--- title: "The DoD has its own brownie recipe and it’s 26 pages long" description: "Looking for a dessert that won't just impress your houseguests but could impress them years from now? Look no further than the first name in brownie recipes: The Pentagon." date: "2022-09-29" modified: "2022-09-29" authors: - name: "Blake Stilwell" job_title: "Editor-In-Chief, Air Force Veteran" link: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/authors/blake/" url: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/humor/dod-has-brownie-recipe/" categories: - "Entertainment" --- # The DoD has its own brownie recipe and it’s 26 pages long ![Three stacked chocolate brownies with a cracked top crust, placed on a light wooden surface with some crumbs scattered around. The brownies appear moist and dense with visible chocolate chunks inside.]() *Photo by iMattSmart on Unsplash.* Looking for a dessert that won't just impress your houseguests but could impress them years from now? Look no further than the first name in cakes, pies, and other fine desserts: The Pentagon. [The Department of Defense has a brownie recipe]() that is sure to end the clear and present danger to your sweet tooth. --- Just imagine being able to whip up some sweet treats for your unborn children, whether you're currently pregnant or not. ![food]() *Kinda like this but without all that green sh\*t. Photo by Airman 1st Class Collette Brooks. (DVIDS)* The Pentagon's brownie recipe is (perhaps unsurprisingly) the only recipe that tells you exactly how things are gonna be and does it in the vaguely threatening manner that only the United States military is capable of. The consequences of diverging from the recipe aren't listed, but you definitely get the feeling there might be consequences: Shortening shall be a refined, hydrogenated vegetable oil or combination of refined vegetable oils which are in common use by the baking industry. Coconut and palm kernel oils may be used only in the coating. The shortening shall have a stability of not less than 100 hours as determined by the Active Oxygen Method (AOM) in Method Cd 12-57 of the Commercial Fats and Oils chapter in the Official and Tentative Methods of the American Oil Chemists Society. The shortening may contain alpha monoglycerides and an antioxidant or combination of antioxidants, as permitted by the Federal Grain Inspection Service (FGIS), and the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and regulations promulgated thereunder. ![brownies]() *Photo by Devi Puspita Amartha Yahya on Unsplash.* "And parties found to have added walnuts to said brownies shall pay a 00 fine and serve no less than three years in a federal correctional facility because that sh\*t is gross." That's not in the recipe, but it should be in every brownie recipe. But the brownie regulations don't stop at shortening. Each ingredient has more specific sourcing instructions than a vegan hipster with Celiac Disease. Even adding the eggs is enough to make any baker wonder what a legal chicken is. "Whole eggs may be liquid or frozen and shall have been processed and labeled in accordance with the Regulations Governing the Inspection of Eggs and Egg Products (7 CFR Part 59)." The strict regs came about in part because the military needs their baked goods to be edible for much longer than the average baker needs them. The U.S. military's brownies are said to last up to three years, just in time to bake brownies for the kids currently in high school that will be deploying to Afghanistan by then. Make the brownies yourself [with this recipe](). ## Author Blake Stilwell is We Are The Mighty's Editor-in-Chief, covering military news, entertainment, and history, along with veteran education, employment and entrepreneurship. He is a former U.S. Air Force combat cameraman with degrees in Graphic Design, Television and Film, International Relations, Public Relations, Business Management and Middle Eastern Affairs. After leaving the military, he began working in film and television production in New York and Los Angeles, work that included ABC News, NBC Olympics, and HBO Sports. He then spent two years in Washington with White House Communications, before joining the Near East Foundation. At NEF he served as an International Development Fellow, then Communications Officer, and finally, Media Officer for the Middle East and Africa. Based in the Palestinian Territory, he coordinated strategic communications between eight country offices, international media, and government and NGO partners. He began a career focused on writing and editing in 2015 with We Are The Mighty. He left in 2019 for Military.com, but returned as Editor-in-Chief in 2025. Blake’s work has been seen on CBS News, Fox News, CBC, The Chicago Tribune, Task & Purpose, Military Times, Recoil, Skillset, American History, and was shockingly even used in a Supreme Court argument. He is an avid traveler and small business owner in Ohio, where he spends most of his energy fixing up a very old house. ### Author social links [Facebook]() [Twitter]() [Instagram]() [LinkedIn]()