If you love chocolate – and I mean really love chocolate – then these brownies are for you. They are supremely intense, fudge-like and come from Joanne Chang of Flour Bakery!
A few weeks ago, I hosted my annual chocolate tasting party (those of you who follow me on Facebook may have seen a post about this). Seven ladies, myself included, all came together for a wonderful evening of food and most importantly, chocolate.
Each person brought at least one chocolate bar for all of us to taste. We had chocolates from all around the world and from milk chocolate to fun mix-ins like ginger and turmeric to intensely dark chocolate with 85% cacao. The favorite varieties of the evening were from a local chocolate shop in Raleigh to the 85% dark chocolate from Israel.
These intensely chocolate-y brownies contain an entire half a pound of chocolate. I used all bittersweet chocolate, but if you want to sweeten things up a bit, you can mix in some milk chocolate or even use unsweetened chocolate.
Make sure you don’t bake these up too long or else the brownies will become too cake-like (unless that’s your thing). Your brownies should be soft and fudge-like, with a nice crackly top and a tender crumb. Don’t be surprised if a bunch of crumbs start clinging to your knife when you cut into them.
My friends would probably have really enjoyed these brownies since they contain so much chocolate. The brownies weren’t too sweet, either, and would be even better with a scoop of ice cream on top. I think adding a teaspoon of instant espresso powder would have made these brownies even more over the top.
We only tasted 18 bars of chocolate that evening – there were still another 5 that we didn’t even open! Maybe I’ll need to host a mini chocolate tasting party in a few months so we don’t have to wait another year for the next party.
Intense chocolate brownies
Ingredients
- 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate can replace half of it with unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
- 12 Tablespoons (1 and 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cubed
- 1 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 5 eggs
- 1 and 3/4 cups granulated sugar
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. Generously grease a 9"x13" baking pan and set aside.
- In a medium sized microwave-safe bowl, melt the chocolate and butter in the microwave or in a double boiler. Whisk until the mixture is smooth. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl if using a handheld mixer, whisk the eggs on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 1-2 minutes. Turn the mixer to low and slowly add in the sugar. Beat for another 1-2 minutes or until the mixture looks thick and frothy.
- Turn the mixer off and fold in the melted chocolate and butter mixture with a spatula. The mixture should be smooth. Slowly fold in the flour mixture and continue to fold until everything just comes together.
- Transfer the batter to your prepared baking pan and smooth out the top with a spatula - the batter will be thick. Bake in your preheated oven for about 30-35 minutes. Start checking around the 20 minute mark to ensure that your brownies don't over bake. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out with some moist crumbs. If it is still liquidy, bake longer. If the toothpick comes out clean, then the brownies are overdone (but will still be amazing).
- Cool the brownies and allow them to firm up before serving.