Monday, June 20, 2011

Super Fudgy Brownies

 Last weekend I made these brownies to serve at my cousins bridal shower. Since I have become a lazy blogger, I didn't really have any intentions of posting the recipe. But after several requests for the recipe and one woman even declaring it "the best brownie she had ever eaten," I knew this one was a keeper! They were really moist and fudgy without being gooey. I am posting the original recipe below with a few notes in parentheses. One other thing to note is that I ran out of granulated sugar while making these and replaced it with coarse sugar. I am not sure how much of an impact this made on the brownies so I will have to experiment with that in the future, but I am sure the results would be similar either way! I was just happy to know that you could use coarse sugar without it resulting in a grainy texture.

The Baked Brownie (from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking and seen on Divine Baking)
Ingredients:
  • 1 1/4 c all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 T dark unsweetened cocoa powder (I used dutch process cocoa)
  • 11 oz dark chocolate, chopped (I used Ghiradelli 60% cacao)
  • 1 c unsalted butter, cut into 1 inch pieces
  • 1 tsp instant espresso powder (I omitted b/c I didn't have)
  • 1 1/2 c granulated sugar
  • 1/2 c packed light brown sugar
  • 5 large room temperature eggs
  • 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2.  Spray a 9x13 pan with nonstick baking spray (or butter and flour pan).
3.  In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, the salt, and cocoa powder.
4. Set up a large sized double boiler. Place the chocolate, the butter, and the instant espresso powder (if using) in the bowl of the double boiler and stir occasionally until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and combined. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water of the double boiler and add both sugars. Whisk the sugars until completely combined and remove the bowl from the pan. Mixture should be room temperature.
5. Add three eggs to the chocolate mixture and whisk until just combined. Add remaining eggs and vanilla, whisking to combine. Do not over beat the batter or else the brownies will become cakey. 
6. Gently mix the flour/cocoa/salt into the chocolate with a spatula (not a whisk) just until incorporated.
7. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan.
8. Bake the brownies for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out with just a few moist crumbs. Mine took 31 minutes, but you may want to check them early because everyone's oven is different, and you definitely don't want to over bake them!