Tips for Making Perfect Brownies

• The hardest part about making brownies is judging when they are actually done without making the edges too hard. To test to see if the brownies are done, poke a toothpick into the center of the brownies (not near an edge). For fudge-like brownies, you want there to be some crumbs still stuck to the toothpick, but it should not look like batter. For cake-like brownies, the toothpick should come out clean. Many people consider “cake-like” to be overdone.
• Since all ovens vary you’ll want to play it safe and rotate the pan halfway through cooking. Try to do it quickly to minimize the amount of heat that escapes from the oven. Rotating the pan will help the brownies cook evenly, especially if your oven is hotter in one spot than another.
• When looking for visual cues, edges should look baked through and the center shouldn’t move. if you jiggle the pan the center should be set. The tops of the brownies will be shiny and in most recipes, they will appear cracked.
• It’s important to note that if you use any sort of mix-ins that melt (like chocolate chips or caramel) you may want to test with a toothpick in a few different places. If you hit a melted chocolate chip, you will pull out melted chocolate and it will not be an indicator of how done your brownies are.

RELATED: you might also like this recipe – American Flag Cupcakes

Making American Flag Brownies

Here are the things you will need to make these fun patriotic brownies for your holiday party. Be forewarned, people will compliment you when they see these flag brownies! It’s inevitable, so be ready.

You will need:

A 13×9 pan of brownies will yield 16 rectangle flags

• Prepared brownies (or make from scratch)
• Powdered sugar
• Fresh blueberries
• 2 tubes of red decorator gel

Helpful kitchen tools:

• Sifter
• 13×9 baking pan
• Wire cooling rack
• Spatula

These are easy to make but do require a little time so be sure to plan for that. Your brownies should be completely cooled before decorating them, otherwise, your stripes will melt and make a mess. You may even want to make the brownies the day before and refrigerate them once they have cooled. Then you can cut and decorate them the morning of your barbecue.

These American Flag Brownies are portable too! Again, just make sure they are completely cooled before decorating and before placing a lid on the pan. If they are still warm, enclosing that heat could cause your brownies to get soggy. Better safe than sorry!

If you want to go all out for the next patriotic holiday, or maybe there’s a soldier homecoming in your future, try these fun and easy ideas as well: American Flag Fruit Kabobs and Mini Shortcake Cups.

Looking for a cocktail to pair with your dessert with for the 4th of July? Our Patriotic Vodka Lemonade Slushie recipe is

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