Maria Provenzano basic brownie

Maria Provenzano basic brownie

When I play around on Pinterest, I see all of these crazy recipes for desserts that involve 50 different ingredients, 20 different techniques, and 100 different ways to get your kitchen messy. I have been working on a table setting post that will be coming up, and I thought that brownies would be really pretty on the the table for pictures (keep an eye out for that post), so, I started thinking of a million different ways to experiment with brownies. Then, it came to me that it would be really nice just to share a simple recipe! What a thought! With all of the crazy recipes out there, sometimes it’s comforting to have one you can depend on, that doesn’t have too many bells and whistles. I’m sure I will turn this basic brownie recipe into some crazy mix of ingredients in the future, but for now, this is a perfect, simple, and pretty awesome, brownie recipe. Sometimes it is nice to just enjoy the simple things.

My mom would make brownies similar to this when I was growing up, because they were my sister’s favorite. I’m more of a cookie kind of girl! I did a little experimenting and changed the recipe to make it a little bit more how I like it; rich, dense, a little chewy, but not super cakey or crumbly! The best part is that you can really make these your own by adding anything you like.

brownies

brownies

brownies

brownies

brownies

brownies

brownies

brownies

Simply Perfect Basic Brownies

Simply Perfect Basic Brownies

Author:

Maria Provenzano

Ingredients

  • 1 cup unsalted butter

  • 4 oz unsweetened chocolate

  • 2 cups sugar

  • 4 eggs, room temperature

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

  • 1 1/4 unbleached all-purpose flour; I also like white whole wheat

  • 1 teaspoon baking powder

  • 1 teaspoon salt

Instructions

  1. Preheat the over to 350 degrees

  2. Butter and flour a 13x9x2 inch baking pan; do this by wiping the entire inside of the pan with butter, then sprinkle in enough flour to coat all of the butter by swirling it around; flip the pan over the sink and lightly tap it to remove excess flour

  3. Place the butter and chocolate into a large, heatproof bowl over a pan with simmering water, making sure the water isn’t high enough to touch the bowl; this is called a double boiler; you can also melt the chocolate and butter in the microwave, but be careful not to overcook and/or burn it

  4. Once melted together, set aside to cool

  5. Combine the flour, baking power, and salt into a bowl and whisk together to combine

  6. Once the butter and chocolate has cooled, whisk in the sugar

  7. Then whisk in the eggs one at a time, making sure each one in well incorporated

  8. Whisk in the vanilla

  9. Pour the flour into the chocolate mixture in small increments, whisking each time

  10. Mix until just combined

  11. Pour the brownie batter into the prepared baking pan; use a spatula to make sure it is spread evenly around the pan

  12. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean; it is ok to under-bake these slightly; usually you can tell they are done if the middle is set



print the recipe