Yesterday was one of those days where I had to spend a bunch of time just waiting for stuff, so I tried to make good use of the time by working on my brownie recipe. It's getting pretty good, so I'd like to share:
~ 2/3 cups of butter
~ 5 ounces (or so) of unsweetened baking chocolate, chopped into pieces
~ 1 cup of unrefined sugar (White sugar is fine too, but I never use it, so I can't vouch for whether it's good in this recipe. Also, I don't have a huge sweet tooth, so sugar-lovers might want to add a bit more according to taste.)
~ 1 tsp of salt (I do, however, have constant salt cravings, so maybe this isn't necessary for normal folks.)
~ 2 tsp of vanilla extract
~ 3 eggs
~ 1 cup of whole wheat pastry flour
~ 1 cup of mini chocolate chips (optional... I didn't have any in my cupboard today. I can't imagine where they could have run off to...)
1. Preheat oven to 350°. (I never actually preheat my oven unless I'm doing something that takes ten minutes or less to bake, but I know lots of people like to preheat.) Grease bottom and sides of a 9" x 9" x 2" square pan with butter or the leftover grease from the butter wrapper you're about to use.
2. Melt butter and chocolate in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly. Set aside to cool.
3. Beat sugar, salt, eggs, and vanilla with an electric mixer (or by hand, if you have a lot of endurance) for five minutes. Stir in chocolate mixture until well mixed. Stir in flour until just blended. Stir in chocolate chips, if you're using them. Spread into pan.
4. Bake 30 to 40 minutes, depending upon whether/how much you preheated the oven, until the brownies start to separate from the edges of the pan. Allow to cool on a wire rack (if you're reeeaaallly patient).
Adapted from a Betty Crocker cookbook my dad gave me when I first moved out at eighteen. It's still my favorite cookbook and never lets me down.
