of the pan and the center springs back when touched lightly.
