bittersweet brownies
(vegetarian)

recipe by mb

just the recipe

what I was looking for

I was looking for something dark and chocolaty, something sinfully delicious, something scandalously bad for me, something that would (dare I say it?) make Mollie Katzen and Walt Willett gasp in horror.

Also, I was looking for a quick dessert that I had all the ingredients to. This is the only one that I could find. Crazy, huh?

what I made

Oh, sweet decadence. I used Alice Medrich's recipe for new bittersweet brownies from Pure Dessert (Artisan, 2007, pg. 138).

chit-chat

This book is an absolute stroke of genius. It's about simplifying the entire concept of dessert. Medrich says that dessert is too often filled with unnecessary ingredients and ends up being far more complicated than it needs to be. She says "The best chefs cook savory food simply, with the best ingredients ... Why don't we make more desserts that way?" And so she does. In this book she offers us recipes that are focused on one ingredient, one flavor, and so they are -- in a word ‑‑ pure.

I must admit that I didn't (no pun intended) fudge around with this recipe as much as I normally do. It's so well put together that there were only a couple of changes I wanted to make. And next time I make it there are definitely a couple more that I will make. J and I both found these brownies too sweet, especially since they are named bittersweet brownies. Next time I think I'd decrease the sugar by about half, or use a more mellow sweetener like brown rice syrup, to make sure that the bitter part of the bittersweetness really came through.

healthy	D	It's brownies, people, what do you expect?
fast	B	Melting chocolate in a double boiler takes a while. Other than that it's fast.
easy	B	For me any recipe that tells you to fold an ingredient into something else is not for beginners. I've been baking for years and I still hate to fold.
cheap	C	Most of the ingredients are cheap, but I also used a $9 bar of chocolate. That's nothing to shake a stick at.
delicious	A-	I'm only giving these a minus sign because they were a touch too sweet. Otherwise, they were the epitome of brownie goodness.

yield

One 8 inch x 8 inch brownie pan, which Medrich says should be cut into 16 2-inch squares. I cut mine into 8 pieces. What can I say? We're pigs.

equipment

   a double boiler

      or a medium-sized pot and a pyrex bowl

   a large bowl

   a handheld mixer

   an 8x8inch brownie pan

   a rubber scraper (often called a spatula)

into the double boiler

ingredients	Medrich	mb	why?
chocolate, coarsely chopped	8 oz. of 70% bittersweet	6 oz. of 70% bittersweet and 2 oz. Hershey's Special Dark chocolate chips	cheaper, easier [1]
butter	6 Tablespoons unsalted	6 Tablespoons salted	tastier [2]
Notes
[1]	Now look, I had 6 oz. left from an incredibly delicious and expensive bar of chocolate. I wasn't about to go out and buy another one so that I could use only two oz. of it and then run into this same problem the next time I made brownies, so I just used 2 oz. of dark chocolate chips that I had lying around.
[2]	I have never understood the point of using unsalted butter. I'm sure Alton Brown would look at me askance and give me a long explanation as to why I should, but I don't care. I like salt, so a little more just means it's going to taste better, in my humble opinion.

   If you have a double boiler, use a double boiler.

      Otherwise, place a medium sized pot with about two inches of water in the bottom over a medium flame. Put the pyrex bowl in so that it's resting on the pot, but not touching the water. If the bowl is touching the water, or resting on it, then it'll float and it'll be difficult to control the movement of the bowl when you're stirring it. If it's simply resting on the pot then it'll act exactly like a double boiler, with the steam heating the bowl.

Coarsely chop the chocolate and add it to the bowl. Then cut the butter into pieces and add that to the bowl. Let the chocolate and butter sit, stirring occasionally, until everything is completely melted and nicely smooth, then remove it from the pot water and allow it to cool for a bit.

   Now is a good time to preheat your oven to 350°. And to grease your 8x8inch brownie pan.

the sweet and wet stuff

(honestly, that's not as dirty as it sounds)

ingredients	Medrich	mb	why?
eggs	3 large	3 large	no change
sugar	1 cup	1 cup	no change [1]
salt	¼ teaspoon	¼ teaspoon	no change
pure vanilla extract	1 teaspoon	---	easier [2]
Notes
[1]	Next time I make this, I'm cutting down the amount of sugar in the recipe. It was just too sweet.
[2]	I ... ummmm ... have been out of vanilla for a good three months now. I just keep forgetting to add it to my grocery list! OK, I did it. This'll never happen again.

      Put the eggs, sugar, salt, and vanilla (if you're cool enough to have some in the house) into a large bowl and beat on high with your hand-held mixer for two minutes. You want the mixture to end up lighter than it was when it started, and nice and thick.

Now stir the chocolate and butter mixture in.

the dry stuff

ingredients	Medrich	mb	why?
flour	⅓ cup + 1 Tablespoon	⅓ cup + 1 Tablespoon	no change [1]
	all-purpose	white whole wheat	healthier
Notes
[1]	In case you can't tell by looking at the ingredients, these were light and fluffy brownies. If you want thick and fudgy, look elsewhere.

   Fold the flour into the bowl with all the wet stuff. The reason that the flour is being folded in, instead of just stirred, is that we want to keep everything light and fluffy. Stirring deflates the egg mixture, which we spent 2 minutes whipping to fill it with air. But folding keeps all the air in there and still incorporates the flour.

It's one of my least favorite jobs in the kitchen (I'm all about stirring in, all willy-nilly) but I do understand the reason for it.

Now pour the batter into the pre-greased pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the middle of the pan comes out clean.

You want to know a really easy way to healthy up this recipe? Serve it the way I did, loaded with fruit. Strawberries, mango, pineapple, banana, raspberries, and blueberries all work well here. And then it's, as my mom calls it, fruit and a bribe!

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