Chocolate Brownies

We've been having some really uninspired dinners recently, mostly because we're trying to clean out the freezer before stuff goes bad. (We've already given a package of hotpot beef to Chester. Goodness, but does he ever have it good.)

Anyways, I wanted a good dessert to make up for it, so here it is. Oh, and did I mention that we have a lot of vanilla bean ice cream?

What's more perfect than warm brownies a la mode?

Ingredients:
140g semisweet chocolate wafers (I don't have a scale, and used about 0.75cup)
0.5 cup unsalted butter. cut into pieces
2 tbs cocoa powder
0.25 cup sugar (original recipe called for 1 cup)
1 tsp vanilla
3 large eggs
0.75 cup flour
0.25 tsp salt



Method:
Melt butter and chocolate in a metal bowl over a pot of simmering water.
Preheat oven to 350F.
Grease an 8x8 pan.
Remove from heat and stir in sugar and cocoa.
Whisk in vanilla and one egg at a time.
Stir in flour and salt.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out with a bit of batter. If it comes out clean, it is over baked.
Cool and enjoy with ice cream.


Comments:
I was totally stoked to use my new spatula: silicone with a wooden handle. I've gone through more spatulas with plastic handles than I care to remember. I absolutely love how the new one is so good at scraping the bowl! Here's to a nice long utility life.

I wasn't going to use any sugar, but then a quick taste test after the flour was mixed in nixed that idea. Not that I have anything against sugar; I've just had bad luck with the right amount of sweetness, and bland is much more preferable to tooth-achingly sweet.

We're going to need a kitchen scale. It wasn't enough chocolatey goodness.

Over-baking = too dry. Sigh. And I only had it in for 25 minutes. The original recipe called for it to be in for 30 min.

Oh. Don't grease up the sides. My brownie migrated up during baking, and I suspect it was because of the lack of friction.

I should've used 0.5 cup sugar, and I probably should've doubled the recipe, since it was rather flat. Nuts would've been nice too, but I didn't have anything on hand.


Verdict:
Could be better. You can expect a revised recipe to come up in the future.