Gemma's Best-Ever Brownies from Bigger Bolder Baking

Gemma's Best-Ever Brownies - made July 23, 2022, modified from Bigger Bolder Baking

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted

2 tablespoons canola oil

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons brown sugar, packed

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

4 large eggs

4 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 cups chocolate chunks

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 9 x 9-inch baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, combine melted butter, oil, brown sugar and granulated sugar. Add eggs, vanilla and salt, whisking until combined.
3. Sift in flour and cocoa powder, mixing until just combined. Do not overmix. Fold in half the chocolate chunks.
4. Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth top. Generously top with remaining chocolate chunks. Bake 35 - 40 minutes (mine baked just over 50 minutes) or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out with moist crumbs, not raw batter. Let cool completely.

I must say, I'm starting to enjoy trying out all these new brownie recipes that primarily use cocoa powder rather than unsweetened chocolate as the chocolate base. I'm still hoarding my remaining unsweetened chocolate as I'm unlikely able to order the high quality stuff online until the summer months and triple digits temps have passed. So no replenishment possibilities for at least a good 3-4 more months. Eeek.

In the meantime, I'm finding really good substitute recipes to use, including this one from Bigger Bolder Baking. Her original recipe called for baking in a 7 x 11 pan which I don't have. Normally, when you substitute pans, you simply multiply the dimensions (7 x 11 = 77) and find something close like an 8 x 8 pan = 64 or a 9 x 9 = 81. In the case of this recipe, I went with the 9 x 9 pan and it baked the brownies to a perfect thickness.

I liked this recipe. The brownies came out soft and fudgy but not mushy. I didn't underbake too much this time although they did bake a good 50 minutes and change in my oven. The key to baking brownies "just right" (which means slightly underbaked and not dry) is to take them out when a toothpick inserted in a corner comes out clean but one inserted in the middle comes out with a few moist crumbs.

1 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder is a lot so make sure you're using a good quality cocoa. I still have some of the cocoa powder from Chef Shop which used to be the Pernigotti cocoa I always used. It's a dark rich cocoa powder which can be a little overwhelming if you use the full cup measure. I cut it with half the cocoa powder from Costco which isn't as dark and rich but is certified fair trade so I combine the two to get to a perfectly rich but not overwhelming or cloying dark chocolate flavor. It worked great in these brownies.