Tasty and Best Ever Chocolate Brownies Recipe

If one is going to take the problem to make chocolate brownies, and incur the wrath of the Fat-god for eating them, one may also make them right. Brownies from a box? No thank you.

I got this chocolate brownie recipe years earlier from my dear friend Suzanne, who had adjusted it from an Alice Medrich recipe from the book Bittersweet: Recipes and Tales from a Life in Chocolate she found in Epicurious. Suzanne utilizes the very same technique and proportions, but instead of utilizing vanilla, she flavors the brownies highly with almond extract. So great!

They are the kind of brownie that cannot comprise their mind whether they would rather be cake or fudge. The almond extract gives these brownies a fantastic taste, an ideal blend with the cocoa and pecans.

Best Ever Chocolate Brownies Recipe

Preparation time: 20 minutes       Cook time: 25 minutes        Yield: Makes 16 to 25 brownies

Ingredients

• 10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks, 140 g) unsalted butter
• 1 1/4 cups (250 g) granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (85 g) unsweetened cocoa powder (natural or Dutch-process).
• 1/4 teaspoon salt.
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract.
• 2 cold big eggs.
• 1/2 cup (65 g) all-purpose flour.
• 2/3 cup (90 g) pecan pieces.

Method

Preheat oven and line baking pan: Preheat oven to 325 ° F( 160 ° F), with a rack in the lower third of the oven. Line the bottom of an 8-inch square baking pan with foil or parchment paper in such a way as there is an overhang on 2 opposite sides making it easy to lift the brownies out when they're done.

Heat butter, cocoa, sugar, salt in a bowl over simmering water: Place the butter, cocoa, sugar, and salt in a medium-sized metal bowl. Fill a big skillet midway with water and bring to a bare simmer. Set the bowl of the butter cocoa mix in frying pan of simmering water.

Stir the butter cocoa mix until the butter has melted and the mixture is smooth and hot to touch.
Eliminate the bowl from the frying pan and let it cool off a bit, from hot to warm.

Stir in almond extract, eggs, flour, beat with spoon, include pecans: Stir in the almond extract. Stir in the eggs, one at a time, beating strongly after each addition.
As soon as the batter is well combined and glossy and thick, stir in the flour. Beat for 40 strokes with a wood spoon. Mix in the pecans.

Pour batter into lined pan: Pour the batter into the ready lined pan and smooth the surface area evenly.

Bake: Bake 20 to 25 minutes at 325 ° F (160 ° C), up until a bamboo skewer or toothpick placed into the center comes still a little moist with the brownie batter. Cool entirely on a rack.

Cut: When cooled, raise the sides of the foil or parchment liner to get rid of the brownies from the pan. Put them on a cutting board and cut into 16 to 25 squares or rectangles.

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