I used to make these brownies the hard way. Mix the butterscotch batter in one bowl and make the chocolate fudge batter in another. The two batters are scooped alternately into the baking pan, swirled and baked.
Deliriously rich, really, but because the two batters have different densities and textures, the baked brownies come out bumpy at the top. So, I developed another technique. Make the butterscotch batter, divide it into two portions, add cocoa powder to one portion then proceed as described above.
But why combine chocolate and butterscotch? A family thing. I love chocolate fudge brownies, my husband loves butterscotch and, as teenagers, our daughters just loved both as long as no nuts were involved.
This is a recipe from 2010. I don’t do much baking anymore but my daughters do. If one of them decides to make these over the holidays, I’m pretty sure that we’d enjoy them as much as we did when they were younger.
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter melted
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
- ¾ cup white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 and ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
- Mix the sugars in the melted butter.
- Add the eggs to the butter-sugar mixture one at a time, beating after each addition.
- Add the flour mixture to the butter-sugar-egg mixture and stir until well-blended. The mixture will be thick. Pour in the vanilla extract and mix to blend.
- Pour half of the batter into another mixing bowl.
- Into one portion, stir in the cocoa powder.
- Using two ice cream scoops of the same size, drop the two batters alternately into a 5″x9″ baking pan forming a chess board pattern. Dip a pointed knife into the batter on one corner of the pan, drag to the opposite end, make a U-turn to return to the opposite direction… do this until you have covered the entire pan. Turn the pan 45 degrees and repeat.
- Bake in a preheated 350F oven for 30 to 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted at the center comes out dry but with a few fine crumbs clinging to it.
- Place the baking pan on a wire rack and cool completely.
- Cut the brownies into two-inch squares (or larger, if you prefer) and serve.
