I have to make 2 13x9" pans of brownies Saturday. (As Barb says---boys and
girls! One with nuts, one without)

The recipe I use is basically Barb's, minus the baking soda.
Which means each pan uses half a pound (2 sticks) of butter and 4 ounces of
unsweetened chocolate. (also 2 cups sugar, 4 eggs, and a few other things,
too).

Butter is nearly $4 a pound this week!!!!

I know what to expect with cookies when subbing margarine for
butter...cookies with butter tend to be flatter, a little crisper, margarine
in cookies yields a higher, slightly more tender cookie. Butter flavor
Crisco is actually my choice for chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookies,
because I like a taller,crunchy cookie and that yields the best result for
my taste. But brownies? I had no idea what the difference would be,
texture-wise, between the two fats.

My thought to economize slightly on the brownies was to use 1 stick of
butter and one stick of margarine per pan. (rather than 2 sticks of butter).

I searched and searched on the web and couldn't find any documentation on
this subject: the effects of butter vs. margarine on brownies. Plenty on
cookies, but nothing on Brownies.

So after nearly an hour of Googling...I decided to do something drastic.
I made a half-batch of my regular brownie recipe, and used half butter and
half margarine.

They are in the oven, about half-way done.

First thoughts:
1. No discernible difference in the melting of the chocolate using 50%
butter/50% margarine vs. all butter.

2. After adding the sugar, I tasted the melted chocolate/fat/sugar combo (as
I always do because it's irresistible to me!) and it tasted yummy. Maybe a
little bit greasier, but not necessarily in a bad way.

3. The mixture was not a terribly thick layer in the pan. Thing is, I used
a half recipe and a 9x9" pan. I usually use a 9 x 13" pan and a full
recipe. Soo....I am not comparing apples to apples. And thinner is not
necessarily worse, in fact, with such a rich fudgy brownie, smaller may be
more desirable.

I used walnuts in this batch, because I figure my office mates will be the
beneficiaries of this little experiment, and I know my boss likes nuts.

Thing is, many of the people who will be eating these on Saturday have eaten
my brownies before and they are looking forward to "Sheryl's Brownies". I
have a reputation to uphold! They have to be as good, or better, than the
ones I've made before.

I'll let you know how these turn out. I'm getting itchy...I wanna try 'em!

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Love like you've never been hurt
Live like there's no tomorrow
And dance like there's nobody watching