My Favorite Brownie Recipe

• total waktu: 22 minutes

Bahan-bahan

10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter

1 1/4 cups sugar

3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (natural or Dutch-process)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 cold large eggs

1/2 cup all-purpose flour (2 1/2 ounces)

2/3 cups walnut or pecan pieces (optional)

Petunjuk

Preheat the oven to 325. Spray an 8 X 8 baking pan with cooking spray, then line it with parchment paper so the parchment hangs over the sides (this way you can lift the brownies right out). Spray the parchment too.

Combine the butter, sugar, cocoa and salt in a medium metal bowl and fit the bowl on top of a pot of simmering water. Stir, watching the butter; if it’s not melting quickly enough, turn up the heat. Keep stirring until the butter’s all melted and you have a paste. Stick your finger into the paste and when it’s hot enough that you’re like “ow,” remove the bowl from the pot and allow it to cool a bit.

Stir in the vanilla with a wooden spoon. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring vigorously after each one. Add the flour and stir until it disappears, then beat vigorously for 40 strokes with a wooden spoon (I suppose this develops the gluten a bit and helps give those brownies structure? Just a guess). Stir in the nuts and spread evenly in your lined pan. (At this point, you can sprinkle the batter with flaky Maldon sea salt, if you’re into that kind of thing.)

Bake until a cake tester comes out mostly clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool on a rack.

Lift up the parchment on to a cutting board and cut the brownies into squares.