Brownies!

If I could only have one form of dessert for the rest of my life, the brownie would be a serious contender for the top spot. Yes, pies are delightful, cookies are comforting, and cake is festive. But when it comes right down to an immensely satisfying form of chocolate baked goodness, there is nothing really close.

Most of my formative batter licking experiences happened while making brownies. Truth be told there was more than one occasion, when baking with a childhood friend, the brownies never actually got baked. 

I like most any brownie. The boxed mix variety with those squeezey chocolate packets were my brownie of choice for a long time. I loved very gently picking up the chunks of dry mix (they crumbled very easily, remember?) and eating them. The only brownie that has no place for me is the cakey brownie. I mean seriously, a cakey brownie? If you want a cakey brownie, make CAKE for cripes sake. And don't get me started on nuts in brownies. I'll take a nut in my chocolate chip cookie sooner than in my brownie. If you are looking for a nut-brownie recipe it is not here.

But better than a squeezey chocolate packet brownie mix brownie is the homemade from scratch (or as my brother-in-law calls it, from itch) brownie. There is no shortage of great recipes here. The Moosewood cookbook has a good one and you feel somewhat righteous making it because of the source. I just Googled "brownies from scratch" and got 183,000,000 results in .12 seconds. I've made a handful of different brownie recipes, the more recent ones I've tried are recipes that call for cocoa powder vs. melted chocolate.  I like the cocoa powder recipes better, at some point maybe I'll try side by side taste test. At any rate, I tend to go for the cocoa powder recipes, since those ingredients tend to be in my pantry. If I have a chunk of chocolate suitable for melting, it usually gets hacked up and eaten bit by bit. This is not a problem with cocoa powder.

The brownies I made yesterday came from Fine Cooking. I've jazzed them up in the past with things like instant espresso powder, ganache topping and the like. On their own, these brownies deliver that great dense chocolaty punch that you can't get anywhere but in a brownie.

Watch your time carefully on these, they are meant to be dense and not overcooked.

Fudgy Brownies (from Fine Cooking magazine)
Ingredients
12 oz. (1 1/2 cups) unsalted butter, cut into 9 pieces; more softened for the pan
3-3/4 oz. (1-1/4 cups) unsweetened natural cocoa powder, sifted if lumpy
2-3/4 cups granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. table salt
5 large eggs
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
7-1/2 oz. (1-2/3 cups) all-purpose flour 

What to Do
Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 325°F. Line the bottom & sides of a 9x13-inch straight-sided metal baking pan with heavy-duty aluminum foil, leaving about a 2-inch overhang on the short sides. Lightly butter the foil.

Put the butter in a large (4-quart) saucepan over medium-low heat and stir occasionally until melted, about 2 minutes. Off the heat, whisk in the cocoa powder until smooth, 1 minute. Add the sugar and salt, and whisk until well blended. Use your fingertip to check the temperature of the batter—it should be warm, not hot. If it’s hot, set the pan aside for a minute or two before continuing.

Whisk in the eggs, two and then three at a time, until just blended. Whisk in the vanilla until the batter is well blended. Sprinkle the flour over the batter and stir with a rubber spatula until just blended.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with small bits of brownie sticking to it, 35 to 45 minutes. Cool the brownies completely in the pan on a rack, about 3 hours.

When the brownies are cool, use the foil overhang to lift them from the pan. Invert onto a cutting board and carefully peel away the foil. Flip again and cut into 24 squares. Serve immediately or wrap in plastic and store at room temperature for up to 3 days. They can also be frozen in an airtight container or freezer bag for up to 1 month.