Best-Ever Brownies

When I was young I didn’t know you could make cakes and brownies and other baked goods from scratch. You wanted something like that, you did what everyone does: you go to the market and buy a Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker mix (I think it was Duncan Hines for the brownies, Betty for the cakes) and a can of frosting and you made it at home.

Of course, now I know better. I’m not going to knock mixes, because they are still faster than from-scratch and you never know when you might need to throw something together, but at the moment I’m all about the from-scratch. And recently I discovered the most amazing thing.

I’ve been reading Baking By Julia recently and I kept alighting upon the “Best-Ever Brownies” page. I mean, there’s just something so attractive about a recipe that starts,

Those who are passionate about brownies argue in defense of their favorite type, cakey or fudgey. If you’re a cakey fan, go on to another recipe.

I’m talking Yeah, baby.

Since I was home all day with the kids yesterday, I decided this was the moment. I pulled the Kitchen Aid out of the closet (ugh—I gotta find a new place for that puppy), I lined up my blocks of Scharffen Berger Dark and Scharffen Berger Unsweetened, and I got to work.

Sophia’s contribution was to stir the egg mixture into the hot chocolate mixture (a very important part, because if you don’t stir fast enough, you get chocolate-flavored scrambled eggs) and to request that I chop off a piece or two of the gigantic block of chocolate for her own personal tasting. I gave her the shards of what remained from chopping up the chocolate. “This is baking chocolate, sweetie, not eating chocolate.” She gave me this look as if to say, Like there’s a difference.

I cooked them for longer than the recipe suggests, because they were just so gooey the first two times I took them out. They were still pretty gooey though, even after cooling. Gooey, fudgey, and, oh yes, really good.

No joke: Best Ever Brownies

1 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (8 oz.) unsalted butter
4 oz unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped

2 oz bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 cups sugar, divided (divided isn’t in the original recipe, but just divide, okay?)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350F.

Sift the flour and salt together and set aside.

Melt the butter and chocolate together in a medium saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently and keeping a watchful eye on the pot to make certain the chocolate doesn’t scorch. (Alternatively, you can melt the ingredients in the top of a double boiler over, not touching, simmering water.) Add 1 cup of the sugar to the mixture and stir for half a minute, then remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Pour the mixture into a large bowl.

Put the remaining 1 cup sugar and the eggs into the bowl of a mixer (or a mixing bowl if you’re using a hand-held mixer) and whisk by hand just to combine. Little by little, pour half of the sugar and eggs into the chocolate mixture, stirring gently but constantly with a rubber spatula so that the eggs don’t set from the heat. Fit the whisk attachment to the mixer and whip the remaining sugar and eggs until they are thick, pale, and doubled in volume, about 3 minutes. Using the rubber spatula, delicately fold the whipped eggs into the chocolate mixture. When the eggs are almost completely incorporated, gently fold in the dry ingredients.

Baking the Brownies

Pour and scrap the batter into an unbuttered 9-inch square pan—a heavy ceramic or glass pan is ideal. Bake the brownies for 25 to 28 minutes, during which time they will rise a little and the top will turn dark and dry. Cut into the center at about the 23-minute mark to see how the brownies are progressing: They’ll be perfect if they’re just barely set, and still pretty gooey. They’re still awfully good on the other side of set, so don’t worry if you miss the moment on your first try. Cool the brownies in the pan on a rack. Cut into 1 1/2-by-3 inch bars to serve.

Storing

The brownies will keep, covered, for 2 to 3 days at room temperature and can be frozen for up to a month. Thaw, still wrapped, at room temperature. These never freeze solid, so you might want to think about using them as a mix-in for ice cream

Contributing Baker Rick Katz

It’s funny what I realized as I typed this recipe in. I did two things “wrong”: I used 4 oz of bittersweet and 2 oz of unsweetened instead of the other way around, and one of the first things I said to Darin as we tested the creation last night was, “Does this taste a tad too sweet to you?” (He disagreed, saying they were perfect as is. For whatever that’s worth, if you’re keeping score of Darin’s and my takes on things.) And I greased the glass dish instead of not greasing it, which might have affected the cooking some (though I don’t understand how).

Anyhow. If you need brownies, go for it. Really good. And even better the next day, I think. I doubt they’ll be around for much of Day 3, which is a Saturday and all 4 of us will be here.