I have memories from when I was younger of brownies being this amazing, sweet, chewy, chocolatey treat that wasn’t too hard and wasn’t too gooey, but landed somehwere in the middle of the two. And I swear this childhood dream was based on a mix that came from a box.

But it’s been years (almost decades) since I could recreate those kind of brownies in real life. From a box, from a bakery, from scratch, I could never manage it. Except now I have, and even better there’s a twist. These aren’t just brownies, they’re chocolate orange brownies.

And they’re super, super simple to make. I’d even dare say they’re easier than your standard box mix. So here goes:

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter (typically one stick, and it can be cold and straight from the fridge, no need to let it soften first
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp orange extract (that’s really all it takes to give these treats the perfect orange zing)
• 1/3 cup unsweetened baker’s cocoa
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/4 tsp salt

For us, we always have these ingredients in the house. That’s one thing I love about this recipe. And a bottle of orange extract lasts a long time.

Preperation

• Grease an 8×8 baking pan
• Preheat the oven to 350F
• Melt the butter in a small sauce pan
• Remove from heat, mix in sugar, eggs and orange extract until well blended
• Slowly stir in cocoa
• Slowly stir in flour and salt
• Spread evenly over the bottom of the pan
• Bake for 25 minutes

It’s really that easy, and these are super yummy when they’re done ^_^