Best Brownie Baking Hacks: 7 Tips to Turn Store-Bought Brownie Mix Into Gourmet Chocolate Decadence by Melissa Vickers

Who doesn’t love a good brownie? I want mine soft, chewy and fudgy. There are some amazing brownie recipes out there for folks with the time and energy to make these chocolate goodies from scratch, but a good store-bought mix and a few tweaks to the directions can make some mighty tasty brownies.

Here are my favorite tips for improving the lowly store-bought brownie mix:

1. Start with a good mix. Betty Crocker’s Hershey Triple Chocolate Fudge Brownie Mix is my go to. It’s full of chocolate flavor, and includes little bits of chocolate as well.
2. Add a little vanilla! Vanilla extract helps any sweet baking mix taste more like made from scratch.
3. Cook brownies low and slow. This particular mix says to cook an 8x8-inch pan at 325 degrees F for 47 to 50 minutes. That’s already a longer cook time and a cooler oven than some mixes call for, but I drop it even more. I preheat the oven to 300 degrees F and set the timer for 42 minutes. You really can’t use a toothpick test to see if these are done. Just pull them out! Note that Chef Alton Brown suggests testing with a digital thermometer to ensure at least 195 degrees F to kill any bacteria in the eggs or flour.
4. Like them really fudgy? Try this variation suggested by Chef Brown: Bake the brownies for 20 minutes, take them out of the oven for 15 minutes and then cook them the last 20 minutes. Oh my!
5. Want an easy frosting? As soon as the brownies come out of the oven, lightly sprinkle on a layer of chocolate chips. Wait a few minutes till they melt and then spread the chocolate around like frosting. It makes a thin layer of chocolate, more than enough for these already rich brownies!
6. Save those take-out food plastic knives. I know the boxes all say to let the brownies cool before cutting. Who wants to do that? The trick is to use a cheap plastic knife and it will cut even fresh-out-of-the-oven brownies quite nicely.
7. Store in an airtight container. Be sure to do a “quality control” taste testing while they are warm! These brownies will freeze well, too.
   

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