You guys, these may very well be the brownies you've been looking for.

This is a variation on Deb of Smitten Kitchen's best cocoa brownies. Now, I have made these brownies as written, and I did not find them to be to my taste. You'd think a stick of butter would do it! But it didn't.

However, cocoa is generally what I have on hand for making brownies and other chocolate baked items. I can only very rarely be bothered to buy actual baking chocolate, mostly because I already have cocoa lying around. And brownies are by far the best baked chocolate item out there, in my opinion. I actually want them on a semi-regular basis. So I needed a good cocoa-based recipe.

Okay. I also had a jar of coconut oil hanging out in the pantry for several years. Coconut oil is delicious, rich, and available, so I thought I'd see what I could do with it.

I searched for coconut oil brownies and came up with this version on Instructables. I gave it a try, with a few minor variations, and it was good. Hooray!

We made these brownies twice. On the first try, I used whole wheat flour, because that's how I roll, and varied the melting methodology slightly, but kept everything else intact. On the second try, we used whole wheat flour and slightly varied the oil content, using 4 tbsp coconut oil and 6 tbsp vegetable oil. This was necessary because we ran out of coconut oil via copious brownie making. Both versions worked out very well.

What I'm saying is: if you like a dense, chewy brownie that can in no way be called cakey, and you enjoy the taste and texture provided by coconut oil, you will like these brownies. Oh, and you should also like brownies. Yes.


Coconut oil brownies

5 tbsp coconut oil
5 tbsp vegetable oil
1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup + 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 cup flour of your choice

Preheat your oven to 325F. Lightly grease an 8x8 square baking pan and line it with parchment paper.

Mix your coconut oil and sugar in a small oven-safe bowl. Stick it in the preheating oven for a minute or two to melt together. You can also use the microwave if you own one; we don't. (The original recipe has you melt these with the veg oil, salt, & cocoa; you can do this if you prefer.)

In a large mixing bowl, combine your vegetable oil, salt, and cocoa powder. Add the melted coconut oil & sugar to the bowl and stir well to create a slightly grainy batter. Add the vanilla and mix.

Next, stir in your eggs, one at a time. When your eggs are fully incorporated, add the flour and mix until just combined. You will be left with a thick, shiny batter.

Scrape your batter into your prepared pan and smooth out the top. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until your brownies have developed a lovely crackly crust and a toothpick test results in a clean, damp pick.

Give your brownies 10 minutes to cool before you cut & eat. Bonus: since you lined the pan with parchment, you'll be able to lift the whole whack of them right out of the pan! This is very helpful, since the resulting brownies are going to be sticky and a bit difficult to cut cleanly, especially if you are too impatient to wait until they're fully cool to cut. But that's ok! The deliciousness factor is well worth it.

Eat with vigor. Also with coffee.

What baked delights are you creating lately?