I Need to Talk to You About Brownies

(Sorry this is blurry, but I couldn't take another one because I bit into the brownie. Heh.)

I have found, and perfected, the best brownie recipe in the world. It only took me three tries! The original is here. This is my variation (do not attempt this unless you are ready for two-inch thick fudgy, yet cakey, goodness):

2 sticks unsalted butter (you’ll need a bit more to grease the pan)

9 ounces of 60% cacao chocolate chips (Try Ghirardelli. It is so worth it.)

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

4 large eggs

2 cups sugar

1/2 tablespoon vanilla (or use brewed coffee)

1 1/2 cups sweetened, flaked coconut (Don't check out if you hate coconut. You can't taste it, it's just for texture and sweetness.)

Powdered sugar, for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Grease a 9x9 square baking with butter (just grab a bit with paper towel and smear it around). Also, the 9x9 thing is important. This is why the brownies are so thick.

Melt butter and chocolate over a double-boiler and stir gently until smooth and shiny. If the butter isn’t at room temperature, give it a little head start before dumping in the chips. I used a heat-proof bowl (pyrex) that fit into one of my sauce pans. Make sure the water isn’t high enough to touch the bottom of the bowl when boiling. Also, a heat-proof rubber spatula is great for stirring. It can scrape down the bowl as you stir, and it doesn’t muck up the consistency of the chocolate. In fact, I just let mine sit in the chocolate when I walked away to do something else. I never took it out.

Remove from the heat and cool slightly.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt into a mixing bowl and set aside.

Whisk together eggs, sugar and vanilla (or coffee) in a mixing bowl until combined. Don’t use a mixer, use a whisk and your muscles. It’s not that hard, and it makes a BIG difference.

Pour in about a ¼ cup of the chocolate mixture and whisk until combined (eyeball it). This will bring up the temperature of the eggs so they don’t get cooked by the warm chocolate mixture. 

Add the remainder of the chocolate mixture and whisk until combined.

Add flour mixture in 4 parts, whisking gently until each part is combined. You don’t’ want to over mix this part.

Add coconut and fold in gently with the spatula you used to stir the chocolate.

Transfer batter to baking pan and bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the pan. Each one of my batches baked for 50 minutes.

When done, let cool in pan on a wire rack for about an episode of The Office and then invert onto a wire rack to cool for at least 10 minutes more. These can be served warm, or you can try to wait. Good luck with that.

Cut into 9  HUGE squares.

Dust with powdered sugar and serve (with vanilla, mocha, or chocolate ice cream…or all. I mean…you made these brownies, you may as well go all the way).

I will never buy another boxed brownie mix again.