Put down that brownie mix, you won’t be wanting it anymore.
“But, wait!”, you say “it’s extra fudgy!”
Yeh, no… no, it’s not.
These babies are the real deal; with close to two pounds* of chocolate, six eggs, and a full pound of sweet butter, and so very, totally worth the minimal effort it takes to stir them together. Thank you, barefoot contessa, for a truly excellent recipe.
INGREDIENTS
For the baking pan:
•1 tbsp veggie oil
•1 tbsp solid shortening
•1 tbsp flour
Brownies:
•1 lb unsalted butter
•1 lb plus 12 oz semisweet chocolate chips
•6 extra-large eggs
•2 tbsp instant espresso
•2 tbsp pure vanilla extract
•2-1/4 cups sugar
•1-1/4 cup all-purpose flour
•1 tbsp baking powder
•1 tsp salt
•3 cups chopped walnuts (optional)
*Full disclosure: the contessa’s recipe added an additional 6 ounces of unsweeetened baking chocolate to the pound of butter and semi-sweet chips. I missed that part of the recipe and left it out. Everyone was most pleased with the results, and brownies have now been added to our Thanksgiving dessert menu, so I’m sticking with the error. The contessa also called for three tablespoons of instant coffee, which I cut back to two when I substituted instant espresso.
Combine the veggie oil, solid shortening, and flour together in a small bowl with a fork, then paint a half-sheet (13×18) pan with the mixture.
Heat oven to 350º.
Place one pound of the chocolate chips and all of the butter in a ‘wave safe bowl, then ‘wave for one minute. Remove, stir, then return and continue to ‘wave, stirring after each minute, until melted and smooth. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.
In another large bowl, use a spoon to stir together the eggs, vanilla, instant espresso, and sugar – resist the temptation to beat the mixture, and, trust me, just stir.
Whisk together one cup of the flour with the baking powder and the salt and set aside.
Stir the slightly cooled chocolate and butter mixture into the egg mixture, then set aside to cool.
Stir the flour mixture into the cooled batter.
Toss the remaining 12 oz of chocolate chips and 3/4 cup of flour together in a bowl (Note: add the nuts, as well, if you are using them), then stir into the batter.
Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan, smoothing it out to an even thickness, and bake for 20 minutes.
Cool contessa trick: after twenty minutes, reach into to oven lift up the pan a wee, tiny bit, then let it thump back down onto the rack. You will have noticed that the brownies had begun to puff up a bit, and this little thump caused them to deflate. This is a good thing – you are forcing extra air to be released, giving you ultimately fudgy and nicely dense brownies.
Bake for another 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
The contessa cautions about overbaking the brownies, but mine seemed perfect after 15 minutes. Perhaps leaving out that last six ounces of chocolate made it easier to gauge doneness? I don’t know, but I am not about to quibble with success.
And successful, they were! I actually made these as the ‘nut-free’ brownie offering for a gathering of friends, and everyone agreed, that these were the king of brownies. Rich thought that the others, pecan pie brownies, were really good, but these just kinda blew those right out of the water.
*sigh*
Poor, neglected pecan pie brownies. They, too, were rich and fudgy and yummy. Sadly, just not as much so as these truly excellent delights.
The brownies will come out as you see, and, mebbe because of that missing six ounces of chocolate, will leave a fair amount of crumbs as you slice them – this, too, is a very good thing! Save the crumbs in a zipper bag and sprinkle ’em over good vanilla ice cream to enjoy with your favorite murder mystery on a Monday night.
Ermmm, just a suggestion…
but, it works for me!