bad weather brownies

from my perch on the couch, i peered outside at the gloomy weather. chilly, damp and windy with a few inches of wet, heavy snow on the ground. in march. this type of weather calls for cookies. preferably chocolate ones. alas, only a small half-square of the pan cookies my mom had made was left. clearly not sufficient to the task. my cupboard was sadly bereft of chocolate chips, though i did have cocoa powder, and the fridge yielded less than a stick of butter. i scanned my cookbooks and consulted google but found no tempting cookies that i could make without more butter. rats.

then, inspiration.
*lightbulb*
brownies!
*ding ding ding*

typically i am lazy and use brownie mix, but faced with a growing need for baked goods and a lack of ghirardelli boxes in the pantry, to google i returned. whereupon i found this:

cocoa powder brownies

a few moments later, i slid the pan in the oven. and waited, hopefully.

these brownies did not disappoint. they came out delicious, with a slight crispness to the top, chewy on the edges, and fudgy in the center. i added some espresso powder for a little kick, and it deepened the flavor nicely. excellent emergency brownies!