Anti-Valentines Day Brownies

Any chocoholic knows what it’s like when you get a craving. More often than not a piece of chocolate will do, but sometimes you need something truly thick and rich with chocolate; and that craving will stick with you till you satisfy it.

I got one of those cravings recently, and since I was also hoping to bribe a friend to come visit before he leaves town for a week I thought I would make some brownies. The perfect answer to both bribe and craving. Unfortunately schedule problems prevented the brownies from working as a bribe, so now their job is to ward off the Valentines Day Blues.

Most of my homemade not-from-a-box brownies only come out okay, so I thought I would try this recipe for a change. Rather than using melted chocolate like most of the ones I have tried, this one uses cocoa. It is supposed to be “deep dish” as well, but since I don’t have the pan yet (stupid amazon is slow with the shipping!) I just used my casserole dish as usual, but if you have an 8 inch square pan you should definitely try it in that cause there isn’t much better than a thick, fudgy brownie.

 Even with the bigger dish these came out damn thick and chewy so I am pretty happy.

Deep Dish Brownies

source: CookingClub.com

1 cup butter, melted
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 8-inch square pan. In large bowl, whisk together melted butter, sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Whisk in eggs until well-combined.

2. In medium bowl, stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder and 3/4 teaspoon salt. Gradually stir flour mixture into egg mixture until well-combined. Spread in pan.

3. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean but with some crumbs attached (brownies may sink in center). Do not overbake. Cool completely on wire rack.

I added some milk-chocolate chips and they came out great. They are a little buttery, so you might want to experiment using some water/milk instead of some of the butter, but even with that they equal chocolatey goodness. It’s hard to think about (or even care about) being alone on this so-called holiday with something this good.

 Update: The next day the excessive buttery just made these things even better so the recipe doesn’t need to be adjusted. Just top it with hot fudge or caramel and serve with milk 🙂