Whatever-Floats-Your-Boat Brownies!

By Addie

"These are absolutely the chewiest, moistest, fudgiest brownies ever! I have tried adding so many different things to the batter, and they ALWAYS comes out great. They are also great without ANY add-ins! BUT by varying the add-ins, you can make different brownies every week (or day!!) SUPER EASY PREP! So, add "whatever floats your boat" and you will not believe how yummy they come out :) Oh, and the recipe doubles just fine--use a 9 x 13 inch pan instead and add a few more minutes of baking!"

Ingredients

• WHATEVER FLOATS YOUR BOAT ADDITIONS:
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• .......................................................
• 1-2 cup chocolate chips ( semisweet, white, butterscotch, peanut butter)
• 1-2 cup raisins
• 1-2 cup chopped maraschino cherries
• 1-2 cup chopped nuts
• 1-2 cup M&M's
• 1-2 cup Reese's pieces
• 1-2 cup miniature marshmallows

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8 inch square pan or line with foil.

In a medium bowl combine melted butter and cocoa and stir until cocoa is dissolved. Add sugar and mix well. Add eggs one at a time and stir until well combined. Stir in vanilla, flour and salt until you no longer see any flour (do not overmix).

Now, fold in "WHATEVER FLOATS YOUR BOAT"! Spread in pan and bake for approximately 25 minutes.

DO NOT OVER-BAKE -- your brownies will come out dry. Adjust time/temp accordingly for your oven. If you do the knife/toothpick test, it should come out with moist crumbs, not clean. Cool completely before cutting into squares.

For double recipe, bake in 9x12 pan and add 5 minutes to baking time.
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REVIEWS: (1135)

I made a batch with Reese's PB chips, one with Heath bits, and one with mint chips for Christmas goodies. Of course I had to try them all and YUM!! The one in the metal pan was a lot more cooked (and dryer) than the batch in the glass pan (very Moist).

I will no longer buy boxed brownies! So great! My hubby doesn't like extra stuff in his but I snuck 1/2 c. of mini choc chips anyway and we always sprinkle powdered sugar on top of brownies. They are so great, baked in a glass pan they were super moist even though I forgot to cover them, they were still moist and awesome the next day! When he is gone I going to load them with marshmallows and crushed graham crackers for a smores like brownie! Thank you for posting...MAKE THESE BROWNIES!

This is a dangerous recipe to have around. I have snuck back out of bed to go have just one more. I dare say you will too.

OMG!These brownies are perfect!They are so fudgy ,moist,and chewy!I am only 11 years old ,they were very easy to prepare and delicious!I cant wait to make those again!Thanks for such a great recipe! :D

I've been trying different brownie recipes and this is one of the best! Mine were really really rich as I doubled the recipe, added chocolate chips, and covered the top with a layer of fudge sauce (Hot Fudge Sauce - Microwave). While they were cooling I poked a toothpick in all over so that the fudge sauce sunk down into the brownies a bit. YUM... I highly recommend.

I've made this recipe about 10 times now and it always turns out moist and yummy. This last time I decided to experiment and made it with cinnamon and cayenne. They were out of this world. By request of my husband next time I'll try bacon. Whatever floats your boat, right?

These were EXCELLENT I thought!!! I put mini marshmallows & chocolate chips in mine. I used an 8 inch pan and it took more like 35 minutes to bake, but they were still very gooey & delicious!!! I will be making these on a regular basis!!!

These were absolutely delicious and as another reviewer stated, dangerous. I have made this recipe a couple of times before and forgot to review. Most recently I made them for New Years and took them over to my neighbours. Everyone loved them and went back for seconds (even as rich as they were we couldn't stay away). I never really measure additives but I always use semi-sweet chocolate chips and walnuts. So good. Do not over bake or it will take on a cake-like texture. For a more moist texture, add more chocolate. It melts in your mouth and is wonderful straight from the oven. Going to try random chocolate bars next time.

Might as well try to get this one to 1000 reviews! I made them exactly as written and used semi-sweet chocolate chips. I will be adding this to my cook book and trying all of the different variations of add ins for future brownies :) Thanks for sharing an easy awesome recipe!

Update: I made these for Christmas using limited edition Nestle Dark Chocolate and Mint Chips and they were amazing!

These scored well with my family, but after 25 minutes they were still wet batter in the middle. We had to cook them for almost double the instructed time.

Omg, omg, oh my God.... these are the best ever. I just made them today with 1 1/2 cup of milk chocolate chips. They are the best brownies I have ever, ever had. Thank you so much for posting. loved them and not too sure I'll share them.

These are awesome brownies! I have to admit that I was very skeptical and actually passed over this recipe many times because I have never had success making moist brownies using cocoa powder. In my desperation for a chocolate fix (and no more baker's chocolate) I decided to give this a try and wow! I'm glad I did. These are now my go to quick brownie recipe.

I didn'tcare for these. The taste was good. However, I prefer a chewy texture. This was more cake like.

These brownies were okay but certainly nothing special. Probably will not make them again.

These were the best brownies I have ever made, and they were SO EASY! I loved them! They were moist, chewy, easy to make and really chocolatey and they took no time at all. I only had 1/2 c of choc chips to add, but I'm already dreaming about what I'll use next time. Oh, so good! I might reconsider how many brownies I can reasonably eat in a day! Thanks Karen! Highly recommended!

Fun in the kitchen!! I had a great time choosing what to put in these brownies. My choice? Marshmallo and peanutbutter- just like my favorite sandwhich when I was young( a very long time ago)! Reeses now makes tiny little peanut butter cups- perfect for mixing in (and how could you go wrong with more chocolate)? I mixed in some mini-marshmallo's. Now I know why I never came across these as a baking ingredient before---they puff up and all go to the top of the brownies. Well, they may have looked like a bad science experiment, but they sure tasted great. We loved the flavor combinations. Next time I'll mix in the Reeses,pour half the batter in the pan, swirl in some marshmallo topping, then follow with the rest of the batter on top.Hopefully this will result in a more appealing looking treat.

