When I was in high school I ate packaged diet brownies – I wish I could remember the brand – but they were individually packaged in cellophane. They were kind of chewy and dense and they filled the brownie urge without too many calories being taken in. As far as a diet brownie went, though, they were good.

When I was in college and wanted a brownie but was a) too broke to splurge on real butter and cocoa and b) hadn’t yet become a great chef (hee hee), I would prepare those brownie mixes that come with a tin foil packet of icing. They were kind of gross, but were definitely brownie-esque and would do in a pinch.

At my bridal shower, I was given a 9″x13″ pan by a neighbor of my mother’s along with a bunch of her own family recipes that could be made in that pan. One of them was a recipe for “Fantastic Brownies”. The gift-giver advised that they were best made with quality ingredients, love and care.

Now that I’m a married and have a husband and children who love anything chocolate above most everything else, I prefer to bake brownies from that recipe because of the quality of the finished product and the fact that I know exactly what is going into them.

When I want a good brownie (like the ones pictured above that I baked yesterday), I use real butter, real vanilla and even though from start to finish they take an hour to make they’re superb and there really is no substitute.

Professional service providers are like brownies. There are the cheap ones who work fast and will do in a pinch, sort of like the brownies you find hanging next to the peanuts at the counter of a convenience store. Then there are the service providers who are more costly, but deliver a delicious, made-with-real-vanilla-fudgy-brownie kind of result.

Once you’ve eaten a homemade brownie it’s really hard to go back to any other kind.

When you start investing in homemade brownie type service providers, you’ll see the difference and you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.

What type of brownie do you tend to reach for and why? What type of brownie are you?

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