My typical go-to brownie is a box mix. I have struggled in the past with a homemade brownie that compares. THIS! I can't even! It was rich, moist, held its texture/consistency throughout and was delicious. We did change up the topping a bit, as my nephew requested frosting for his 9th birthday dessert. So we used a homemade chocolate frosting that his grandma uses on her Texas sheet cake. Then, per the birthday boys request, topped it off with some Andes mints (but only on half because not everyone likes mint). The brownies were a hit with everyone! We also adjusted the temp of the oven from 350 to 325 because we baked them in a heavily greased (butter) 8x8 stone. This did extend the bake time to closer to 28-30 minutes and we checked them every 2-4 minutes starting at 16 minutes to avoid overbaking (center was still a little soft/not completely set, but they continued to bake/finish in the stone after we pulled them from the oven to cool). They were cooled completely before we topped with frosting. Seriously the BEST from scratch brownie I have ever tasted and made. The recipe was simple to follow. We used Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips where it called for chopped chocolate and chips (used the remaining chips for the topping in the brownies since we subbed frosting for topping and vanilla bean paste instead of vanilla extract.