YUMMY!!! I doubled the recipe to make in a 9 X13 pan. I made with crunched up reese cups, delicious!!! A definite keeper!!!

I made these with 1 c. semi-sweet choc. chips and they were awesome. I will never used boxed mixes again! The key to these is, you need to take them out of the oven at the correct time, which may be less time for your oven. If you over-cook for even just one minute, they are going to be too dry.

These are the BEST brownies! I was a little reluctant but, after reading the reviews I tested it out. These are simply- Incredible!!!! I added 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels and 1 cup heath bars (bought in bag). Yummy!!! This is my new brownie recipe- will never try any thing else but whatever "floats my boat"!

I finally found a good, easy brownie recipe. I added a teaspoon of Kahlua and 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips. They were amazing brownies. I used a 9x9 pan so they were kind of thin, but still really tasty.

Fantabulous! Didn't change a thing and they were so yummy!

Good basic brownies, but nothing special. I added 1 cup dessicated coconut and 1 cup pecans. The nuts worked better than the coconut so if I make this again, I'll just use nuts.

Awesome recipe! My fiance has a soy allergy which normally means he can't eat anything chocolate, but since this recipe uses cocoa he is able to eat them (and I'm able to eat brownies again!). They were super easy to make and super moist. I didn't add anything into ours and they were delicious. Thanks for this wonderful recipe! It's going into the "keeper" stack!!

These are great! So perfect and easy! I added a square of ghirardelli unsweetened chocolate, some nuts, and a bit over 1/2 C. choc. chips...i also decreased the sugar by just a bit because i knew the chocolate chips were plenty sweet. This is the kind of recipe you could do most anything to and not mess it up! My kind of recipe since I'm not much of a baker. ENJOY!

AMAZING! So moist and light, beautiful brownies. I eat them warm with vanilla ice-cream. I've made them a few times now with several variations on the additions but my favourite are with milk-chocolate chips. I take a batch into work and they disappear within minutes.

These are sinfully delicious! I used one reviewers suggestion and put 1 8 oz pack of cream cheese, one egg, and 1/2 cup sugar to make it a cheesecake brownie and boy did this put it over the top! Thanks for sharing such a wonderful recipe. This one's a keeper.

WOW! Not like you really need another review on here, but...these were fantastic! I added in chunks of Reese's PB cups and Hershey's Kisses. So rich! Next time I plan on doubling the recipe because one tiny pan just isn't enough!

It was a mistake to make these at 9:00 pm; I have eaten half of the pan already. No joke, this is a good recipe. I made them with a cream cheese topping (8 oz cream cheese, 1/2 c sugar & 1 egg), and followed all directions exactly. Great results, produced a brownie that was exactly what I was expecting.

Perhaps it was just me, but my brownies came out really weird. They were so dry around the edges, but all moist and paste-like in the middle. It was a bit too heavy for my liking. However, I shall try it again and see where I went wrong. Great idea about the 'whatever floats you boat', I used peanut butter chip and it went very well with the chocolate, despite the odd texture!

It tasted okay. Though I've tasted better brownies than this.

Very dry and not very moist. I followed the recipe to the letter. They also didn't have a very good taste. I don't know what I did wrong.

This recipe is great. Very versitile. I have added everything you can imagine to this recipe with great results. I always double the recipe and freeze any extra. My families favorite version is 3 cups of trail mix with m&m'sin it. Yummy. Thanks for the recipe.

I thought this recipe, as written, was just okay. Maybe they would be greatly improved when you start adding things, but they weren't sweet or moist enough plain for our family's taste, and the consistency wasn't exactly what I was hoping for, either. Just a little too far on the cakey/dry side.

I didn't add anything in them and wasn't too impressed with the result. I would actually prefer brownies out of a box to what mine tasted like. If I do make them again, I will definitely add something!

I added 1/2 teaspoon baking powder and they came out perfect, I was worried about no baking powder.

I HATED them. They tasted like baked cocoa powder to me. But my husband, who is a dark chocolate fan loved them. I guess you have to like richer chocolate to like it.

I doubled the recipe and added chocolate and PB chips. I found the brownies to be surprisingly crumbly, which I wasn't hoping for. They taste ok, though.

Today is such a sad day for me...I have waited for weeks to try this recipe out for my DH's birthday treat. We've gotten frustrated with box mixes that seem to get more and more cakey rather than chewy and fudgy, so I was sure this was going to be IT. Not so, but super easy to stir together, ingredients easy to find and it was by no means a bad tasting brownie- just definitely a more refined chocolate taste and I have to admit I don't have a very refined palate. Thanks anyway Karen...the hunt continues!

Perfect! I am not a big sweets eater and I usually choose a different dessert over brownies but I wanted to do something for the family so decided to make brownie sundaes with ice cream, Gram's Chocolate Sauce #113384 and whipped cream. I chose this recipe because of the number of reviews but got scared after reading the 3 and 4 stars but I just tasted it and no reason to be scared. I don't like cake type brownies or overly sticky and dense ones. These brownies were right in the middle. And I didn't put any add-ins in mine, I kept it exactly like the recipe. The amount of sweetness was PERFECT!For someone that doesn't eat a whole lot of sweets...I had to have seconds. Also, I cooked for exactly 25 minutes, just as the recipe said.

Oh my MY MY!!!THESE ARE GOOD!!!! Soooo chocolatey and chewy! I didn't have any tin foil, so I greased and floured the pan-they came out fine! I added peanut butter chips. Mmmmmmm!!!! Will definitely make this again!