The Baked Brownie

After seeing so many delicious recipes in the blogosphere posted from the Baked cookbook, I eventually gave in, jumped over to Amazon, and ordered it for myself. I've had it for a few weeks now, but this was my first try at one of their recipes, and I started with their classic -- the Baked brownie.



And ohhhhhh, what a brownie it is! I'm not exaggerating when I say this is the best brownie I've eaten, let alone made. It's dense and fudgey, but not too gooey, and has just the right amount of crispy top. As you can tell from my recipe index, I'm a big fan of boxed brownie mixes but they can hardly be compared to this behemoth of a brownie. Sure, if you're making cute Santa hat brownie bites or a complicated brownie-cookie dough ice cream cake, it's fine to cut corners and use a box so you can focus on the other elements, but when you're serving the brownie straight up, I highly recommend tearing yourself away from the convenient boxes and into this cookbook.

It's Ryan's mom's birthday next week, so we wrapped up a bunch to send to her, making sure to keep a few for ourselves -- there was no way we were going to give them all away, especially when there's still some cookies 'n cream ice cream around...



The Baked Brownie
From Baked: New Frontiers in Baking

1-1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp dark unsweetened cocoa powder
11 oz dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 tsp instant espresso powder
1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
5 large eggs, at room temperature
2 tsp pure vanilla extract

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Butter the sides and bottom of a 9x13 Pyrex baking pan
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and cocoa
- Put the chocolate, butter, and instant espresso powder in a large bowl and set over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring occasionally utnil the chocolate and butter are completely melted and smooth
- Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water and add the sugars. Whisk until completely combined, then remove the bowl from the pan. Allow mixture to come to room temperature
- Add 3 eggs to the chocolate mixture and mix until combined. Add the remaining eggs and whisk until combined.
- Add the vanilla and stir until combined. Do not overbeat the batter at this stage or brownies will be cakey.
- Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate mixture and using a spatula (not a whisk), fold the flour mixture into the chocolate until just a bit of the flour mixture is visible.
- Pour the batter into the pan and smooth the top
- Bake in the center of the oven for 30 minutes, rotating pan halfway through, until toothpick inserted comes out clean
- Let the brownies cool completely, then cut them into squares



Best brownie? I'd have to agree!