Buttermilk Brownies

My friend Sarah made me these brownies and gave me this recipe:

*These brownies must be made the day before you intend to eat them. Why they don't taste good the first day but are phenomenal the second is a great mystery that must be respected.

For the Brownies:

1 stick Butter
1 cup Water
1/4 cup Cocoa
1/2 cup Oil
2 cups Flour
2 cups Sugar
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Vanilla
1/2 cup Buttermilk
2 Eggs

In a saucepan, blend together butter, water, cocoa, and oil. Bring to a boil and stir until butter is melted and ingredients are blended. Remove from heat and set aside. In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, salt, and soda. Pour boiled mixture in and stir. Stir in vanilla, buttermilk, and eggs. Pour batter into a a greased baking pan (the bigger the better, because it should be almost a sheet cake). Bake for 15-20 minutes at 400 degrees F/ 205 degrees C.

The ingredients

Bringing the butter, water, and

vegetable oil to a boil

These ingredients don't like to mix,

so they need to be stirred until the

butter is completely melted.

Pouring the chocolate and butter

mix into the flour and sugar.

There's a lot of sugar in this recipe.

For the Frosting:
1 stick Butter
1/2 cup Cocoa
1/3-1/2 cup Buttermilk
1lb* Powdered Sugar
1 tsp. Vanilla

In a small saucepan, bring the butter, cocoa, and buttermilk to a boil. Remove from heat and beat in powdered sugar (1/2-1 cup at a time) and vanilla. Pour over warm brownies and let sit overnight.

Mixing the powder sugar and chocolate mix.

The finished product

*You can buy powdered/confectioner's/icing sugar as it's called different places by the pound in the US. If you have too big of a bag or are in a different country, there is some discrepancy on how many cups make up 1 pound. General agreement rests on 3 1/2 cups. I find that 3 cups is usually fine, but based on altitude, humidity, and the consistency of your frosting once you've reached the 3 cup point, adjust as needed.