''Too much of chocolate is just about right!''
Its kind of funny... people usually start baking with brownies first and then go on to bake cakes, cookies, gateaux, breads etc. But yours truly did it the other way round. I may have baked brownies only twice or thrice and that too after I started to blog. Sounds weird right? In case you blinked and missed the only other brownie recipes on my blog, here they are - Seriously Low Fat Brownies - kind of cakey brownies, but healthy and tasty. And Instant Microwave Brownies - warm and fudgy.
Yesterday, something really terrible happened. My system crashed! And so did my virtual world! The system was taken away to office for repairs (yes, I work from home) and I was jobless for the noon. Its amazing how dependent we are on the internet for so many things! I wanted to bake desperately, but completely lost without my bursting folder of recipes. I went leafing through my books for a suitable recipe.( I can be really indecisive) I have a 'book' made of some baking pages from a baking book. Ah! I must tell you how I got this book. There was a garage sale nearby and I had bought some baking paraphernalia from the lady. I had left my number with her to contact me in case she had more things of interest to me. Apparently (and very surprisingly) I was the only person to buy baking things form her and she later gave me some pages from an old baking book she found. I had the old, but colorful and glossy pages hard bound. You are right - this brownie recipe is from that 'book'...
The brownies turned out fudgy, very chocolaty and tasty - just the kind of brownie recipe I was looking for..
The pages sadly do not have the name of the author or the title of the book anywhere. Due credit and my thanks to the author..
Dark Chocolate, chopped - 115 grams (please refer note)
Butter - 115 grams / 1/2 Cup approximately
Eggs - 3
Sugar - 1 cup minus 1 1/2 tablespoons (please refer note)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or essence
Plain flour - 140 grams (1 cup)
Chocolate Chips - 170 grams ( I used the semi-sweet kind)
Procedure: Pre-heat oven to 180 degree C / 350 degree F. Line and grease a 13*9 inch tin with parchment and grease the parchment. (I have used 2 smaller tins). Leave an overhang on the two longer sides. This is to help you remove the brownies from the tin and cut them on the parchment itself later.
First, measure out and keep the rest of the ingredients ready. (lest the melted chocolate mixture thickens by the time you gather things after melting it!). Melt the butter and chopped chocolate in a microwave or in a double boiler. Cool slightly.
Beat together the eggs, sugar and vanilla. You do not need to whip up a volume here, beat just enough to incorporate the three, say about 30 seconds on low speed with a hand mixer. Stir in the chocolate mixture. Sift the flour over the mixture and gently stir in till well incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Transfer the mixture to the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake until just set. About 30 minutes. Do not over bake, the brownies should be slightly moist inside. Cool in the pan.
When cool, run a knife or metal spatula around the sides to release. Carefully pull out the brownie holding the parchment hanging over the sides. If you have not left an overhang, run a knife around the edges, invert onto a baking sheet. Remove the parchment. Place another sheet on top and re-invert to get the right side up.
Cut into squares. Makes quite a large number of the delicious brownies!!
Please Note:
Chocolate: The original recipe uses plain chocolate. Since I was using dark chocolate, I reduced the sugar by 1 1/2 tablespoons. I would next time reduce the sugar by another tablespoon as the brownies were a little on the sweeter side, though not overly so.
Sugar: Please adjust to taste and according to the variety of chocolate you would be using, both for melting and the chips. I have used semi-sweet chips.
Essence: The original recipe uses 1/2 teaspoon. I used 1 teaspoon as I did not want to take any chances with the eggy smell.
Chocolate Chips distribution: Next time, I will try putting half in the batter and half on top of the batter for a more even distribution. Most of the chips were at the bottom.
Baking Time: I had planned to bake in the microwave and so did not pre-heat my OTG. I then realized that the tin was too big for the microwave. So I had to keep the batter waiting for about 15 minutes to pre-heat my OTG (the joys of baking in 2 gadgets!!). I baked for 25 minutes, but my brownies were not moist, nevertheless yumm! If I had baked immediately, probably the baking time would have been appropriate and the brownies moist. Since probably the chocolate in the batter had set to a certain extent in the waiting period, my brownies would have needed even less baking time.
Verdict: I loved them! Am going to make these again!
The brownies are being packed off to Divya's 3rd Blog Anniversary e-Party and she is giving away a gooey gooey brownie book!!
The brownies are going to Champa's Bake-Off.
