BYU Brownies

Oh Wow. I was craving a BYU brownie yesterday. You know those brownies that you can get at Sugar N' Spice in the Cougareat (NOT THE CREAMERY--they are very different). Anyway, I woke up from a 2 1/2 hour nap and all of a sudden thought, hmmm...I want a BYU brownie. But I really didn't want to drive down to BYU and then get a brownie that was somewhat stale since it was nearing the end of the day. So, I googled the recipe and actually found it! It's from the BYU magazine, so I figured it was pretty accurate. Turns out, I was right! They taste phenomenal. Wow. All I can say is WOW. I think I've found a new favorite brownie recipe. Here goes:

Brownie Ingredients:
1 c. margarine
1/2 c. cocoa
2 Tbsp. honey
4 eggs
2 c. sugar
1 3/4 c. flour
1/2 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
(The BYU brownies also have walnuts in them, so you can add those if you want, but I left them out)

Directions:
Melt the margarine and mix in the cocoa with the margarine. Let it cool while you mix the other ingredients together. Mix together eggs, honey, sugar, flour, baking powder and salt and then add in the cocoa/margarine mixture. Stir it all together until it's nicely incorporated. Pour into a greased 9 X 13 baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes (the online recipe says 25 minutes, I used a glass pan, so that might have made a difference, but I needed to bake mine for a bit over 30 minutes). Let the brownies cool completely. Once cooled, spread mint icing over the brownies and put in freezer for a few minutes to let icing "set up." Then spread chocolate icing on top of the mint icing. Cut and enjoy!

Mint Icing:
5 Tbsp. margarine
dash of salt
3 Tbsp. milk
1 Tbsp. light corn syrup
2 1/3 c. powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. mint extract
1-2 drops green food coloring

When I made this I thought that the mint was pretty strong--so maybe a tiny bit less mint and I would have added a bit less milk too to make a creamier frosting. Mine was a bit runny, but it tasted FABULOUS on the brownies.

Chocolate Icing:
5 Tbsp. butter
3 Tbsp. cocoa
3 Tbsp. milk
1 3/4 c. powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

I found this chocolate icing recipe in one of my cookbooks and it's really good. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the cocoa and milk and incorporate together. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla and taste it to make sure you like it. You might need some more sugar or cocoa or whatever, but do it all to taste. I liked this icing, but I think I will be looking for a "thicker/fudgier" type frosting to put on top of the brownies. This was more like an icing. It was still fabulous, but I need to find a really good chocolate frosting recipe.

Anyway, these are PHENOMENAL brownies! I am just glad that I sent almost all of them to Mark in the MTC so I don't have them sitting around all day to eat :) They are super-yummy and I highly recommend them. My hubby even liked them without all the frosting (even though I didn't think they were as good without), but he's not a frosting lover. Anyway, if you're thinking of making a pan of brownies, this is the one for you! I almost NEVER make home-made brownies because I don't like them as much as the box mixes, but these are really fabulous and I think will be my new "go-to" brownie recipe!