Sand Art Brownie Mix

These brownies are so good and I always keep a few jars on hand to add to gift baskets or use as hostess gifts. The jars can be decorated by covering the lids with holiday material and tying a ribbon around the top to hold it in place. —Claudia Temple, Sutton, West Virginia

I have to say 1st off, Im not very good at baking anything I make usually flops!! I saw this idea and wanted to try it out 1st and it worked! I had my 2 yr old help me make some for Christmas gifts. To my surprise this was so stupidly easy that a monkey can do it and the organizer that I am I put all the ingredients in large bowls placed them in the order they were to be added on a low fold up table and wrote the measurements on the table with magic marker (with a 2 yr old I couldnt be looking away to check the measurements) it was so easy and once we got a few done my daughter was able to pretty much do the adding herself with just a little bit of help from me. I homeschool her instead of sending to preschool so I look for things like this to do. She loved it so much my original 12 jars I was going to make ended up 24 jars.2nd, someone mentioned it was bland and cake texture....if these directions were followed then it couldnt be. These are true brownies very moist, chewy brownies. My MIL is the queen of brownies and baking and she wanted to know what I did to get them so soft centered, chewy, moist crusty on top(I dont know I just followed the directions). Her recipe is cakey.3rd...someone else has mentioned that the brown sugar gets hard and it was embarrassing and ruined her Christmas. I dont mean to be sarcastic but DRAMA much? Yes the brown sugar did get rock hard, however, and even though Im not a baker, even I knew this would happen. The dry ingredients are going to suck up that moisture. I layered it so that my brown sugar near the top under the chips and walnuts. I dumped out the the chips/nuts stuck a piece of fresh bread in there and later in the day I made them. The brown sugar was soft and came out just fine. Another time when I needed to make right away I dumped out the top ingredients and put it in the microwave with a small amount of water next to it in a glass measuring cup and nuked the jar and water for 35-45 seconds, it came out nice and soft. I added this little tid bit of info on the instruction recipe card and gave them out. Ppl commented on how nice it was for that little bit of info. Generally ppl think these kinds of gifts are a wonderful and knowing they were given with the help of a child adds to the sentiment of the gift. So its not the end of the world if your sugar is hard.These taste amazingly wonderful so you chocolate lovers be prepared to make a pan just for yourself.

I thought the recipe in a jar idea was great for a gift, so Im making this for my coworkers for the holidays. Of course, I had to test the recipe first and they taste great! When my mom tasted them, she decided she wanted to give jars to her brothers and sisters too.

A friend gave me this last Christmas, and I just made them (9 months later). I dont know what went wrong with aw37s batch, but these were GREAT! Fudgy, chewy, perfect! As I always do, I substituted apple sauce for about 2/3 of the oil, and this is now my go-to brownie recipe. For Pammy1591, the sugar in mine was rock hard, too, but it breaks up easily enough--use a blender or food processor if you have to.

This is a great recipe! Its one of the best brownies Ive ever eaten and Ive tried many over the years. To avoid that layer of brown sugar getting hard (the flour must have drawn moisture from that brown sugar), you might try making the brown sugar the top layer just under the chocolate chips, placing the brown sugar in a loose sandwich bag with a twist tie or zip lock, pressing it down to conform, then adding the chocolate chips over that. Also, for gifting, I just learned that placing a pretty cupcake paper cup over the lid, placing the jar ring over that, works great! There are great cupcake papers for every holiday, as well as colorful ones for no special occasion. I used to use fabric, but hated to waste it! I used snowflake cupcake papers for Christmas, had a couple of leftover jars, so changed them to Valentine cupcake papers for Valentines Day. I also gave a few jars with a soup mix in them to a police officer I know during Christmas. He handed them out to families who just needed a lift in crisis moments. He said they LOVED them!

I made this for xmas gifts and it was ruined when they went to make it. The brown sugar was rock hard..is there a secret? I was so embarrassed and my family makes fun of me all the time now

Im an avid baker and wanted a good one bowl brownie mix for Christmas gifts. I hate to be negative but was so disappointed in this recipe and want to warn others before they try. From my experience this recipe was not worth my time and energy. This was a really bland, bad cake if anything, definitely not a brownie. I would be embarrassed to give this as a gift.

Before giving as a gift, I really wanted to actually try the brownies to see if it was worth giving! It turned out awesome! Fudgey Brownies! I am considering putting Christmas colored M&M's instead of semi-sweet chocolate chips to make the packaging a little more colorful! I made half with pecans and half without. We'll see what the kids and hubby think!

I wish I could give this recipe 10 stars. This recipe is so much better than store-bought mixes -- which I will NEVER buy again. Ive made them three times so far, exactly as directed. The next time I make these, instead of semi-sweet and white chocolate, Im going to use peanut butter chips!!!