Makes sixteen 2-inch-square brownies
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
10 ounces best-quality bittersweet chocolate, broken into pieces
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup (firmly packed) light brown sugar
5 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
a few grinds of black pepper (yeah...that's right!)
1/4 cup good-quality unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup walnuts or pecans, roughly chopped (optional)
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Lightly butter and flour an 8-inch square baking pan.
- Combine the butter and chocolate in the top of a double boiler and place over gently simmering water. When the mixture is almost completely melted, remove it from the heat. Stir with a wooden spoon until both the butter and chocolate are completely melted and blended together. Pour the mixture into a medium-size bowl and let cool to room temperature.
- Once the chocolate mixture is cool, add the granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, and pepper and whisk well to combine.
- Add the cocoa powder and stir until thoroughly incorporated. Add the flour 1/2 cup at a time, stirring well after each addition to thoroughly incorporate. Stir in the nuts, if desired. Then pour the batter into the prepared baking pan.
- Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the brownies still has a slight coating of batter on it when removed, but when inserted near the edge of the brownies comes out dry, 25 to 30 minutes. Let the brownies cool (the center will finish cooking to a nice chewiness), the cut them into square to serve.
2 comments:
Recently I came to realize my oven temperature tends to be higher than it indicates. A good oven thermometer can help me control the temperature better. Or perhaps I can set the temperature a little bit lower than what the recipes call for and check the doneness 5-10 minutes early.
Ghirardelli, Nestle and Hershey's all launch a line of premium chocolate now, so it's not too difficult to find good quality of bittersweet chocolate. I used Nestle Chocolatier Bittersweet Chocolate and Hershey's Dutch Processed Special Dark Cocoa in this recipe. Almost all the cookbooks highly recommend Valrhona (from France) and Scharffen Berger (from Berkeley, CA and you can buy it in Whole Foods). Perhaps I should give both of them a try next time.
I want brownies!!!!!!!
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