Brownies, Naturally

I have so many recipes that I love. And I'm continually trying new ones, thanks to my extensive cookbook collection and the internet. So, what to post first?

Chocolate! Naturally. If you don't like chocolate, I'm just not sure we can be friends.


Just kidding.

But seriously, I love chocolate.

Conveniently for this blog, Jeff and I will be eating with some neighbors and I have been assigned dessert. (Yay! Dessert is the most fun assignment, in my opinion.) Unfortunately, we were invited late last night, and I can't make it to the store today. Which really limits things. Today, before I baked, I had exactly 4 eggs, 1/2 cup of milk, and 3 sticks of butter. Plus flour and junk, of course...but not cream, no baking chocolate, not a lot. I could always bake cookies, but those just seem...I dunno...last minute. And I have all day! Just no ingredients.

So, I browsed on King Arthur's website, looking for something I could make with the staples I had on hand. Naturally, I looked at all the chocolate recipes...but many had cream or milk or other ingredients I didn't have. But, brownies. Yes, brownies...only a slight step up from cookies, but so chocolatey and a bit less last-minute. Okay, not much. But, when I asked my trusty dishwasher if he would rather have chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting (the other option given the ingredients I had on hand) or brownies, he said brownies. And I aim to please.

So, of course there are a ton of brownie recipes, but I settled on a basic one. One with a King Arthur guarantee!

Oh--by the way. How do you take your brownies? Chewy, or cakey?

Mine have to be chewy, all the way. I live for the corners. I totally need one of these.

Fudge Brownies
Adapted from King Arthur Flour

Ingredients:
1 cup butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 1/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
2 cups chocolate chips

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9x13 pan.

Melt butter, either on stovetop or in microwave. Add sugar and stir. Return to microwave and heat until hot, but not bubbling.

WHILE the butter-sugar is reheating, beat eggs, cocoa, salt, baking powder, and vanilla until smooth. [I didn't read the recipe all the way through and had to reheat my butter-sugar mixture twice so it would be still be hot when I added it. Not sure that's necessary, but the original recipe made it sound like was]

Add the hot butter-sugar to the eggs-cocoa mix and stir until smooth. Stir in the flour and chocolate chips. The original recipe notes that if you want your chocolate chips intact in the final product, you should let it cool before stirring the chips in.

Spread into the prepared pan and bake for 30-40 minutes, until it passes the toothpick test (little to no batter left on toothpick inserted into middle, and if there is batter, it is a crumb). Mine baked for 40.

Can you say delicious?