Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Really Bad (In a Good Way) Dark Chocolate Brownies


These brownies emit a Siren's song from the counter, drawing those who haven't the slightest pang of hunger to devour one...or more. 

Dark Chocolate Brownies
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened (room temperature)
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa (Hershey’s Special Dark)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 bag (11.5 oz) chocolate chips (I like to use bittersweet chocolate…at least 60% cacao)
1-1/2 cups walnuts or pecans (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13-inch pan.

2. In a medium bowl, mix together flour, dark cocoa, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

3. Mix butter and sugars until light and creamy (about 5 minutes). Add eggs and vanilla, and mix for an additional minute.

4. Add flour mixture to butter/sugar/egg mixture. Stir just until blended. Add in chocolate chips and nuts (if using).

5. Pat dough into prepared pan.

6. Bake for 12-18 minutes, until the edges are pulling away from the pan just a bit and a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. (But be aware: if you pierce a chocolate chip with the knife, instead of the batter, it may give the illusion the brownies aren’t done, leading to over-baking heartbreak.)

7. Let cool (if you can wait that long…I never can). The brownies will cut into bars much easier when they are at room temperature.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yum. Please send a batch to your dear old Mom -- it is exactly what I NEED today!

Heather said...

i second that! the burning question is: "how do you stay so thin?" oh, yeah you have two toddlers. i learned that they are pretty good calorie burners.