Rich Chocolate Brownies

Oh brownies. As a chocolate lover, I am hard-pressed to find a more perfect dessert. I fully believe that you can visit the fanciest patisseries, and experience the most lavish desserts, but few things are as deeply satisfying as a rich brownie still warm from the oven. They are quick to make, easy to customize and bringing a pan of these to a dinner party is sure to win you a few new friends.

Have you ever made a batch of brownies from scratch and had the top turn out dull and matte looking? SO FRUSTRATING, right? Box-mix brownies get that beautiful papery, shiny top every dang time. Why? What is their secret?! I have no idea what they are doing, but I think I have figured out a way to get gorgeous, crinkly, shiny topped brownies without a boxed-mix!

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We’ll start by sifting together our baking powder, salt, espresso powder, and cocoa powder into a medium to large size bowl. [A quick note about the espresso powder. The amount of espresso powder in this recipe isn’t enough to add a strong coffee flavor to your brownies – it enhances the depth of the chocolate flavor. Salt and coffee flavors are best friends with chocolate and make it taste so much richer. The espresso powder can absolutely be left out of this recipe, but I highly suggest you give it a try. I love using Medaglia D’Oro Espresso Instant Coffee and always have a jar or two on hand for baking.] So now that we have the baking powder, salt, espresso powder, and cocoa powder sifted together we can add the eggs and vanilla extract. Give this a whisk together – it will be thick. Scrape the bowl down well, and set aside.

Next, in a pot or saucepan, we are going to melt our butter. We don’t want to brown or burn the butter, so a medium-low heat is best. Once the butter is fully melted you can add in the full amount of sugar. Whisking or stirring it together until it has fully mixed into the warm butter is the key to shiny brownies. Since there is more sugar than butter the sugar will not fully dissolve into the melted butter, but it will come together.

The next step will be to add the warm butter/sugar mixture to our cocoa/espresso/salt/baking powder/egg/vanilla bowl from earlier. Pour it all in there, and then whisk everything together until it is smooth and shiny. After this is done we will add our all-purpose flour, and gently fold the flour into the batter. We want to be careful not to over mix so that we don’t end up with dull or tough brownies. To fold, use a rubber or silicone spatula to carefully scrape under the batter/flour and then bring the spatula up and over – folding the batter over the flour. I like to gently shake the spatula a little when I am bringing it up through the flour to break up any clumps I see.

When the batter has just come together we can pour in our chocolate chips! Give the chocolate chips a quick fold into the batter, and then pour the batter into a 9 x 13 baking dish that has been greased with butter or sprayed with a nonstick spray. Into the oven, they go! You’re just a short while away from gorgeous chocolaty perfection!

Recipe

Rich Chocolate Brownies

★★★★★ 5 from 1 reviews

• Author: Table|Spoon Baking
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 35 – 45 minutes
• Total Time: 1 hour
• Yield: 9 x 13 baking dish 1x
• Category: Dessert
• Method: Bake
• Cuisine: Brownies

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Ingredients

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• 4 Eggs – room temperature
• 1 cup Unsweetened Dutch Process Cocoa Powder
• 1 1/2 tsp. Salt
• 1 tsp. Baking Powder
• 1 tsp. Espresso Powder
• 1 1/2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
• 1 cup Butter
• 2 1/4 cups Sugar
• 1 3/8 cups All-Purpose Flour
• 2 cups Bittersweet or Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chips

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Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Spray or grease a 9 x 13 baking dish, and set it aside for later.
2. Into a medium sized bowl, sift together the cocoa powder, espresso powder, salt, and baking powder.
3. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla extract. This will be a very thick mixture. Set aside.
4. In a pot or saucepan over medium-low heat, melt the butter.
5. Once the butter is melted turn the heat down to low and add the sugar.
6. Whisk until the sugar is fully combined.
7. Pour the warm sugar/butter mixture into the bowl of cocoa/espresso/etc. 
8. Carefully whisk until it is fully combined and smooth.
9. Sift the flour into the bowl, and gently fold it into the batter.
10. Once the flour is just combined, add the chocolate chips.
11. Pour the batter into your 9 x 13 baking dish.
12. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Rotate your baking dish and bake for an additional 10 to 15 minutes. 
13. Allow brownies to cool some before you attempt to remove them from the baking dish. 

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Keywords: Brownies, Bars, Chocolate, Dessert, Sweet