Easy Death-By-Decadence Chocolate Brownies Recipe (8 Ingredients) by Chef Gigi

I've been developing this dense brownie recipe for a while. One day, my eldest daughter searched through the hand-scribbled recipes I kept in the top utility drawer in the kitchen. Recipes and formulas that I've only half-written. Some contain ingredients without a method, and some include methods without ingredients: clearly, lazy chef syndrome.

Although I prefer to label this mad scientist note-taking, I would never have expected someone to try to decipher them. On her quest to bake something chocolate, she stumbled across my death-by-decadence brownie formula that was in the making. The page had no title, so how did she know it was a brownie recipe? I wanted to give it one or two more do-overs, but I should have written my thoughts on the paper. The results are a collision between brownie recipes. Lucky for us, SHE wrote them down!

To make these dense chocolate brownies you will need unsalted butter, granulated sugar, cocoa powder, salt, eggs, flour, water and optional chopped walnuts. 

To serve these brownies for dessert, we use a 4-ounce ice cream scoop and dig into the pan. Grab a heaping portion and release it into a shallow dessert bowl. Top with vanilla ice cream, warm chocolate sauce, additional nut toppings and chocolate shavings. You can also cut them into small squares. These chocolate brownies are so rich you should limit the portion sizes.

Cuisine: American
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 50 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
Servings: 12

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 cups good-quality cocoa powder, sifted
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 eggs, at room temperature and beaten
• 1 cup flour, sifted (you can use gluten-free flour)
• 1/2 cup filtered water, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Here's how to make it: 

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease an 8x8-inch glass baking dish and set aside. 
2. Sift the flour, salt, and cocoa powder in a medium-sized bowl. Set aside. Good-quality cocoa powder makes such a difference in this brownie recipe. Buy the best quality that you can. For gluten-free brownies, use gluten-free flour. 
3. Set a small to medium-sized saucepan filled with 1/3 of its capacity with warm water on the stovetop. Bring to a slow simmer and reduce to steam. Do not overheat. (A rapid simmer or boil will scorch your batter and curdle your eggs; try to avoid this.)
4. In a stainless or glass bowl more prominent than your saucepan, add the butter and sugar and place on top of the steaming sauce pot. You have now created a homemade Bain-Marie. Whisk the ingredients with a whip until the sugar granules melt and the butter is incorporated. Make sure the butter, eggs and water are at room temperature before proceeding with the recipe.
5. Whisk all the eggs together in a small bowl, then add about 1/8 to 1/4 cup of the melted sugar and butter mixture to temper the eggs. Stir well, then add the tempered eggs to the butter and sugar mixture in four additions, ensuring each addition thoroughly incorporates before the next. Add the filtered water and stir.
6. Fold the flour mixture in gently with a rubber spatula, not adding air by using a whisk. Drop the batter into the prepared baking pan and place it in the oven for 50 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Store the brownies in an airtight container to keep them moist.

Recipe cooking times, nutritional information and servings are approximate and provided for your convenience. However, 30Seconds is not responsible for the outcome of any recipe, nor may you have the same results because of variations in ingredients, temperatures, altitude, errors, omissions or cooking/baking abilities. Any nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and it is up to the individual to ascertain accuracy. To ensure image quality, we may occasionally use stock photography.

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