Brownies

You know those boxed fudge brownies? Yeah, you know the ones I'm talking about. You open the box, pour it out, crack and egg and wisk in a cup of canola oil, then pop it in the oven and you get these super dense, fudge-like brownies that are just delicious?

You can make those from scratch. Seriously.

You've got most of those ingredients in your house already. Maybe you'll need to buy the chocolate. Maybe. You'll also need a 9x9 pan.

Start by preheating the oven to 350F and melting two sticks, or 1 cup, of butter in a saucepan over low heat. A 2 1/2 to 3 quart saucepan will do fine. It helps if you chop up the butter into smaller bits before you try to melt it.

Use the wrappers from the butter to grease your baking pan.

Next, chop up 4 ounces of your favorite unsweetened chocolate. This will make it melt faster.

Melt the chocolate in with the butter, still over low heat.

Remove from the heat and start stirring in the 2 cups of sugar. Do a little at a time and let it dissolve before adding more. You don't want the brownies to be grainy.  The sugar, chocolate and butter mixture will have a sheen to it. It's hard to describe, and harder to photograph, so here's by best attempt.

Now beat in 4 whole eggs, one at a time.

The batter's going to start getting thick, so feel free to put it back on the heat, briefly, to warm things up. But working faster, and hard, is the better solution. Stir in 1 teaspoon of vanilla. 

Now, combine 1 cup of flour and 1/2 teaspoon of salt and mix it in with the batter.

Almost done. When it's all mixed in, pour it into the pan and pop it in the oven.

When you take it out of the oven, you may have noticed that it rose a little. Most of that should go away. It was just the natural air bubbles in the mixture. You'll notice that there was no chemical leavening in the batter. That's part of what makes it fudge-like instead of airy.

Let cool, then cut and serve with ice cream. Or eat on its own.

Ingredients:

1 cup of butter

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate

2 cups white sugar

4 eggs

1 cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon salt

Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F, and grease a 9x9 pan with the wrappers from the butter.

2. Cut and melt the butter over low heat.

3. Chop the chocolate and add it to the butter, stirring until the chocolate is melted.

4. Remove from the heat and slowly stir in the sugar, waiting until the sugar is dissolved before adding more.

5. Beat in each of the four eggs, one at a time. Add the vanilla.

6. Mix the flour and salt, and stir in with the batter.

7. Pour batter into the pan, and bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out of the brownies clean.

8. Cool and serve.

Comments

[Rachel]

I love the photo with the knife and the chocolate! Now I'm craving brownies.
Let's talk Rochester stuff again soon!

[Share]

Easy, Quick, Delicious...
Now we have NO EXCUSE not to have brownies... all of the time!
Thanks.