Wickedly Good Brownies

As I mentioned in my last post, my mother-in-law was visiting us for a few days. One of her favorite desserts is brownie. J, who does not care for desserts (unlike me, give me anything sweet and I’ll gobble it down!), loves brownies. We have been married for 3 yrs now, and I have never had courage to bake brownies. Back then, oven for me was this shiny cool (and I mean literally!) piece of appliance to store some cast iron pans.

But the new partisan cook in me jumped at the idea of baking brownies for both MIL and J. I searched high and low for a brownie recipe and when I saw Dorie Greenspan’s “French Chocolate Brownie”, my eyes sparkled. I knew this was THE recipe (which was very surprising having never baked them before).

My MIL’s sister, Aunt L, is an amazing cook. So when my MIL said “L would be so jealous.” I thought it was the biggest compliment I could get. The brownies were soooo chocolatey, almost like fudge. The crispy, crackly choclolate skin against the soft, moist, gooey interior ….was sooo good! If you like chewy brownies rather than fudgy, I think (gurus out there, please correct me if I am worng) you could increase the quantity of flour. Either way, this recipe is a keeper! Without further ado, here is the recipe. Hope y’all enjoy it as much as we did.

Ta

Recipe: Brownies
(Adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s “French Chocolate Brownie”)
(Makes 16 small pieces)

Ingredients

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
6 ounces chopped bittersweet chocolate
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup sugar

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Method

Preheat the oven to 300°F. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with foil, butter the foil and set aside. Whisk together the flour, salt and cinnamon.

Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Slowly and gently melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally. Remove the bowl from the saucepan and add the butter, stirring so that it melts. It’s important that the chocolate and butter not get very hot. Set the chocolate aside for the moment.

Working with a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, beat the eggs and sugar until they are thick and pale, about 2 minutes. Lower the mixer speed and pour in the chocolate-butter mix, mixing only until it is incorporated—you’ll have a thick, creamy batter. Add the dry ingredients and mix at low speed for about 30 seconds—the dry ingredients won’t be completely incorporated and that’s fine. Finish folding in the dry ingredients by hand with a rubber spatula.

Scrape the batter into the pan and bake 50 to 60 minutes, or until the top is dry and crackled and a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and allow the brownies to cool to warm or room temperature.

Carefully lift the brownies out of the pan, using the foil edges as handles, and transfer to a cutting board. With a long-bladed knife, cut the brownies into 16 squares.

These taste great warm or cold!