Is it cheaper to make brownies at home from scratch

Brownies are a perfect dessert and well-known comfort food. Home cooks usually make brownies from scratch, but the variety of box brownie mixes available in the stores challenge home cooks to try different flavors from time to time. Brownies made at home from scratch are delicious, but are they also cheaper than store-bought box brownie mixes?

Making brownies at home from scratch is just a bit cheaper or even more expensive than buying a store-bought box brownie mix. The calculation shows that if you make brownies twice a month at home from scratch, you can save at most 12$ a year. But if you are a Hersheys box brownies mix fan, you will pay 9.6$ more a year, if you make brownies twice a month, at home from scratch.

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In general, cooking at home is cheaper than eating out. Check out how to save from 1720$ to 4303$ with homemade food.

Homemade brownies one recipe, many varieties

Some like them fudgy some like them cakey. The essential ingredients of making brownies are good high-quality chocolate, butter, white flour, eggs, sugar, and salt. Since not everyone has always got good quality chocolate on hand, you can also make delicious brownies with these, not far from perfect ingredient substitutes:

• Instead of chocolate use cocoa powder
• Instead of butter use vegetable oil
• Instead of white sugar use demerara sugar

To spice up things you simply make varieties of the original recipe and add additional ingredients that overtake the original flavor. Some of the most popular types of brownies with a twist are:

• Cinamon and nut brownies – add in your choice of nuts and cinnamon
• Marshmallows brownies – add in some marshmallows and chocolate chips
• Peppermint brownies – add in some peppermint essence or extract
• Mocca flavor brownies – add in some coffee powder or espresso
• Salted caramel brownies – top them with some salted caramel and salt
• Fruit brownies – stir in your favorite fruit like raspberries or cranberries
• Peanut butter brownies – add some peanut butter and less butter

How do you make chewy brownies, not cakey?

What makes brownies fudgy vs cakey. Here are the most important guidelines to help you make fudgy or cakey brownies:

If you want to get the more cakey texture of brownies, follow these 4 directions in the preparation and baking process:

1. use baking powder (with baking soda) as baking powder helps lift the brownies, creating a cake-like texture
2. add an extra egg, this will increase the batter’s volume, and the baked texture will be lighter.
3. have higher flour to fat ratio, and don’t forget to add baking powder as the flour relies on it for leavening
4. bake them according to the recipe or a minute or two longer

If you want to get more fudgy or chewy texture of brownies, follow these 3 directions in the preparation and baking process:

1. the most important factor is baking time. Bake them for little shorter time than the recipe suggests
2. have a higher fat to flower ratio
3. use less cocoa powder and substitute it with chopped chocolate which will melt in the baking process

Homemade brownies vs box brownies mix

If you ask ten people whether they like more homemade brownies or box brownies, you will get ten same reactions, “Mmmmm brownies.” Homemade brownies have a different taste, or you could say box brownies have a different taste. We think that both are delicious. When making brownies, it’s more of a time thing. Do you have time to make them? If you don’t, you get a box of brownie mix; if you do have time, you mix the batter and bake them.

So it’s not a question of taste. What about the price? Which are cheaper, brownies made with store-bought box brownie mix or homemade brownies made from scratch?

How much does it cost to make brownies at home from scratch

To define the right price for making brownies at home, we needed to calculate and take into consideration the following parameters:

Measurement to grams: we calculated the measurement of each ingredient into grams to get the sum weight of ingredients for brownies.

Average product price: for each ingredient, we checked the latest prices online and calculated the average price of ingredients per ounce, which are included in the brownie recipe.

Price per ingredient: the price for each ingredient is calculated to match the amount used in the recipe.

Example: the batter calls for ½ cup of flour, which is 125g. The average price for 5lb (2260g) white flour is 6.95$. If 2260g is 6.95$ than 125g is 0.38$. Meaning ½ cup of flour in brownie recipe costs 0.38$.

Sum weight of brownies: to get the total weight of brownies, we summed the weight of all ingredients for unbaked brownies in grams. This is how we can compare the weight of box brownie mixture to the brownie recipe we took for calculation.

Electricity cost: we calculated electricity cost for baking brownies in the oven. Ovens use 1000 to 5000 watts, with an average modern oven using around 2400 watts on medium to high heat. The calculation also includes the average electricity rate in the USA which is 13.19 cents per kilowatt-hour (updated April 2020)

Time, pan, and greasing the pan: We did not include time cost, the purchase of baking pan, and grease the pan before baking into the calculation.

The recipe ingredients are taken from Gimme delicious food blog if you want to check the direction on how to make these lovely brownies check out Gimme delicious website.

I’ve written a complete “is it cheaper” analysis of the most popular foods cooks make at home.

(BREAD, PIZZA, PASTA, FRIES, BEEF JERKY, LASAGNA, CHEESECAKE, GRANOLA BARS, GLUTEN-FREE BREAD, MAYONNAISE, GNOCCHI, GUACAMOLE, GROUND BEEF,  BROWNIES, HUMMUS)

I outlined the costs and buying guides for the ultimate savings.

The table shows that it costs 4.48$ to make 22.7 oz (643 g) of brownies (dry ingredient mix) at home, which makes 9 large squares or 16 small squares of brownies.

How much money do you save if you make brownies at home from scratch

Is it cheaper to make homemade brownies from scratch? Yes, but you must favor the taste of homemade brownies as the savings are very low!

Yearly savings are calculated based on making brownies twice a month. Even if you make them twice a month, you will, at most, save 12$ a year. But if you are a Hersheys brownies mix fan, then you won’t save anything if you make brownies at home from scratch. Instead, making brownies at home from scratch will cost you 9.6$ more per year.

Best budget friendly brownie pans with dividers for making brownies at home

#1 WINNER Baker’s Edge Nonstick Edge Brownie Pan

This brownie pan is made in the USA. It has a very durable nonstick coating and is made from heavy gauge cast aluminum construction, which makes it a sturdy, heavy-duty pan.

Users mention that baked brownies just pop right out. It is also loved by people who really love edge brownies.

P=eople who make brownies for many years say that this is the best brownie pan they ever had!

>> Check price on Amazon <<

#2 Wilton Perfect Results Non-Stick Mini Loaf Pan, 8-Cavity

This versatile pan is dishwasher safe and can besides brownies be used for many other dishes like little loaves and cakes. The pan has non stick coating, but it is better to spray it with some oil or butter before baking.

People who love this dishwasher safe pan, really like that the pan is high quality and sturdy. Most users mention that the size of the loaves are quite generous and that the cleaning is effortless

>> Check price on Amazon <<

#3 Webake Mini Brownie Pan

This pan is made from professional quality food-grade silicone. The pan can be used in an oven, microwave, and is also dishwasher friendly.

Most people are making brownies and keto fat bombs, which and adore the perfect bite-size pieces.

>> Check price on Amazon <<

* The prices for ingredients and products in our tables are average prices take from various websites. The prices are not taken directly from Amazon.
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