I'm very fond of Ghirardelli chocolate, partly because they tend to be reliably good and partly because I visited their San Francisco shop on my honeymoon, and still have a battered copy of their cookbook to commemorate the occasion. So when I saw boxes of Ghirardelli brand brownie mix on sale at my local grocery store, I reached for them eagerly.

Then I felt embarrassed. Was I, the brownie baker whose home-baked goodies are legendary in my small but devoted circle, letting my standards slip? Sure, it was Ghirardelli, but a mix is a mix -- right?

I have a very close, very classy yet down-to-earth friend to whom I confessed my qualms, and she laughed delightedly.

"I was at a party where someone had brought a pan of brownies, and they were amazing," my friend said. "I went over to ask for the recipe, and the lady laughed and told me they were from a mix. A Ghirardelli mix. They're the only mix brownies I've ever mistaken for homemade."

That made me feel much better, and over the course of several weeks I baked the mixes I'd purchased, and taste-tested them with the help of my ten-year-old son.

He enjoyed the Ghirardelli Ultimate Fudge mix, because they come with a pouch of frosting you get to squeeze over the pan of freshly-baked brownies. I let him make the mix pretty much by himself, in fact. (You only have to add water, oil, and an egg to Ghirardelli mixes, so they're very child-friendly.)

I am biased here: I don't particularly care for icing on brownies. I like a brownie that can stand by itself, a brownie that would feel vaguely insulted by the idea that it needs any help. However, this is my own silly quirk; if you like chocolate glaze on brownies, this is a brownie mix you'll like. And if you have a child to keep amused on a long summer or winter afternoon, this mix is easy and entertaining to put together.

The Double Chocolate Brownie Mix was quite good, because, as my son pointed out, you could "really feel" the chocolate chips in the mix. I still wasn't quite convinced that I was in passes-for-homemade territory. That probably wasn't Ghirardelli's fault, though. Their mixes produce a cakey brownie, while I tend to make one that's more like what most people think of as fudge -- or, when I really go overboard, chocolate sauce you can eat with a fork.

Speaking of chocolate sauce, the last box of Ghirardelli mix I tried came with a pouch of chocolate syrup, which I dutifully stirred into the batter before baking the mix. These were the brownies that really made me understand what my friend had been talking about. The others had been fine, but these were wonderful -- soft in the middle, crinkly on top, and just sweet enough.

One thing I would suggest when preparing these mixes is to knock off a good hunk of the recommended baking time, especially if you like a fudgy brownie. With my metal 8x8 pan, I was supposed to bake this last batch for a minimum of 40 minutes, possibly even forty-five. I took them out at thirty and they were perfect. It's generally a good idea to go a little under the recommended cooking time for any new mix or recipe; for these mixes, I would be extremely conservative in that respect, and start checking at least ten minutes before the minimum baking time is up.

Allow these brownies to cool completely before eating them, or they'll be impossible to cut. Good brownies, as I mentioned earlier, need no assistance or accompaniment; but fresh strawberries, peaches, or cherries go wonderfully with these, as will a touch of whipped cream and/or a drizzle of chocolate sauce.