CHOW's Intense Brownies Recipe
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CHOW’s version of this classic is just a bit fudgy and not too sweet, with a nice cakey top. It’s a recipe for brownie purists, but add nuts or chocolate chips as you like.
What to buy: We use 60 percent bittersweet chocolate in this recipe, but for more intensity feel free to use a chocolate with a higher percentage of cocoa (but not unsweetened).
Game plan: These brownies will last up to 3 days in an airtight container.
This recipe was featured as part of our DIY TV Dinners story as well as our Chocolate Desserts recipe slideshow.
- 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened)
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick)
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon brewed espresso (optional)
- 1/4 teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon fine salt
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- Heat the oven to 350°F and arrange a rack in the middle. Line an 8-by-8-inch glass baking dish with aluminum foil.
- Combine the chocolate and butter in a medium saucepan and cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until evenly melted. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.
- Combine the eggs, sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla, espresso (if using), and salt in a large bowl and briefly stir until just evenly incorporated. Add the cooled chocolate and mix until uniform in color. Add the flour and stir until just incorporated (no white streaks should remain).
- Transfer the batter to the prepared baking dish and bake until a tester inserted into the center of the brownies comes out clean, about 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool completely before cutting.
Beverage pairing: Rogue Chocolate Stout, Oregon. Few things are more delicious than the combination of bitter and sweet. This dark beer brewed with bittersweet chocolate brings a toasty, dark palate to the table, as well as the slightly bitter flavors of deeply roasted malt. And its acidity and creamy carbonation provide a mouth-cleansing rinse.
Your picture is amazing! You said I would get hungry when I entered this site, you weren't kidding! Like the addition of coffee in these. Coffee always make chocolate taste so much better! Beer? Not so sure, would have to try it.
Mine came out crumbly. Seriously tasty, mind, and I'm not inclined to hold that too much against them, but they're going to a party and I'd have liked to see them present themselves better. Any idea where I might have gone astray? I did let them cool overnight before cutting.
adirao -- If your oven takes longer, there's a good chance that the temperature inside is lower than it says on your dial or display.
Go buy an oven thermometer -- it's like $5, and it will help ensure that you heat your oven to the correct temperature.
For example, when I bought one I discovered that my oven ran about 15 degrees (F) too cool. Even when I made the proper adjustments (the owner's manual detailed a way to adjust the digital temp display), it still took another 5-10 minutes after the "I'm ready" beep for the temperature to actually reach the real temperature I wanted.
But at the very least, get yourself that thermometer! :)
I tried this - plus points for easiness. The taste was great -- one friend said they were the best brownies she'd ever tasted -- but they came out a little too fudgy, as in were difficult to cut into pieces. Should I have baked them longer? (Baked them around 40 min but my oven tends to take longer.)
To Trish:
To answer your salt question:
Table salt, kosher salt and sea salt are all sodium-chloride, but they differ in their shape, size, and flavors.
- Sea salts pick up minerals from the ocean, resulting in nuanced sweet and mineral flavors. The wind of the ocean is often responsible for its flakiness, which dissolves well in sauces.
- Table salt is straight sodium-chloride, minus other minerals. Iodine, which the human body needs, is often added to salt for nutritional purposes, and when it is, it’s labeled “iodized salt”. Personally, I am not crazy for the taste of iodized salt.
- Kosher salt, or salt that is often used to kosher meat because of its large sized, has a different crystal formation than table salt. There are two popular brands of kosher salts: Diamond Crystal and Morton’s. I tend to use Diamond Crystal because its crystal shape, like that of sea salt’s, absorbs faster into meats and sauces than the dense cubes of table salt or even the granular flakes of Morton’s kosher salt.
If you grind your salts finely using a salt grinder, 1/2 teaspoon should be 1/2 teaspoon for any of the above. The problem is that the above salts are different sizes, so their weights differ per volume used. So, to get back to your question:
1 tablespoon of granular salt (fine table salt, fine sea salt or fine iodized salt) = 1 1/2 tablespoons of Diamond Crystal kosher salt = 2 tablespoons of Morton’s kosher salt.
In our test kitchen we use Diamond Crystal in our savory dishes. For any sweets or batters posted in the future, we will use fine salt. You can use table (fine) salt in place of kosher salt by doing the math and changing the quantity. So, if a recipe calls for 3/4 teaspoon of kosher salt (Diamond Crystal in our case), use 1/2 teaspoon of fine salt. If it calls for 1 teaspoon kosher salt (Diamond Crystal again) use 2/3 teaspoon fine salt. Does this make sense? Hope so. Please let me know if it doesn’t.
