Fudgy Cocoa Brownies

Haven't really cooked much this week. Been cleaning out the freezer of leftovers.....again. Seems to be the case just about every other week. Get groceries, cook big meals, freeze leftovers, re-heat and eat leftovers the following week. Hey--it saves on the grocery bill! Plus, who doesn't like making one meal and getting one or two more out of it? So here's sweet treat for now. Not healthy at all but I had a mad hankering for them and they definitely satisfied my sweet tooth!

Fudgy Cocoa Brownies

1/2 cup butter, melted
1 tbsp cooking oil (coconut oil works great too)
1&1/8 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
dash salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Lightly grease an 8x8 inch square baking pan with cooking spray. Line with parchment paper; set aside. 

3. Combine hot, melted butter, oil and sugar together in a medium bowl. Whisk well for about a minute. Add the eggs and vanilla; beat until lighter in color (another minute).

4. Sift in flour, cocoa and dash salt. Gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until JUST combined (do NOT over beat as doing so will affect the texture of your brownies).

5. Pour batter into prepared pan, smoothing the top out evenly. *I love to add extra chocolate chips on top....IF I can get it into the pan before my hubby licks the whole bowl of batter....

6. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until center of brownies in the pan no longer jiggles.

7. Remove and allow to cool to room temperature before cutting into squares.