Baker’s Best! Jane’s Favorite Recipes: Tri-Level Brownies

Jane Taylor is excited to share her culinary sweet treat favorites with the Bedford Community. Baking is a favorite pastime.  Her greatest joy is spending time with family (including two grandsons) and friends. Pursuing outdoor adventures such as hiking, biking, walking, pickleball, and singing in a local choral group keeps her active outside the kitchen. A Bedford resident for 42 years, Jane is a new contributor to The Bedford Citizen. She and her husband, Tim, raised their two sons, Jeff and Eric, here and are proud to call “Bedford” their home.

Growing up in a dessert-oriented family, I quickly became a sweets-baking aficionado!

Desserts were considered an essential post–mealtime treat.

It all started in the fourth grade with a popular brownie mix, an eager “audience” of taste testers (my family), and hours spent in my grandmother’s kitchens watching them craft yummy baked goods.  

Brownies became one of my all-time favorite baking choices.  Sundays became “Brownie Night” at our household when the boys were growing up.  

When we first moved to Bedford 42 years ago, our young next-door neighbor frequented our kitchen in hopes that brownies were baking in the oven. Soon thereafter, my brownies made regular “appearances” on hiking trips; a treat to be savored at a number of mountain peaks.   

I also quickly made “friends” by bringing my tasty chocolate creations to the workplace.  

This Tri-Level Brownies recipe is one of my favorites.  My sister and I discovered this particular recipe in a cookbook at my grandmother’s Newfound Lake Cottage kitchen. We’d spend days off from our camp counseling job in New Hampshire baking up a storm!

Tri-Level Brownies

Bottom Layer: (Set Oven to 350 degrees)

3/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
9 tablespoons melted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 and 1/2 cups old fashioned oats

(Mix ingredients; Press in 8×8 pan and bake for 10 minutes)

Middle Layer: 

1 and 1/2 squares unsweetened chocolate (melted)
6 tablespoons melted butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 plus 1/8 cups milk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla

(Cream butter, sugar, and melted chocolate; Beat in egg, add dry ingredients and milk; Spread over bottom layer; Bake 20 minutes)

Top Layer (Frosting) Double the layer if you prefer a thicker frosting layer

1 square melted unsweetened chocolate
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla flavoring
1 and 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar

(Blend chocolate and melted butter; Add sugar and vanilla and 2 tablespoons water to make a pourable consistency: Pour frosting on brownie layer when it comes out of the oven.

Top with chopped pecans or walnuts. Cut when cool. ENJOY!