Sunday, February 7, 2010

Brownies

I made brownies to take to our friends' house for lunch.  But, I somehow forgot to grab them on our way out.  (Convenient, I know.) 

These brownies are from a recipe in Cook's Illustrated.  This magazine is dedicated to testing everything kitchen or cooking related.  In this article, they tested several brownie recipes before coming up with this one that is not too cakey or to fudgy.  (They also tested boxed brownie recipes and crowned Ghirardelli Double Chocolate Premium Brownie Mix the winner.)

They stress the importance of not over-baking the brownies.  Toward the end of the cooking time, test them often.  Make sure a few moist crumbs are attached to a toothpick when stuck in the center of the brownies. If the toothpick comes out clean, they will be too dry. 

We did eat a few tonight, but the rest will be delivered to our friends tomorrow.  I hope they enjoy them as much as we have.

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups cake flour
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking powder
6 oz unsweetened chocolate (buy the best quality you can find)
12 Tab butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 Tab vanilla extract

Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat to 325 degrees.  Line a 13x9" baking dish with aluminum foil.  Spray with cooking spray. 
Whisk to combine flour, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl. 
Melt chocolate and butter in a large heatproof bowl set over saucepan of almost simmering water, stirring occasionally, until smooth.  When chocolate mixture is completely smooth, remove bowl from saucepan and gradually whisk in sugar.  Add eggs one at a time, whisking after each addition until thoroughly combined.  Whisk in vanilla.  Add flour mixture in three additions, folding with a rubber spatula until batter is completely smooth and homogenous. 
Transfer batter to prepared pan; using spatula, spread batter into corners and smooth surface.  Bake until toothpick insterted into center of brownies comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, 30 to 35 minutes.  Cool on wire rack to room temperature, about 2 hours, then remove brownies from pan by lifting foil. Cut into 2" squares and serve. 

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