Originally Posted by
MoAlpha
I think brownies should be dense and fudgy, but not wet nor tarry. They can be pretty dry, but never cake-like, not even like very moist cake. They should break, rather than bending. I find browny mixes inedible.
Brownies should never be frosted.
Continental Baking Company, the folks behind Krusteaz mixes, offer a line of Ghirardelli branded brownie mixes. They are actually superb. Ghirardelli is very jealous of their brand and wouldn't have licensed their name and chocolate to be used on/in these mixes without them being very good. Most decent supermarkets have at least some of the varieties, but Costco carries a triple chocolate version in a six mix pack. Because of your current opinion, you wouldn't want to start with that, but you could keep it in mind for when one of the supermarket versions change your mind. I guarantee that is what would happen if you gave them a try. To get the consistency you like, bake them for the lower time of the interval specified. You will thank me.
Everything Krusteaz is excellent. They offer mixes for muffins, cookies, lemon and lime squares, a few different versions of corn bread and other coffee cake-like products, but, peculiarly to the best of my knowledge, no layer cakes. Well, I do see some gluten-free layer cakes on line, but not the regular type. Go figure.