While I often bake cakes and cookies from scratch, I always use a box mix for brownies because I usually need them at the last minute and don't always have the scratch ingredients on hand. For years I had a shiny crust - every time - and then suddenly, I didn't! This went on for 2 years. Around the same time as my brownie fail (honestly, is it REALLY ever a fail?) I discovered that the egg industry changed the naming sizes on their eggs. In all my cookbooks, it says that a 'large' egg is about 1/4 C. Well, guess what? The large eggs are no longer 1/4 C, but the EXTRA LARGE eggs are! I have been buying the Extra Large eggs ever since. However, since the box brownies use industry standards, they ADJUSTED the recipe for the smaller egg. On a whim, I bought a dozen large eggs and made the brownies. Voila! Shiny top. Works every time now.

On a side note, for all my mother's, grandmother's, and old cookbook recipes, I now have to use EXTRA LARGE eggs or the old recipes don't work. :(

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