Anonymous wrote:I have been baking a lot the last few years after pretty much a lifetime of not enjoying baked goods/sweets. After making a chocolate cake for my DH's birthday, and finding it about 100x better than a grocery store cake or even a bakery cake, I realized that maybe I do like baked goods, I just haven't really had good ones. So most weeks I experiment with a cake or pie or cookies or muffins or something, usually a recipe from Sally's. I see people all over the internet posting that there is no sense in making homemade brownies because the Ghiradelli mix is so good. This is a huge lie, and I have no idea how it got started, lol.
Other things:
Baked beans. These are amazing from scratch, not even the same food as the canned ones.
Salad dressing. Olive oil, vinegar, dijon and some salt is better than the gloopy sugar-laden stuff from the store.
I am a big from scratch baker and bake regularly but I will go to my grave saying those Ghirardelli brownies are a solid choice for any occasion. I love to just smear them with solid PB or make cream cheese frosting for them also. Or top them with crushed candy cane in winter. And of course vanilla ice cream and Hershey’s syrup.
I generally think the highly regraded brownie recipes (like the katherine Hepburn one) are good but taste more like a low-flour chocolate tort, so just a different item.