I'd be grateful for advice about kosher salt -- we don't have it here in New Zealand, and I never know how to substitute. Some generalised advice about how to handle this would be very gratefully received! Trish
To Chemchef and Chowser:
I'm commenting before reading to the end of the comments here so I don't forget later. A teaspoon of espresso, yea, I agree, what's the point?
But I also bought dried or dehydrated or instant espresso years ago in a little jar just for this purpose. I'd make a small amount of liquid espresso out of the dried stuff myself. I don't even drink espresso so I have no other way of making it.
I am so psyched to try these - maybe for valentine's day!
I just finished my first brownie from this batch and it was scrumptiously perfect. I went all the way with the intensity of this recipe by adding my leftover ghirardelli dark chocolate chips to the batter, which made the brownies very sweet and rich (but good). I would recommend eating them warm with a cup of milk or unsweetened soy milk!!
CI brownie recipes insists on unsweetened chocolate, claiming it gives the most intense flavor, while this recipe insists on not using unsweetened chocolate. Can anyone explain the reason? I found one possibility in Cooks own articles, where they claim that unsweetened chocolate prevents formation of the trademark glossy surface of the brownie.
I think these are going to be awesome! I need to go buy my ingredients now as I rarely carry chocolate products at home ... too tempting. These look too good to resist though so I must make them. Thanks for a scrumptious looking recipe!
Hi, guys. The butter does not need to be at room temp since it will be melted. We must've been super zealous in our editing and put it in there by mistake -- my apologies. However, if you weren't going to be melting the butter, you'd indeed need to have it at room temp before adding so that it would incorporate more evenly. Enjoy!
Aida
Snap32......sorry, I just read the comments, not the total recipe! Going backward, maybe it says room temp just to give it a head start while trying to melt it with the chocolate...... in cooking/baking, ingredient composition will be changed with heat.......perhaps it's a timing thing to complete the total melting process @ a lower heat/shorter time.......I ain't Einstein, but I would guess it's just that simple..........or a typo :)
Snap, if I'm not mistaken cold butter is used in biscuit/pie recipes so that it melts while baking which creates flaky layers. In a brownie you would want melted (and cooled) or room temp butter to better incorporate with the rest of the ingredients and become more fudgie and thick.
Jackie2830....In the list of ingredients, it says that the butter should be at room temperature (I realize that the butter should be cooled after melting but I didn't understand why the butter had to be at room temperature before melting)
Well, these would be Houdini brownies- they just disappeared!
I would like to double/triple recipe to bake in a 17"x12" sheet pan, and would appreciate any advice on amount of batter to use and baking time.
Snap32.............If the butter is not cooled after melting, it will start "baking" the ingredients before actually baking. When a recipe states this, you don't chill it, you just let it COOL off.
I'm no chef, but a good cook/baker should know...........A TOOTHPICK SHOULD NEVER COME OUT CLEAN WITH BROWNIES.........IT SHOULD HAVE A FEW CRUMBS ATTACHED!
good point snap!
Out of curiosity, why does the butter need to be at room temperature if you are going to melt it?
llpinna, is it possible you didn't use kosher salt? Regular table salt would be much saltier.
These were GREAT, but really rich (not that that's a bad thing, just makes them easier to OD on lol)
I did modify the recipe a bit based on what I had on hand. I had no chocolate available except unsweetened chocolate, so I used 5 oz of it melted with the butter and 3-4 tbs of sweetened condensed milk, and left the cocoa powder out (didn't have any), and added a hit of cognac just because :D And did a swirl of sweetened condensed milk before baking.
So I guess I just made brownies based on this recipe, but that won't stop me from giving it a good review lol! Because this was a great base recipe.
They came out very dense and velvety!
I can't believe that no one else had a problem with the salt. It was way too salty. Couldn't even finish the batch. I live in Italy (am American) and it's possible that my taste buds have changed and have a lower tolerance for salt. Next time that I made these, I omitted the salt altogether, added 1/4 tsp baking soda and along with the butter and chocolate melted 1/2 cup peanut butter. Very tasty, not really chewy but good all around.
Could you cut these into shapes with cookie cutters, or would they fall apart?
I tried them again and this time they came out perfectly. I used actual espresso this time and pulled them out when the toothpick still came out with a little batter on the bottom 1/4". Consistency and taste were terrific.
You could try adding more chocolate, maybe 9 ounces instead of 6, and maybe an extra egg or 2. That should give more of a smooth texture than dry and cakey. hmmm i think ill try this recipe again with a few changes.
These tasted great, but they still were kind of "cakey". Any way to make these with a bit more density in the bottom layers?
