Top Secret Brownie Recipe

I was craving chocolate so I thought up a good reason to mix up a batch of brownies. I easily came up with two! Steph and I were headed up to see family in Wisconsin so we'd take some along. And, Scott was going to a friend's to watch a b-ball game. Done and done.

So, I pulled out my cookbooks and began making my top secret brownie recipe from scratch. I measured the flour, the cocoa, the salt... WAIT! Who are we kidding?! I use a mix! And, the best brownie mix in the whole world is BY FAR Ghirardelli Triple Chocolate Brownie Mix.

Love you, Ghirardelli, even though you are very hard to pronounce.

 I buy the 7.5 pounds (yes, pounds) box from Costco which makes 6 batches. It's such a great deal! And, did I mention it's the best mix in the world.

I wanted to get a little creative so I picked up some Valentine's Day M&Ms to top the brownies. Because triple chocolate isn't enough. We need quadruple chocolate.

I was torn on when to add the M&Ms. Do I add right when they go in the oven, do I add during, do I add when they are cooling? I turned to google, obviously, but got conflicting results! So, I did my own little test.  And, the winner is... DURING!

Added before baking...poor M&Ms got swallowed up!

Ooooh pretty! For the IU vs. Michigan game.

I popped the M&M's on with about 10 minutes left to go. You have to sort of press them into the brownies. Those Hoosier colors look delightful and show up better than the Valentine's mix which was added before.

Happy baking!