BROWNIES!!!!

Ha! got your attention, right? Confessions - I have been known to eat an entire pan of brownies, warm from the oven and chewy... ['scuse me, need a napkin] Anyway... Since we are hurtling towards another deployment, I'm gathering ideas for care packages. After 4 deployments, you really think I'd know exactly what to bake to put in those white flat rate boxes, but I get tired of making snickerdoodles (no melting, don't get inedible too quickly and if stale will crumble nicely over anything) and chocolate chip during the winter (melt into sticky goo with crumbs in the summer and turn rancid) I don't like sending package brownies - chemicals and sodium levels are too too high for my liking.

I got an email a few weeks ago - promising me a great brownie recipe for carepackage brownies. Curiosity and hope led me here. A baker actually downloaded and deciphered the MRE brownie recipe... the description is hysterical and horrifying! then the expert took over. As he says, they needed to be close to indestructible, but tasty!

Eventually I turned out what I consider to be epic care-package brownies—dense, with an intense chocolate flavor. Even better, they had a sturdy crumb that didn’t crumble. These brownie weren’t just tasty; they were tough as soldiers.

His taste testers pronounced them good, they lasted for days without getting hard as rocks or rancid. So, I think I'll head to the store and get some of the ingredients and see what's what. Go to the site and read the post - it's funny. And here's the recipe. Now some of the comments show that some substitutions are easily done - cocoa nibs are expensive and while our care package recipients are worth it... let's face it, it's not always affordable. The espresso powder is available, but in a pinch instant coffee will do as well.

Now then - how about some of our loyal readers do a little experimenting and let us know how it goes? As soon as I get some homework, shopping, laundry, work... done, I'll bake and report!

LAW