"perfect" brownies

On my dad's recommendation, I tried these brownies last night. YUM!
I didn't take any photos myself, since the blog already does that.


"Perfect" brownies
1-1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder (see note below)
3 eggs
3/4 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (see note below)

A NOTE ON CHOCOLATE: You'll notice the list of ingredients is very short. That means the quality of the chocolate makes a huge difference. The chocolate flavor is front-and-center -- not the sugar, not the richness, the chocolate. I used Ghirardelli unsweetened cocoa powder, and Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips.

1. Combine the sugar, flour, cocoa, eggs and melted butter and mix. Do this by hand, until the dry ingredients are just incorporated into the wet, and stop. You don't need to beat it, and in fact want to avoid producing gluten from the flour. (Kneading flour produces gluten, the springy protein that makes bread chewy.)

2. Stir in the chocolate chips.

3. Line a 9x13 baking dish with parchment.

4. Pour the batter and spread it out. Don't try to spread it like mayo on bread, or you'll move the parchment around. Poke at it with the tip of a rubber spatula.

5. Bake at 325° for 20-30 minutes. It's done when a toothpick inserted in the tallest part comes out clean. Keep in mind you've got chips in there. If you hit one with the toothpick it will have melted chocolate on it. You might need to poke a couple of spots to make sure you aren't hitting a chip.

6. Very carefully lift the parchment out of the baking dish. Get a spare set of hands if you can. Peel the edges and let cool for a few minutes before slicing.




For the record, this brownie recipe is *barely* different from my mom's recipe. So either way you can't go wrong :)

Enjoy!