Super Fudgy Brownies

Super Fudgy Brownies - made August 19, 2017, adapted from The First Year Blog

This is one of those recipes where there’s truth in advertising. These brownies are super fudgy. Helped by the fact that they contain unsweetened chocolate more than cocoa and there’s relatively less flour compared to other recipes.

I’ve made countless brownies and tried dozens, if not hundreds, of recipes for various brownies. I have many brownie prejudices. I don’t like them cakey or “mousselike”, meaning too soft and mushy. But I do like them chewy, dense and fudgy with enough chocolate punch to make you weep. For that reason, I don’t usually care for brownie recipes that only use cocoa powder. True, cocoa will provide more chocolate flavor than from just melted baking chocolate. But the texture isn’t as good; it isn’t as dense and tends to have a more dry, cakey mouthfeel.

A good compromise to look for in a brownie recipe is one that uses unsweetened baking chocolate (and  sometimes bittersweet chocolate) that’s melted with the butter and a little cocoa powder sifted into the dry ingredients to amp up the chocolate flavor. The baking chocolate will give you the texture and the cocoa powder will deliver on the flavor.

As you can tell from the ingredients, this had a relatively large amount of baking chocolate in it compared to the cocoa and flour. That’s what helped live up to its name of “super fudgy”. With that much unsweetened chocolate, it’s also guaranteed to make a rich dark chocolate brownie, especially if you use the good cocoa, not the wimpy stuff. I kept this one plain to keep the focus on the fudgy texture but feel free to dress it up with add ins.

1 cup butter
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate
2 tablespoons cocoa powder, sift if lumpy
1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8 x 8" square baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Melt butter and unsweetened chocolate together in the top half of a double boiler set over hot, not simmering, water. Whisk until melted and smooth. Let cool slightly.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together cocoa powder, flour and salt; set aside.
4. Beat eggs and granulated sugar until frothy. Add vanilla extract and combine until smooth. Add melted butter-chocolate mixture and mix until combined.
5. Add dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Pour batter into prepared pan and sprinkle top with chocolate chips. Bake 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out with moist crumbs. Do not overbake. Cool completely before cutting and serving.