I spent a whole winter baking almost nothing but brownies (snowy, blustery Spokane winter) in an attempt to find the best from scratch brownie recipe I could get my hands on. The thing about brownies, like their cookie cousins, however is that “perfection” comes down to personal choice. Some like fudgy. Some like cakey. Some like almost raw. Some want nuts and some don’t. And so on.
What I have found, though, may frustrate some of you. There is a reason that the big companies sell box after box of brownie mix to us Americans. Why? Not only is it much cheaper (one of the few things where NOT making it from scratch is WAAAY cheaper), but it also tastes dam* good! Hard to complain when ANYONE makes brownies, from a box or not. But, since we try and support local food and all that…I am going to share a chef-inspired recipe for perfect, fudgy brownies. I love these and frankly this has one of the best chances of dethroning Mr. Hines.
Ingredients
- 10 1/2 oz Firebird Chocolate bittersweet chocolate
- 14 oz butter
- 3 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 7 eggs
- 1/3 cup sifted cocoa powder
- 2 3/4 cups sugar
- Extra sugar and cocoa for dusting
- 2/3 cup sour cream
- 1 2/3 cups flour
- 1 1/4 tsp kosher salt
Instructions
- Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler or in a microwave on the low setting (glass bowl).
- Whisk eggs with sour cream, sugar, and vanilla. Add butter/chocolate to the mix.
- Stir in cocoa, flour, and salt in a separate bowl. Form a well in the center. Pour wet ingredients in to the well in the center of the dry ingredients. Gradually incorporate dry ingredients, mixing as little as possible.
- Butter and cocoa dust a 9 x 12 inch baking pan. Shake out the excess cocoa. Fill the pan with the batter. Bake for 24-30 minutes ata 350 degrees. Check for doneness every few minutes thereafter.
- Note: unlike other cakey things, you want the toothpick to be a tad fudgy, a little dirty, but with no liquid batter on it. Allow brownies to cool before serving.
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This recipe is fntsaatic! I made them last weekend (ended up going to WF for the chips instead of using 100% cocoa), I ended up eating about ten of them :(I am totally hormonal this weekend and decided to make another batch. This time I didn’t have any figs so I used raisins, and OMG! They are just as fabulous! (hopefully I won’t eat the whole batch myself oops) Thanks again!