Chocolate Fudge Brownies

Thanks to all of you who commented on my last post. Of course, I am delusion and still believe that there are other readers out there who are just too shy to comment, and that's ok. But at least I know I have at least 5 readers, and that's more than enough for me. And I say 5 because I know my mom does read my blog, it just usually takes her a while to catch up with my new posts. Right, Mom? Right???

So after I posted this, I came home from work to a spotless house. I mean SPOTLESS. Cleaner than I had ever seen it before. Yes, even the kitchen. Clean doesn't even begin to cover it. I mean, there was always a lot of clutter everywhere and now it's just GONE. I don't think any of my roommates read my blog, but maybe I'm wrong. And maybe I should write about how disgusting the house is more often. Or maybe they'll kill me in my sleep.

Anyway, I was praying it would stay that clean at least until Saturday so I could actually get some cooking done, because that would be FANTASTIC. I felt like putting signs everywhere about how CLEAN everything was and how GREAT that was, so people would maybe get the hint and not mess it all up in the span of 12 hours, as they are wont to do. I managed to restrain myself however and just hoped for the best. Guess what it looked like on Saturday.

No, really, guess.

I can tell you're not guessing and are just scrolling down to figure it out so fine, here you go:

FREAKING FANTASTIC

And since my kitchen (and whole house) looked so great, I was finally in the mood to do some baking. And after such a long hiatus, there was only one thing I wanted: chocolate.

So, let's get started. First, the ingredients for the Chocolate Fudge Brownies:

 Dark chocolate, eggs, vanilla, dark brown sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, butter 

Ever wonder what 7 ounces of butter looks like?

 Yeah, neither did I

All the dry measurements in this cookbook are by weight, which is really a much more exact method of measuring, which is so important when baking. I really like the precision, and am tempted to start weighing all of my food. However, I feel like that would quickly turn into an obsession, not so much in terms of restriction, but more in terms of curiosity. So this is 7 ounces of butter? How much cheeseburger could I eat to equal the same 7 ounces. What about Jell-O? And then hellllooo stomachache.

Anyway. I melted the butter, and then divided the chocolate in half, melting half and chopping the other half into small(ish) pieces.

I combined the brown sugar (what! 280 grams!?! Do you have any idea what 280 grams of sugar looks like?!), eggs, and vanilla in the bowl of my mixer, and "whisked" (aka used the paddle attachment since I still can't find my whisk, dammit. I know I have it somewhere, Mom! I KNOW!) them until they were pale and doubled in volume.

This didn't really look like it had doubled in volume to me, but the mixer had been on for at least five minutes, and I just didn't think I was going to get much of a change. At least it was pale. I sifted the dry ingredients together and folded them into the sugar mixture.

I combined the melted butter and melted chocolate and folded this mixture into the batter as well.

Lastly, I folded in the chocolate chunks.

The recipe also calls for pecans, but I don't like nuts in my chocolate, so I left them out. Because I can.

The batter was very thick, and lighter in color than your traditional brownie batter, so CLEARLY, I needed to taste test it. What really came through wasn't the chocolate; it was the brown sugar. It actually really reminded me of chocolate chip cookie dough which is so rich in brown sugar. I poured the batter into a prepared pan, smoothed it out, and placed it in the oven.

The recipe calls for using an 8x12 inch pan, and I think we all know given my history of looking for the correct baking dishes, that all I had was a 9x13 pan. Super. I figured that given the shallower pan, the brownies would just take a little less time to bake, and the recipe specifically notes not to overbake these to ensure optimal gooeyness (OK, so she doesn't say gooeyness, but that is the technical term). I timed the brownies for 15 minutes (the recipe says they'll take 20-22) and waited. When the timer went off, I was all ready with my toothpick, but it was completely unnecessary; the brownies were basically still just batter with a crunchy edge. 20 minutes, no change. 25 minutes, getting there, but still not cooked. I was beginning to think this was going to be the never ending recipe, but at 30 minutes I finally tested them with a toothpick with just a few wet crumbs sticking to it. At 33 minutes they were finally done.

Finally!

Definitely the most unconventional thing about this recipe was all the brown sugar; I had never seen a brownie recipe that used so much before. These were light and cakey, but surprisingly the chocolate didn't really punch me in the face like I wanted it to. Ok, a little masochistic, but I think you get the point. I wasn't sure how I felt about them at first. They were good, but not great. Adding chocolate ice cream helped.

What really improved the taste and texture was time. The next day, these were even better. Denser, and the chocolate flavor had really intensified, but they still somehow kept a light, moist, and tender quality about them.

I brought half of these into work to share with my office, and one of my co-workers, who doesn't have a huge sweet tooth (I know, I know, but don't judge her. She has other good qualities) said they were the most chocolatey, fudgey brownies she'd ever had. Ha, amateur. Dan, on the other hand, wanted even more chocolate, so next time, I may add more chocolate chunks or use more melted chocolate so the batter itself is more chocolatey.

Next Indulgence: Scones