Hunt for the perfect Chocolate Brownie...

For August we decided to try our hand at some homemade brownies. Now I have lots of recipes for homemade brownies, that are great and I love. But this month we were going for a certain kind of chocolate brownie. The homemade version of the fudge boxed brownie mix. You know the kind, with the crinkly top, and the fudgey center... That's perfect with or in Ice Cream. This kind of brownie is the only thing I still use a box mix for. Everything else I make from scratch, so I'm looking for a "from Scratch" recipe for brownies too.

Looking around the Internet I found a similar soul trying to do just that, Alice Q. Foodie. I decided to try out her recipe first. I've cut the batch down to just one 9x13, instead of 3, and cut out the espresso (not a coffee drinker)!

Serious Brownies
makes 9x13 pans

1 lbs of bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 stick (8 Tbs) of butter
1/3 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed
1 1/3 cups of granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoons Maldon salt or fleur de sel, lightly crushed
1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 cups of All Purpose Flour
1 Tbs unsweetened Cocoa

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare your pans with parchment or grease them well.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and Cocoa.

In a double broiler gently melt the butter and chocolate together, stirring periodically to incorporate. As soon as the mixture is melted, turn off the heat and allow to cool.

In a standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the eggs with the sugar on high speed until the mixture is very pale and thick, and falls back into the bowl with a wide ribbon that folds back on itself and slowly dissolves when the beater is lifted from the surface. Add the vanilla and beat to combine.

Gently fold the cooled chocolate mixture into the eggs and sugar, then fold in the flour mixture 1/2 cup at a time.

Bake at 350 degrees until the top surface is slightly puffed and uniformly dry, and the batter no longer jiggles when you shake the pan gently - about 25-30 minutes depending on how thick they are. They will sink a bit as they cool.

Okay, so how did they taste? I have NO idea. I was suffering from a sinus infection when I made these, and while I ate one piece every day, and stretched them out over a week (my husband was out of town) hoping to be able to taste them I never could. I can say that the texture was amazing. And that the few people who tried them said good things, I can not say one way of the other. One taster said they were very dark chocolate and not too sweet, so I would like them, but would others? I will have to try them again and let you know, but at least I got these made in August...