The most delicious way to eat chocolate is by baking BROWNIES.

Or maybe it’s chocolate cake, or chocolate chip cookies, or chocolate pie, or a chocolate bar, or chocolate milk. I just can’t choose.

I guess this means we must keep testing chocolate recipes. It’s really unfortunate, I know.

The contenders:

Allrecipes: “Best Brownies”

Brown Eyed Baker’s Brownies, adapted from America’s Test Kitchen, and an Oprah favorite.

Ina Garten’s Outrageous Brownies

The nitty-gritty:

Each brownie was scored on a scale of 1-10 (where 1= that’s food? and 10= the best brownie that has ever entered my mouth) for overall score,  the boyfriend/husband test, and the leftover test. We also provide other comments.

Allrecipes “Best Brownies”

Overall score: 9

The boyfriend/husband test: 7

The leftover test: 7

Comments: These were really good! Especially right out of the oven! The only problem was it was hard to frost them because the frosting was really thick. It took me about 5-7 minutes of mixing the frosting to get it to look like frosting. And you really need to frost the brownies while they’re a little bit warm, as the directions say, otherwise it is really hard to get the frosting on them. The only thing I would do differently next time would be to omit the baking powder in the brownies (because it makes them cakey, and I am more of a fudgy brownie fan!)

Brown Eyed Baker Brownies

Overall score: 8

The leftover test: 8

Comments: These were pretty darn good. Especially the batter! They were yummy, and had amazing texture (fudgy, but not too fudgy). However, the flavor does not beat my “go to” brownie recipe and for that, they do not receive a 10.

Ina Garten’s Outrageous Brownies

Overall score: 9.5

The boyfriend/husband test: 9

The leftover test: 9

Comments: I could have killed my sister when I realized these brownies had a POUND (yes, an entire BOX) of butter in them! In case you weren’t aware, my sister Megan picks the recipes and I swear she gives me the craziest sounding ones on purpose. Anyway, the true Paula Deen fan I am, I thought “well, butter usually makes things taste pretty darn good”, so I trudged through this extensive recipe and prayed they were worth all the money effort I put into them. Did I mention the almost 2 pounds of chocolate chips that go into this? Luckily for me, these were AH-MAZ-ING! I cannot stop eating them, even the leftovers are to die for. Josh (husband) even loved them- and he is not a sweet eater. He did jokingly ask me “are you sure you made enough?” – the tupperware I am keeping them in literally weighs at least 3 pounds… and theres only 2 of us here to enjoy them. Anyway, these are not my absolute favorite brownies, only because they don’t have frosting, but they are a VERY CLOSE second. I definitely recommend making these, but perhaps unlike me, maybe not the week before you go on vacation (not diet friendly!). Thanks Ina!

The winner:

It was a close race this time, but congrats to…

Ina Garten’s Outrageous Brownies!

Special Diets:

While we can’t guarantee the results, here are some ideas you can use to customize the winning brownies to your dietary needs:

• Gluten free: Use a gluten free flour (and don’t forget to check that all your other ingredients are, in fact, gluten free!)
• Vegan: Use a vegan butter substitute, a vegan egg substitute, vegan chocolate chips, and vegan unsweetened chocolate. Double check that the rest of your ingredients are, in fact, vegan!
• Lower fat: Substitute 1/3 of the butter with no-sugar-added applesauce.
• Lower sugar/calories: Substitute some or all of the sugar for Splenda® (see conversion info here), Stevia (see conversion info here), or xylitol (measures 1:1 for sugar). Some people do not like how these taste, though, so proceed with caution! Also consider using sugar free chocolate chips.

The Big Brownie Debates: Cakey brownies or fudgy brownies? Nuts or no nuts? Is Jen being dramatic? Let us know in the comments!