Like a fish needs a bike.

Well I caught it. I caught the cocoa taste testing brownie experimenting bug and I need it like a fish needs a bike. (I actually stole that expression from Gloria Steinem and her original quote was "a women needs marriage like a fish needs a bike" and while I completely disagree with philosophy, I think she nailed it when it comes to me and anything with real butter.) Anyways, Becky L and I are having a baby/chocolate shower for Amy on Thursday night, (please email me if you want to come, everyone is welcome) and we decided that we were going to have blind taste tests with brownies using the worlds finest cocoa and some basic store bought brands. So tonight I decided to experiment. Here are my results.

Far left: Hershey's/ Middle:Costco's brand/ Far right: the stuff Becky L ordered

the batter

the recipe

The results. I actually only made 2 batches. I wanted to make the good stuff on the actual day of the shower. I have no explanation for the thickness. The one on the left is the Hershey's and the on on the right is the Costco brand. The one on the right was much better, but I don't think it had that much to do with the cocoa. I am just a really big believer in UNDER COOKING brownies! The recipe says 350 for 25-30 minutes, which I did for the first batch, the second batch I didn't set the the timer I just watched, but I bet it was around 18-20. Anyways, I am sure I have much better things to do with my time, like fold the 2 loads of laundry that beckon me, or scrub my cabinets with a toothbrush because one of my children who shall remain nameless dumped a half a jar of spaghetti sauce, or I could probably tackle any of the bedrooms, but who cares, it was just a brownie taste testing day, which is unfortunate, because as I said, -like a fish needs a bike.