Classic Brownies

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was picked by Anne of Anne Strawberry. She chose Classic Brownies, and how can you go wrong with brownies? There are many brownie recipes in Baking from My Home to Yours, and Dorie describes this one as “not gooey, intensely chocolaty, dry on top and melty in the middle…” You can get the recipe for these brownies on Anne’s blog and also make sure you check out the links for the posts by the Tuesdays with Dorie bakers. While this is a classic, I’m sure that there will be some really interesting variations for this one!

This brownie is heavy on the chocolate (unsweetened and bittersweet chocolate) and light on the butter. On an unrelated note, in making this recipe I discovered that I can no longer get my favorite baking chocolate at Trader Joe’s. I used to buy these wonderful easy-to-melt chocolate callets (disks) there but they no longer carry them. I found an ok substitute at Whole Foods, but they cost more. Baking can be expensive and I’m always happy to find good ingredients at a good price. I still love Trader Joe’s though!

These saucepan (or top of the double boiler) brownie were fun to make. I thought about mixing it up a bit with the nuts I included. Maybe hazelnuts? I also had candied hazelnuts on hand, but I went with toasted pecans. Since these are supposed to be classic I didn’t want to change it too much. I baked mine for the longer range of time, and I could tell that the edges were done and the center was still soft. This was even more obvious as they cooled and the center remained dark brown and the edges were lighter. Mine are quite fudgy, almost gooey, but they are very chocolaty. I wanted them to be a tiny bit sweeter, but I can live with the super chocolate. Pair these with ice cream for a brownie sundae and you’d be in heaven.

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 88