School Lunchroom Brownies Bring Back Memories

While looking for a dessert recipe, I found one that my late friend, Debby Brown, shared with me about a year ago.  Her mother, Mae, worked in the school lunchroom at the high school we both attended together.  Her mother baked the best brownies ever!  

Debby lamented to me a couple of years ago that she did not have her mother's exact brownie recipe but an online search produced a recipe that she said looked and tasted very much like what her Mom used to make.  It was a brownie recipe that she shared with me.

One of my fond memories is when the high school lunch hour was almost over, Debby and I would sneak back to the lunchroom window and sweet Mae would pass us extra brownies if any were left over.  

Mae has been gone awhile and then Debby passed away suddenly last year.  I still miss her and think of her often.  While making brownies, my afternoon was filled with sweet memories of our teenage escapades yet also filled with a deep sadness that such a bright light is gone from our world.

Fudge-y brownie with chocolate/nut icing

If you try this recipe, I promise you won't be disappointed!  

So fabulously delicious!!

School Lunchroom Brownies
(like Mae used to make!)

1 cup butter
1/2 cup cocoa
2 cups flour
2 cup sugar
3-4 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
4 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts

Preheat your oven to 350F.

Cream softened butter with the sugar.  I used my mixer to make the job easier but you could do it by hand.

Add eggs, one at a time and beating after each.  I wanted fudge-like brownies so I only used 3 eggs.

Mix the flour and cocoa together with 1/2 tsp salt.

Add that to the butter/sugar mixture and only mix until combined well.

Add vanilla and chopped nuts and stir well.

Pour into a 9x13 pan.  I lined my pan with parchment paper for easy removal.

Bake 20-25 minutes in 350F oven.  Check at 20 minutes.

For the fudge-y brownies, I removed it from the oven at 23 minutes and the middle was a little jiggly.  It fell lower than the outside crust as it cooled down.  No worries!

The middle is lower than the crust as it cools to have that fudge-like texture.
The brownie bandit sampled the corner while it was still hot.

***Icing***

1/4 cup softened butter
1/4 can evaporated milk (I used regular milk)
1/4 cup cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
Dash salt
Chopped nuts are optional (I put mine in the icing rather than the batter.  You could do one or the other or BOTH!)

Mix all together and frost as desired.

Nothing better than brownies and a glass of ice-cold milk!
Debby, my friend, I'm wishing you were still here to share it with me.