Serves a Crowd
basic brownies
- Makes 1- 8x8 pan of brownies
Author Notes
In my opinion, it's always a good idea to have a basic brownie recipe in your arsenal. Brownies are easy to throw together, and you probably have the majority of your ingredients hanging out in your fridge/pantry already. Anyone who likes chocolate will like these brownies. They bake up in half an hour, and are easily transported to any bake sale, kid-related event, pot luck, party, picnic, or wherever else you want to go with them. They also stay reasonably fresh for a few days (but I doubt they'll stick around that long.)
This particular recipe yields brownies that are fudgy and deeply chocolaty, but not overly dense. They're also not overly sweet, which lets the chocolate flavor shine through and makes them a good candidate for adaptation once you've mastered the basics. They're just rich enough, which really just means you can get more out of one recipe because you can cut smaller squares. One thing to remember: the higher quality your chocolate, the tastier your brownies will be. —melissa.
Ingredients
-
4 ounces
bittersweet, dark, or semi-sweet chocolate
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2 ounces
unsweetened chocolate
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8 tablespoons
(1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
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1 1/2 tablespoons
unsweetened cocoa powder
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1 teaspoon
espresso powder (you can replace this with cocoa powder if you like)
-
3
large eggs
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1 1/4 cups
granulated (white) sugar
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1 1/2 teaspoons
vanilla extract
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1/4 teaspoon
kosher salt
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1 cup
all-purpose flour
Directions
- Preheat your oven to 350F, and prepare an 8x8 pan. Line pan with parchment or foil, and spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.
- Melt butter and chocolate together in a double boiler (or by microwaving in 30 second intervals at medium power and stirring between each).
- Once butter and chocolate are smooth, whisk in cocoa powder and espresso powder. Set aside to cool slightly.
- In a separate medium/large bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, salt, and vanilla until combined thoroughly.
- Slowly drizzle your chocolate mixture into your egg mixture, whisking all the while. Do this slowly, as you want to gradually bring the egg mixture up to temperature. If you just dump all the chocolate in at once, you'll scramble your eggs.
- Stir in flour until just combined.
- Pour batter into prepared pan, and even out with a spatula.
- Bake for 32-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs (no goopy batter!)
- Allow to cool for at least 1 hour before removing from pan, using parchment or foil lining as a sling to help you.
- Cut brownies into desired size pieces (I suggest waiting til they are completely cool to do this, though you may not be able to control yourself...its okay, I understand.) Store in an airtight container, once completely cooled.
- For the full post on these brownies, and step by step photos, visit http://www.melbakesthings.com/2014/01/30/brownies/
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