I just finished baking a trial batch of these brownies with margarine instead of butter. I made half the recipe and baked it in an 8" round pan that was 1 1/2 inches deep. I mixed everything by hand using a wire whisk and melted the margarine and sugar on the stove top.The eggs I used were JUMBO eggs which weighed like 75 grams each so the two eggs I used may have been really a bit too much for just half recipe. I added in white chocolate chips to the slightly cooled batter and sprinkled walnuts on top. The brownies rose to the top of the pan but when I took them out of the oven, I forgot to "loosen" the edges and instead left them to cool on the cooling rack with out taking them out of the pan. It was a little harder to get out of the pans but I still managed to do so. 1. The brownies shrunk back to about an inch tall after taking them out of the pan. I would have loved them at 1 1/2 inches tall. Is there a way I could avoid shrinkage? Another observation was that the middle seemed to be a little bit thinner than the edges. 2. The chocolate chips sank to the bottom and slightly melted. Again, is there a way I could avoid this? Nevertheless, the brownies had a beautiful sheen on the slightly crumbly top but were rich, decadent and fudgy in the middle. Could I freeze them? The good news is that yes, you can freeze the baked brownies. As for the other troubles you had with the recipe, there were a lot of substitutions used, and that can definitely have a big effect on the outcome. Our advice would be to make the recipe at least once just as written, so that you can see what the outcome should be like. Then, if you have to make a substitution, don't substitute for more than one ingredient at a time. That way if things go astray, you'll be able to track down the culprit ingredient easier. Hope this helps. ~ MaryJane

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