Wow, thanks for the recipe. This was the first thing i baked in about 10 years, and it was a big hit with my brothers. It was so easy to make.
I had to use 75% cocoa chocolate, because i couldnt get 60%, but it seemed fine.
Its great warm, with vanilla icecream.
These brownies rule! I have made these several times, and they always make you look rock star.
*Quick dessert hack: top with espresso gelato and macerated strawberries. It's super easy, and you're friends will rave.
These brownies rule! I have made these several times, and they always make you look rock star.
*Quick dessert hack: top with espresso gelato and macerated strawberries. It's super easy, and you're friends will rave.
If you dont like the flavor of vanilla extract, I would say leave it out. However, I believe vanilla is a key ingredient to bring out the true flavor of the chocolate. Sort of the ying/yang of it all, if you will. As for the espresso, I do exactly what you suggest every time and the pan never makes it to the next day! I find the espresso enhances the chocolate flavor in a similar way to the vanilla
I have a question about the espresso.. when it says brewed, you mean 1 tsp of liquid espresso taken from i.e. a cup of brewed espresso?
i just want to clarify because other recipes for brownies have you add the powder right into the mix.
could i sub the espresso for instant coffee?
regarding the real vanilla extract, i find that when i add it to my baked goods it changes the flavour profile, and makes me wonder whether it would have tasted better without the extract. would i be lacking a layer of flavour if i omitted it? the floral note of the vanilla, i find, doesn't allow the chocolate to shine through as well. any comments on this?
If food is love then this brownie is Cassanova!
This recipe came out perfectly. I made my nieces and nephews and they were gone in a day!
Made these brownies for Thanksgiving snacks. Easy to mix up: used Ghiradelli bittersweet chips and some instant coffee granules (sorry, no expresso in my cupboards). Lined a disposable pan with parchment paper and topped off the pan with walnut halves. The brownies were a breeze to handle, though I over baked it by a few minutes. Brownies were still deliciously rich and fudgy. Not a complaint from anyone as even very crunchy bits were scarfed up.
I made these last night. I have had ridiculous issues in the past with Brownies and these officially broke my curse, I added chunks of white chocolate and did with some white chocolate shavings on the top.
They taste fantastic and incredibly rich.
Anyone knows how to make them "fudgier"? but not super; just a bit more...
Two words:
Yum.
Gone.
ps: these are more chewy and fudgy to me, not cakey.
Well you wouldn't be able to eat them if they weren't chewy. lol.
So, to reitterate....
These are 'cakey and a little fudgy', but NOT CHEWY....is this correct??
If so, does anyone have a REALLY CHEWY brownie recipe they could share?
Thanks...
Note to chemchef: Instant Espresso powder is our baking friend.
These are intense, more of an adult brownie (though my kids loved them, too). Do you have to butter the foil? I did out of habit. I agree w/ chemchef about the tsp of espresso. I don't know how much that added.
A teaspoon of espresso seems a little ridiculous... If I'm going to go through the trouble to brew a shot, I'm going to use the whole shot!
Intense is right! These are awesome brownies. I'll be making more this weekend.
I have an idea for a caramel apple brownie, using granny smith or some other tart apples and caramel on top of a brownie. This recipe seems like a good one to use for the base. my only question has to be should I cook the apple with the brownie or wait until the brownie is almost done and add them? That should keep the crunch of the brownie too, then add a drizzle of caramel sauce to the top.
I have an abnormally sized glass baking sheet. I think I need to make more batter than was specified above but I wanted to ask how much batter should be poured into the sheet (an inch? 2 inches?). Also will glass affect the cooking time/temp? Im afraid if it is too thin then it will come out uneven. Any suggestions anyone? Thanks
cecile16:
The espresso is in this recipe is not meant to give the recipe a coffee taste, but rather to highlight and intensify the chocolate flavor. I would suggest you try it once with the espresso and, if you don't like what it does, just omit it the next time around.
I really don't like the taste of coffee (or anything coffee-related) at all, but I'd like to try this recipe. Should I just omit the expresso, or is there something else I should substitute in its place?
This recipe is misleading. CHOW said these brownies would last three days in an airtight container, but mine were gone in less than a day!
Wonderful brownies. Personally, i don't like nuts, so these were great. They needed more baking time than called for in the recipe, i.e. for a toothpick to come out clean.
Maybe it's just me, but I've become used to having nuts in my brownies to give them a bit of crunch - and I miss them in this recipe!
My very old Joy of Cooking insists the secret is room temp eggs and letting the chocolate/butter cool, and this recipe follows that rule. These brownies will be perfect.
Yummy!