I've taken some liberties with a recipe found in our local paper. Less sugar is often better as we've found in this version of brownies. They really have an excellent balance of cakiness and fudginess. They're delicious as is, and ALSO as a base for brownie sundaes.
1 | cup | Unsalted ButterTwo 8 oz sticks |
8 | dry oz. | Bittersweet ChocolateCut up for melting; semisweet will work as well; if using morsels, a good 1 1/2 cups will do. |
4 | Egg/sAt room temperature works best | |
½ | tsp | SaltScant |
¾ | cup | White Sugar |
¾ | cup | Dark Brown SugarWell packed |
1 | tbsp | Vanilla |
1 | cup | Flour, All Purpose, Unbleached |
1 | Preheat oven to 350 degrees |
2 | Use a 9 inch square pan, greased (preferably with butter) and floured |
3 | In a heavy bottomed pan, and on the lowest heat possible, melt the butter and chocolate together, stirring to blend and also to insure that the chocolate will not in any way burn on the bottom of the pan. When the butter and chocolate are melted, take the pan off the heat. It can cool a little, but it should remain in liquid form. |
4 | In a good-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and the sugars. Let them become well-combined and somewhat lightened in consistency. Add the salt and vanilla and continue whisking together until well-blended. |
5 | Stir in the chocolate mixture. |
6 | Fold in the flour until well-combined, but not over-mixed. |
7 | If you would like to add nuts, mix about one cup broken-up nuts into the flour before adding it to the mixture. |
8 | Pour the batter into the prepared pan. |
9 | Bake 30-35 minutes.if using a convection oven. A conventional oven may need a little longer, perhaps 38 minutes. The top will look a little shiny, and perhaps crack a bit. The consistency will be somewhat firm. |
10 | One of the hardest parts of baking is knowing when to take whatever it is you're baking out of the oven. These brownies need to be baked enough so they have gotten beyond the gooey stage but not so long that they are dry. You may have to do a little testing. But I really hope they come out perfectly the very first time. |