Almost-Classic Brownies - easy and fudgy

Bonjour! Bonjour!

The brownies were made, the coffee was hot, the scene was set for me to write you a love letter about these little sweets, when whoosh, along came a tangent and I went off on it. An hour later, I was still puzzling over whether a brownie was a cookie or a cake.

When I came to, I had the answer: Who cares? What’s important about a brownie holds no matter what you call it.

The simplest brownie recipes are minimally fussy and fun to watch – the mixture changes textures from step to step. Dramatically. If it were on Netflix, you’d search for it under “suspense” and bite your nails wondering if the batter will be saved. Spoiler Alert: There’s a happy ending.

Here’s the script:

Act 1: the butter and chocolate meet up. You put them together in a bowl fitted over a pan of simmering water, keep the heat low and watch as they melt. The mixture is thick and shiny, the gloss is gorgeous. Take a sec to admire your matchmaking – you won’t see the couple this happy again for a bit.

Act 2: the sugar is added, the baker weeps. You can stir and stir, but no matter what you do, the sugar will make the whole mix go grainy. Give up and move on.

Act 3: eggs to the rescue. The secret to redemption here is cold eggs and energetic beating. Add the eggs one at a time and really, really beat them in. Watch. Sigh with relief. And pat yourself on the back – you’ve brought the batter back from the brink.

Act 4: the denouement. Gently stir in the flour, spread your beautiful batter into the pan and slide the pan into the oven. Set your timer and stay close – you won’t want to miss the first fragrant wafts of warm chocolate.

The Almost-Classic Brownie is fudgy, very fudgy. And very moist. (One day, let’s discuss why the word “moist” is so divisive.) And it’s unmistakably chocolate – there’s melted semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate and then chopped chocolate that gets stirred into the batter.

This was one of the first brownies I made and it’s still one of my favorites. But not my one and only fav. I’ve never stopped brownie-ing. There are a dozen recipes for brownies in BAKING FROM MY HOME TO YOURS. There are French brownies in BAKING CHEZ MOI. There are even Brownies in DORIE’S COOKIES (yes, I decided then that brownies were cookies). And two recipes for brownies that I’m mad for are in BAKING WITH DORIE – Park Avenue Brownies (with nuts on top) and Olive-Oil Brownies. Can’t stop. Won’t stop. And you shouldn’t either. Scroll down and you'll find my recipe for an almost classic, with suggestions for playing around. I hope you'll bake it and I hope you'll put your own spin on it.

Have a sweet weekend and I’ll see you back here on Tuesday.

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Makes 16 brownies/cookies

INGREDIENTS

Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Line the bottom of an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper and butter (or spray) the paper and the sides of the pan.

When Mary Dodd, ace recipe tester, lines a straight-edged pan with parchment, she runs the paper up the sides and holds it in place with big all-metal clips. When the brownies are baked, the long edges of the paper can be used as a sling to lift them out of the pan. Nifty.

Put a large heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water (check that the water isn’t touching the bottom of the pan), put the butter in the bowl and then top with the 6 ounces of chopped chocolate. Heat just until the butter and chocolate are melted – you don’t want the mixture to get so hot that the butter and chocolate separate, so stay close.

Remove the bowl from the saucepan and stir until you have a mixture that’s luxuriously thick and shiny.

Using a flexible spatula, stir in the sugar. Your gorgeous mixture will go grainy, but keep stirring. When the sugar’s in, add the cold eggs one at a time, beating energetically after each egg is added. Beat vigorously and some of the gloss with come back. Stir in the salt and then the vanilla. Add the flour all at once and gently stir and fold it in. When it’s almost incorporated, stir in the remaining chopped chocolate. Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top.

Bake for 27 to 30 minutes, or until the top is uniformly dull. A tester inserted into the center will come out almost clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool until the brownies are only just warm or reach room temperature.

Run a table knife around the edges of the pan, if needed, then invert the brownies onto the rack and peel away the paper. Carefully turn onto a cutting board and slice into 16 squares. Of course you can make these bigger or smaller. If you only need a few, cut what you want and then keep the rest wrapped.

STORING: You can keep these tightly wrapped at room temperature for about 4 days, but they’re really at peak deliciousness within 2 days of baking. They can be wrapped airtight and frozen for up to 2 months. Of course you can chill them and no one will scold you for eating them cold, when they're kind of like candy and very delicious.

PLAYING AROUND:

Add spice: Chocolate goes well with so many spices. If you'd like, try adding a little cinnamon, some allspice or freshly grated nutmeg (don't use much), ginger (ground or even little finely chopped fresh ginger - mix it with a small amount of sugar and let it sit for about 10 minutes before adding it and the syrup that will form) or pepper - freshly ground black pepper is good, as is a bit of a sweet chile pepper, like Piment d'Espelette or Piment d'Ville.

Add nuts: The brownies could easily take some chopped nuts - the nuts will taste better and have better texture if you toast them before stirring them into the batter along with the chopped chocolate. And if you want to change things up a bit, instead of folding the nuts into the batter, scatter them over the top of the batter before you bake the brownies. Do that, and you don't have to pre-toast the nuts - they'll get toasty as the brownies bake.

Add dried fruit: I'm a raisin-lover and like dark raisins in my brownies, but I know that not everyone else does. If you want to add dried fruit, but don't want raisins, there are always cranberries and cherries. I think that the brownies are better with small fruits, so if you're thinking about prunes or apricots, snip the fruit to size (I like using scissors for this job). And it's always best when the fruit is plump. Put the fruit in hot water (or tea) for a couple of minutes and then drain and pat dry before adding them to the batter. For even more flavor, plump the fruit in booze - brandy, cognac, armagnac or port are nice.

Add a topping: I like to serve brownies solo or with ice cream, but they can certainly be glazed with a butter-confectioner's sugar-vanilla frosting or a chocolate ganache. You could even finish them with cream cheese frosting.

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