Follow Your Nose

Hmmmm! The highly addictive chocolate aroma that comes out from the oven as you wait for the brownies to finish baking is an indication that the powerful gustatory experience with this simple dessert starts even before you taste it.

This pleasurable and rewarding olfactory experience alone should be reason not to settle for store-bought. Turn yourself into a home baker, dash to the kitchen and make yourself a batch!

Brownies are easy to make from scratch and are perhaps the most forgiving of all recipes. You only need one bowl to mix all the ingredients and a spatula. Brownie ingredients, chocolate and/or cocoa, flour, butter, sugar and eggs, always seem to be readily available in all pantries. The brownie batter is simply mixed by hand, and when done is scraped into the baking pan. Brownies can be served as is or eaten warm with ice cream (ala mode). I prefer to eat my brownies off my hand with a tall glass of low-fat milk.

The more experienced baker can try to experiment with it; making its density fudgy, chewy or cake-like. If you are feeling adventurous, you can embellish it with a variety of toppings such as walnuts, marshmallows, choco chips, and even cream cheese.


I was feeling adventurous, so my brownies did not only see the addition of cream cheese and choco chips, I added a huge scoop of Nutella, as well. The resulting brownies are similar in texture to a fudge candy - dense, moist, chocolatey. As I lick my fingers to clean off the remnants, I find myself reaching out to get one more. And another. And still another more. It was that good!

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