my favorite brownie recipe

I have found some wonderful recipes out in blogland, time to share one of mine. 

I have a brownie recipe I love, I make it a lot because it is great, easy and

my son asks for it. He is 9 years old, and picky and doesn't eat a great

variety of things, so for him to ask for it is a big deal. I put a

piece in his school lunch one day, and he said "everyone he shared it

with" loved it. He must have passed out crumbs because I

didn't pack a very big piece!

Here are the ingredients

1 stick butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoonful vanilla extract

6 tablespoons cocoa

1/3 cup self rising flour

The original recipe I adapted called for two eggs and 1/2 cup flour, but

that made the brownies too cakey, and we like fudgy. I don't use

imitation vanilla, it is not as good. You have to use the kind that has

the alcohol in it. Don't drink it, save it for your brownies. Use the

real butter, the salted kind. These ingredients make a big difference.

Soften the butter with the sugar 20 seconds in microwave, makes it

easier to blend with the sugar. While that is happening, take the

butter wrapper and grease your 9x9 cake pan with it, I got that tip from

Martha Stewart a long time ago. I bake these in a 350 toaster oven, no

need to preheat. Mix the softened butter and sugar well with a big

spoon, add egg, mix well, add vanilla, mix some more, then the cocoa,

mix that in well, then the flour, mix in but don't over beat after you

put the self rising flour in. Spread the batter in the 9x9 pan that you

buttered, bake until it passes the fork-in-the-middle test. Bake at

least 10 mins and no more than 20, keep an eye on the brownies so they

don't burn. My husband can't stand to see me eat raw egg so I don't let

him know I scrape and eat every bit of that batter out of the bowl and

off the spoon, it is so good.