I enjoy chocolate. Sorry for saying this - I'm not an extreme chocoholic but I do love a bite or so of the lovely luscious treat. When this happens, I turn to my baking mentor - Dorie Greenspan. I've made her classic brownie recipe so many times, I've lost count. Every single time I make this and distribute to friends and officemates, they all loved it and kept asking for the recipe. Depending on how nice they are to me, sometimes I tell them, sometimes I don't.Today's been quite busy for me. Coming from my bi-monthly massage therapy session, I figured I needed a chocolate fix. I stopped by The Essential Ingredient at the Prahran Market and got a 1 kg bag of Lindt Dark Bittersweet Chocolate. I felt so happy afterwards, me with a bag of sweet smelling chocolate morsels, waiting to be melted and transformed into something magnificent - BROWNIES.
I changed the following from Dorie's original classic brownie recipe.
- In her original recipe, she used 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate then 2 ounces of unsweetened chocolate. I like my brownies very dark, so I used 6 ounces of all bittersweet chocolate.
- I used 1/2 tsp of sea salt because I like the salty taste more. It has that hint of salted caramel-like taste, well, without actual caramel.
- I undercooked the batch slightly because I like the fudgy texture.
Another major change that I did was in the method. I just mixed everything in a bowl. Dorie was very detailed and had a lot of steps outlined. I love her book because it seems like she's telling a story as to how to make it and not simply write out steps like a cross-fit trainer. I first combined the 6 ounces unmelted chocolate and 5 tablespoons butter in a microwaveable bowl. Nuke it for 20 seconds - at least 3 times until everything is almost melted. Then add the 3/4 cup sugar, followed by 2 eggs, then the spices - I added 1 tsp of cinnamon, 1/2 tsp of sea salt, 1 tsp of instant espresso powder (I used Robert Trimms) and 1 tsp of vanilla extract. Lastly, add 1/3 cup of plain flour. Line a 9 inch square baking pan with foil and grease the foil. Place this on a baking tray. Place this in a preheated oven at 160C. Bake for 28 minutes. Let cool completely in the pan before lifting the brownies out from the pan (otherwise, it will fall apart!). Slice and enjoy!
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