Fudgy Brownies

I did it again, I licked the bowl clean. Twice. But come on, these brownies are pure Valrhona Chocolate, butter, and sugar. They are so intense that you can only eat one at a time, and it had better be served beside a mound of vanilla ice cream, or else you may be in trouble... or heaven... depends on your deep dark chocolate threshold.

Ian and I had problems with this batter along the way. I don’t mean the taste, oh no, don’t get me wrong. I don’t think it is possible to create a bad tasting dish with that much chocolate in a serving. Our problem was with the butter. It kept separating out of the batter, so much so that you could drain the molten butter out of the pan of cooked brownie. During the first batch the pan became super greased from all the separated butter and the whole bunch of brownies fell on the ground when I tilted the pan. ALL on the floor. EVERY single last crumb. I was so sad, but determined, and once again we started the process to brownie heaven.

The second batch came out great. Turns out you have to add room temperature chocolate to room temperature butter. Who knew? (Probably everyone)

p.s. These came from my new cookbook called Chocolate & Vanilla. One side of the book is only chocolate recipes, and if you flip the book upside down and start from the back, there are only vanilla recipes. Oh how I love you cookbook.

Fudgy Brownies
adapted from Gale Gand's "Chocolate & Vanilla"
makes 18 brownies

11 ounces of Valrhona chocolate
12 tbsp. unsalted butter
1- 1/3 cups sugar
3 large eggs
3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a 12 x 17 inch baking dish. Melt chocolate in microwave, and then when cooled but still liquid, add room temp. butter and mix until butter has melted into chocolate. Stir in sugar, eggs, flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Spread batter in baking dish and bake for 10-15 minutes. Let cool and serve.