rainy day fudgy brownies

the brownie recipe i'm about to share with you has been in my family since i was a little kid. my well-worn recipe card has the title "honeybear brownies" scribbled across the top. true to their name, i remember my mom always having one of those plastic, magical bears of gooey, sticky goodness on hand. whenever it was time to make these brownies, that glorious bear would descend from the cupboard and mom would squeeze the honey out of him and into the mixing bowl. how romantic and oddly grotesque.


i've swapped out a few ingredients, most notably the eggs. now, i have no problem with eggs anymore. i used to be prone to a sickness i dubbed "egg despair", mostly involving tremors, sweats and gastro-turbulance post-egg ingestion. however, since switching to organic and local eggs, this egg despair is no more. however, organic and local eggs are e.x.p.e.n.s.i.v.e so i like to save them for things like scrambles, frittatas, or just a good ole hard boiled egg. this recipe calls for two eggs, which by my calculation, is worth about eight dollars and forty-nine cents. so instead of eggs, i've swapped in pumpkin! yes, pumpkin (thanks for the tip, shannon). i know pumpkin is typically a flavor of september, october and november and it's april and all, but pumpkin is a healthy swap for eggs in any recipe. 1/4 cup pumpin = 1 egg.

this brownies are fudgy and dense, not cakey at all. if i wanted cake-like brownies, i'd make chocolate cake. but i didn't want cake. i wanted brownies, damn it.

rainy day fudgy brownies

you will need:
1/3 cup melted and cooled butter
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup pumpkin (or two eggs)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup baking cocoa, generous if you like 'em dark
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar, scant
1/2 cup flour

first up! turn your oven on to 350. i always seem to forget this step.

find a glass 8x8 pan and grease the living grace out of it. i used coconut oil. use whatever you want, but stay away from those scary oils that aren't really food at all.

mix all the ingredients together. sure, you could combine the dry, then the wet, then slowly add one to the other. but who cares. just mix all of it together until it's well incorporated. it'll be thick.

pour... no, more likely "slop" it into your greased 8x8. you'll need to use a spoon or spatula to spread it around and smooth it out.

bake for 25-30 minutes. stick a toothpick in the middle to check for doneness. doneness is not a word.

cool the brownies in the pan completely before cutting. i have found this to be about an hour.

enjoy!