"Big Top Brownies"

This Christmas I (Lily) received a Better Homes and Garden Junior Cook Book. I finally made something from it and would like to share it with you.

Ingredients: shortening
1/2 cup butter
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 of a 15- to 16-ounce can frosting, if you like

350* 30 min.

Turn on the oven to 350* and grease baking pan with shortening. Set aside. Put butter and unsweetened chocolate in the saucepan. Put saucepan on burner and turn burner to low heat. Cook until butter and chocolate are melted, stirring now and then with a wooden spoon. Turn off burner. Remove saucepan from burner and cool to room temperature. Use the wooden spoon to stir sugar into cooled chocolate mixture in the saucepan. Add the eggs one at a time beating with the wooden spoon just until combined. Stir in vanilla. Put flour and baking soda in small bowl. Stir together using a clean wooden spoon. Add flour mixture to chocolate mixture in saucepan. Stir until combined. Spoon batter into prepared pan, spreading evenly with the wooden spoon. Use the rubber scraper to scrape all the batter out of the saucepan. Put pan in oven. Bake about 30 minutes for the 8x8x2-inch pan or about 25min for the 9x9x2-inch pan or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean.(To test for doneness, use hot pads to pull out the oven rack. Stick toothpick in the center of the brownies; pull out toothpick. If any brownie sticks to it, carefully push the oven rack back into place using hot pads and bake the brownies a few minutes more; test again.) Turn off the oven. Use hot pads to remove pan from oven. Place pan on a wire rack to cool. If you like, use the table knife to spread frosting on cooled brownies. Top brownies as you like.

I hope you enjoy this recipe!

Lily