re: Brownies: Frosting or not?

Only if you need to cover the taste of chitty brownies.

How about this: eat them the way you like.

If you and your wife differ, make half and half.

a brownie with frosting is chocolate cake, which is great, but it is not a brownie

no, but I am an old school purist.

I know you didn't ask.

Bonnie’s Brownies

1/2 rounded cup Cocoa
2 Tablespoons Karo Syrup
2 cups Sugar
1 1/2 cups AP Flour
4 eggs
2 sticks butter (melted)
2 teaspoons Vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped

Assemble ingredients. Preheat oven to 325 and coat (Pam or butter) a 9 X 13 pan.

Add dry ingredients and melted butter to bowl and mix.

Add eggs.

Hand mix all ingredients to achieve a smooth, lump free batter.

Add batter to pan

and smooth out

The batter is very dense/thick and only fills to about 3/4-inch thick in the pan - a perfect thickness for a brownie.

The brownies cook on center shelf of the oven at 325 for 30 minutes. If you use a dark or glass pan, lower the oven temp 25 degrees.

They are finished when a tooth pick stuck into the brownie comes out clean. Cool on a rack for five minutes before cutting and serving.

The recipe makes a nice dense brownie. Great with coffee.

Depends on what kind of brownie you're making.


A really dense chocolate brownie can have a ganache frosting that's just a glaze and you hardly know it's there, but you can't use it on all brownies.

There's also a trend of mounded dessert combinations with ice cream, chocolate chips, and ganache on top of a brownie stack. Rule of thumb: If it's chocolate, i'll probably eat it.