Remember how great the school cafeteria food was when you were a kid?  I remember begging, begging my parents to let me buy lunch.  They were almost always like “No! You aren’t eating that crap!” but every once in a while their resistance would fade and in the face of their pleading 8 year old, they would let me go to school and have macho nachos, pizza, or those grilled cheese sandwiches with the chicken soup they used to serve.

The pizza was definitely my favorite. I have searched and searched for the cafeteria square pizza recipe, but thus far have been unable to duplicate.  I have however, been able to duplicate the old school peanut butter bars and now, the Lunch Lady Brownies.

These brownies are so fudgy- no leaveners are used in the recipe, and a thin icing is spread over the still warm brownies, which solidifies into a yummy chocolatey topping.  One bite will take you straight back to elementary school.

Simple ingredients. Simple directions. Simple brownies.  Sometimes simple is the best.  

I imagine especially when you are feeding hundreds of hungry children.

This recipe makes a crap ton of brownies.  You can halve it into an 8×8 pan if you’d like.

Enjoy.

Recipe from Life in the Lofthouse

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup cocoa powder (unsweetened)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups of granulated sugar
4 large eggs
4 teaspoons vanilla extract

Icing:
1/4 cup softened butter
1/4 cup milk (I used whole milk)
1/4 cup cocoa powder (unsweetened)
3 cups powdered sugar

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350°.  Spray a 9×13 inch baking dish and line with a parchment paper or foil sling.

In a large bowl cream together your butter and sugar.  Add eggs and vanilla and mix well until smooth.  Add your dry ingredients and stir until just combined.  Do not overmix.  Batter will be very thick.

Pour the batter into prepared pan, smooth it out as best as you can (It is thick) and bake for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Err on the side of underbaking if you are questioning.

Remove from the oven and let the brownies sit for about 15 minutes. You want them to still be warm when you pour on the icing.  Once you remove the brownies from the oven, make your icing by mixing all 4 ingredients together until smooth.  Pour the icing over top of the still very warm brownies.  Cool completely and serve.