Brownies

Every year when my girls were young I would make brownies on the first Friday of the first week of school. I figured they deserved a treat and they usually had arranged to have friends over to spend the night. The whole group was always excited to come home to a sweet treat.

They are so easy to make and they don't destroy the kitchen in the process. They are perfect to make while everybody is at school so that they have time to cool completely before somebody grabs one.

My youngest is starting her senior year in college and she attending school close to home so I decided to treat her. This time after seeing so many brownie recipes claiming to be the best, I decided to bake three different ones and let she and her friends decide which recipe is the best. I am making the ones I always make which should take her back to her childhood, another recipe using semisweet chocolate instead of the unsweetened one I am already making and one that I first saw in one of my cooks illustrated magazines that I recently saw adapted on the internet. I had made the cooks illustrated one a few years ago and I didn't care for them. They were just too gooey and you couldn't carry them with yours hands-they needed a plate.

I think the cooks illustrated brownies turned out almost exactly the same as the last time I made them, way to gooey and really hard to cut and plate. I cooked them a bit longer than last time but they didn't firm up at all. They don't have any leavening in them so maybe that is what I don't like. They remind me of some brownies that I made for a Christmas party, it was a Nigela Lawson recipe and they just wouldn't set up so I kept putting them back in the oven with no luck. When I finally had to serve them we scooped out the brownie with a plastic spoon, put a dollop of whipped cream on top and called them reindeer poop. Everybody loved them anyway.

Scarlet definitely recognized her childhood brownies and they are still her favorite. The semisweet version was popular for those that like a lighter chocolate flavor. All you have to do is substitute the Bakers unsweetened chocolate with the Bakers semisweet chocolate.

Brownie Recipe
3 oz. Bakers unsweetened chocolate
2/3 C butter
3 lg. eggs
1 1/2 C sugar
2 t vanilla
1 C all purpose flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t kosher salt
1 C nuts opt.
Melt the chocolate with the butter in a pot on a a very low heat and whisk constantly till smooth. In a bowl beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla together with a whisk. Add in the chocolate and whisk till smooth. In a measuring cup, measure the flour then add the baking powder and salt then mix. Add this to the chocolate mixture and stir with a spatula just enough to incorporate. Add the nuts if you are using them.
Pour batter into a greased 9x9 or a small rectangle brownie pan. Bake at 350 for 28-30 min. Cool in pan on wire rack completely then cut in squares.

Here is a picture of all three brownies: orange plate are the brownies that is the recipe above, red plate are the brownies that used the semisweet chocolate, and the blue plate are the cooks illustrated brownies.