Recipe: Prescription-Strength Fudge Brownies

1/11/2010 09:00:00 PM Ashley 1 Comments

Yours truly here again, with another recipe. Now, I know that it's been more than a week since my last recipe post, and for that I apologize. Even though my posts probably won't always be one-a-week, I'm still going to call them "Weekly Recipes."


Today's Recipe: Prescription-Strength Fudge Brownies

Ready to eat!

Of all the brownie recipes I've tried, this ranks highly in both simplicity and deliciousness. It calls for regular kitchen items, so odds are you won't have to make a special grocery run in order to make these. All-in-all, it takes only about an hour from ingredients to brownies.

Here is the required list of materials:
  • 170 grams (12 Tbsp) (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces
  • 64 grams (3/4 cup) unsweetened cocoa powder*
  • 340 grams (1 1/2 cups) granulated sugar
  • 1/4 tsp table salt
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 99 grams (3/4 cup) all-purpose flour
  • 85 grams (1/2 cup) chocolate or peanut butter chips (for mixing into batter), optional**
  • 85 grams (1/2 cup) chocolate or peanut butter chips, nuts, or peppermints (for topping), optional
  • Medium saucepan
  • 8" square pan (or equivalent)
Ingredients

* Note: You can use natural or Dutch-process cocoa powder. I like to change around which one I use, but Dutch-process makes for a much more chocolatey brownie.
** Note: When I make this, I always mix in chocolate chips, so I don't really consider it optional. I'm just marking it that way for your sake.


Added chocolate chips

Directions:
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
  2. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan set over medium heat - remove from heat when melted completely
  3. Whisk in cocoa powder until mixture is smooth
  4. Add sugar and salt and whisk until blended
  5. Add eggs one at a time, whisking after each until just blended - add vanilla with second egg
  6. Sprinkle flour over the chocolate mixture and stir with a rubber spatula just until blended
  7. (Optional) Add chocolate chips and stir just until blended
  8. Scrape the batter into a greased 8-inch square baking dish (or a similar pan)
  9. (Optional) Sprinkle topping over batter
  10. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with small clumps of brownie stuck to it, about 32 minutes; make sure not to overbake, or the brownies won't be fudgy.
  11. Let it cool off, then cut it up and enjoy! If it's not cooled off enough, it will be hard to cut evenly, so if you're having issues just try to hold back a little longer.
In the pan - after

This recipe can be found in The Weekend Baker, by Abigail Johnson Dodge. It is an absolutely fantastic book! For one thing, it is one of the only American cookbooks I've found that has weight measurements to supplement the volume measurements for every recipe. The thing that initially got me interested in it, though, is how it's broken up. The main part of the book is split into 3 sections based on how much time you have to prepare your baking confection - "baker's express," "baking in stages," and "productions." If you're planning on getting a cookbook for yourself or a baker you know, I highly recommend this book.

Pans

And in case you're wondering about that unique and wonderful pan I used to bake the brownies in, it was a gift from my sister and is called the Baker's Edge pan. It was made with the goal of making sure every piece of your brownie is an edge piece, and it does a fantastic job! Not only that, but every piece has at least two edges. This is another product I highly recommend, at least if you're edge-freaks like we are. If you're the kind of person who likes middle-of-the-pan pieces, this is obviously not the product for you.

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