Easy-to-make, rich, fudgy, old fashioned brownies with frosting. The brownies are made in one pot with melted chocolate and then frosted with a creamy chocolate frosting. If you like Cosmic brownies, you’re going to love these frosted brownies.
A sweet Barbara Bakes reader, Moe, sent me an email telling me she was a big fan of my Lemon Blueberry cake. She said her “Brownies are the best!!!” and offered to share the recipe with me.
My family agreed it’s a great brownie recipe and I put my own touch on the recipe by adding colorful rainbow chips instead of nuts.
Moe adapted the recipe from one of her favorite old-time cookbooks, Gold Medal’s Century of Success Cookbook. She recommended that I buy a copy and I found a used copy on Amazon.
Moe said “Though I haven’t tried all the recipes, the ones I’ve tried have been great (pound cake, snickerdoodles, chocolate crinkles, chocolate drop cookies, hermits, ginger creams, applesauce jumbles with browned butter glaze – I love the old fashioned recipes!”
One of the first changes I made was to line the pan with foil so the brownies are easy to remove from the pan and cut into squares. If you can find it, I like to use the Reynolds Wrap Non-Stick Foil.
You can use any unsweetened baking chocolate in this recipe, but I like the Guittard baking chocolate. Baker’s Unsweetened Baking Chocolate Bar is also a good choice for this recipe.
Moe’s changes are to “use butter not shortening, leave out the salt, double the vanilla in both the Brownie and icing, and when adding the walnuts, they are not chopped. I pour them into my hand and gently crush. Big pieces are just fine.
Making Old Fashioned Brownies
The brownies are made in one pan on the stove. So it’s easy cleanup.
First you melt the butter and chocolate over low heat. Next whisk in the eggs, sugar, and vanilla. Finally, add the flour and baking powder and spread into the prepared pan.
Making Creamy Chocolate Frosting
While the brownies are baking, you’ll make the creamy chocolate frosting. Again, you can just make the frosting in a saucepan on the stove for easy cleanup.
Melt the butter and chocolate, stir in the powdered sugar, milk and vanilla. Then place the hot pan in a bowl of ice and whisk the frosting until it’s thick and creamy, but still spreadable.
Decorating Old Fashioned Brownies
The original recipe calls for chopped nuts in the brownies as well as chopped nuts on top of the frosting. Moe usually leaves the nuts out of the icing, but once in a while puts walnut halfs on top of icing just to be pretty.
I’m not a big nut lover in brownies, so I opted to decorate my old fashioned brownies with rainbow candy coated chips.
After your brownies are completely cooled, you’ll use the tin foil hanging over the edges to lift the brownies out of the pan and cut them into squares to serve.
I have a great post on how to cut brownies into nice even squares.
Thanks Moe for sharing this delicious old-fashioned brownie recipe and the cookbook with me. I love hearing from my readers and my family loved my version of cosmic brownies.
More Brownie Recipes You’ll Love
- Shortcut Turtle Brownies start with a brownie mix, then you load them up with chopped caramel filled chocolate candies and crunchy pecans inside and on top.
- King Arthur Flour Fudge Brownies are a perfect balance of fudgy with just a touch of cakey.
- Pecan Pie Brownies from Completely Delicious are fudgy brownies and rich pecan pie filling bake together into one incredibly decadent dessert.
- Caramel Brownies from Sweet Basil with gooey caramel oozing out from the homemade brownies.
Old Fashioned Brownies With Frosting
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 squares 1 ounce each unsweetened chocolate
- ⅔ cup butter
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup chopped nuts if desired
Glossy Chocolate Frosting
- 3 squares 1 ounce each unsweetened chocolate
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅓ cup milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- ½ cup finely chopped nuts if desired
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°. Grease 13x9x2 inch baking pan or line with foil or parchment.
- Add 4 squares chocolate and ⅔ cup butter to a large saucepan and cook over low heat until melted, stirring frequently. Remove from heat.
- Add sugar, eggs, and vanilla and whisk until well blended. Stir in flour, baking powder, salt, and nuts if using, and mix just until blended. Spread into prepared pan.
- Bake for about 30 minutes, or until brownies begin to pull away from the sides of the pan. (Do not overbake.)
- Cool slightly; spread with Glossy Chocolate Frosting. Cool completely before serving.
Glossy Chocolate Frosting- Add 3 squares chocolate and 3 tablespoons butter to a large saucepan and cook over low heat until melted.
- Stir in powdered sugar, milk, salt, and vanilla. Whisk until smooth.
- Place pan of frosting in bowl of ice and water; continue beating until smooth, creamy, and of spreading consistency. Stir in nuts if using. (Moe prefers to “just step out on my porch and whisk, it’s plenty cold in NY to firm up that icing.”)
Nutrition
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Carol
Oh my goodness…I may have this cookbook in a box I brought home from my Mom’s! She had a lot of Gold Medal cookbooks in her collection. Those brownies look delicious–and so festive with the colored chips sprinkled over top.
Don’t you just love the old cookbooks? I sure do! 🙂
Barbara Schieving
That would be so fun if you have it already. Definitely love old cookbooks.
K.Harkins
hello-salt is listed in frosting ingredients, but not in directions. Assuming it’s added with powdered sugar, milk, vanilla and nuts?
Barbara Schieving
Yes, I’ve updated the recipe – thanks!